The Best Craft Room Organizing Tips from Papertrey Ink Customers

Last month we sent out a survey asking you for all your best craft room organizing tips. We had 245 individuals fill out the survey with tons of great advice. We are always in awe of our customers’ talents, creativity, and organizing brilliance, and we can’t wait to implement some of your tips in our own craft rooms!

Of the 245 individuals who responded to our survey, over 70% of you said you have a designated craft room while 12% work in a craft area in a common room and 3% work at the kitchen table. Many of you are clean freaks too! Over 17% of you reported cleaning or organizing your craft room on a daily basis. About a quarter of you clean at least once a week and another 20% clean at least once a month. Only 3% said that you clean once a year or never. Now, that’s impressive!

Now, here are some of our favorite craft room organizing tips that will help you keep your craft room clean and organized every day of the year!

“I like to re-purpose all types of containers. I once received a fruit arrangement by mail and along with it came this little wooden box divided up with various chocolates. It made a great little embellishment organizer. I also like to use old letter stickers from my scrapbook stash to label white binders where I keep a few larger stamp sets.” – Sandy F., Naperville, IL

“I have a designated space for everything and put everything back in its designated space after each crafting session. I organize stamps by occasion, so when you are about to make a card, you have all your stamps for that occasion at your fingertips. I keep cardstock swaps of color combos stapled together. I precut and stamp many flowers, birds or other elements and keep them in labeled envelopes, e.g., Gran’s Garden.” – Lisa Mendoza

“I have two pieces of advice – 1) Everything that I use often for stamping is close to hand, like ink, scissors, adhesive, and pop dots and 2) I took all my white and colored cardstock (8 1/2 x 11) to Office Max and had them cut it in half. I keep a stack of white handy in my work area and a stack at my Big Shot cutting area. All the colored cardstock fits into a pretty storage box that I can easily pull out when I need it.” – Laura G., Dexter, MI

“I keep all my stamps in cases and organized in white bins by type. I also purge once a year and donate or give away items I no longer use.” – Tara B., Long Beach, CA

“I am not sure I have anything special or extraordinary. I just know it works for me. For stamps and dies, I love the PTI card insert that comes with the stamps. I use this as the main part to my stamp storage. I add the stamp set to the inside of the card insert before adding it to a clear sleeve. I do not type a name or anything. I use the card as it comes. I add the coordinating die set directly behind. I have an acrylic tray that holds new PTI sets on my desk (six months or less).” – Betty W., Rocky Mount, NC

“Because I do not have a dedicated craft space I have to get very creative. My coffee table in my living room is actually hollow inside. The “lid” acts as a table top. I remove the lid to access a ton of crafty goodness. I also utilize a lot of stackable storage containers. I have a dresser in my bedroom that is only used to store stamp sets. Actually, my entire PTI collection is in that dresser! I have been a customer since the beginning and I have it jam packed full! Every single spool of ribbon (over 300) has been taken off the spoon and is draped on plastic tabs and hung on a hanger. I have them all hanging in a clear garment bag.” – Valerie M, Bedford, TX

“IKEA Alex 5-drawer units are great. Label, label, label! Also, I keep an inventory of all my supplies and exactly where I keep them, and it hangs it in my craft area. It alleviates wasted time looking for things. I use Evernote to keep an inventory of my stamps, dies, and stencils. Each Evernote entry also has a picture of the product, so I can see if it fits my needs without pulling it out of storage. It is so easy to search for a product by theme in Evernote using the tags I entered. Last, try to find a place where you have easy access to your paper trimmer and die cutting machine at all times – this is a huge time saver!” – Cynthia M., Mineral Point, WI

“I put all my stamps in DVD cases, all my dies on Stamp-N-Storage magnet cards, and all my ink pads in Stamp-N-Storage ink pad holders.” – Lynn W., Lake Helen, FL

“I organize everything by color! When you walk into my craft room, it’s all organized in rainbow colors! After that, it’s organized by ‘category’ meaning stamps, dies, papers, embellishments, inks, etc.” – Ashley N., Richmond, RI

“Having moved from a house with a dedicated craft room to a one-bedroom apartment, I now store my stamps (100’s) in pizza boxes on shelving in my walk-in closet. My dies (100’s) are in plastic boxes in a 6′ living room closet right next to my ‘studio’ which is across one 14′ wall in my living room! All boxes are labeled, and I can easily grab a box for what I need – it also helps give me a break to have to get up from my desk!” – Jan C., Salem, OR

That’s a lot of great advice! We love seeing the different ways that work for each of you from Excel and Evernote to color-coding to baskets and storage bins, your creativity and organizing skills are impressive.