Happy New Year from Stamp-n-Storage! If organizing your craft space is on your New Year's Resolutions, we want to help. For the next 8 weeks, we will be sharing a weekly challenge for organizing your space. You can follow along through email, the Stamp-n-Storage Blog, or Facebook Page. Whichever you choose, we hope you enjoy the challenges and, in 8 weeks, find yourself in a more organized craft space. You can do it!

START HERE

This is very important! To see your progress after 8 weeks, take a before photo now, don't wait. Capture your space exactly how it is so you can see your progress after 8 weeks. And always remember throughout this process, it's progress over perfection. Each of our journeys to organize our space might be different, and that's okay!

CHALLENGE 1: PURGE

Are you ready for the first challenge? For many of us, it's the hardest. The new year is a great time to purge your space. We know that is probably one of the scariest words for us crafters. However, it is an essential step to an organized and clutter-free space. Here are a few tips to help and hopefully make purging your space a pain-free process ;-)

Step 1: Divide your supplies into three piles

Keep it
Maybe keep it
It goes!

Step 2: Focus on the "Maybe keep it" pile

Ask yourself these questions

Have I used it in the last six months or year?
Do I plan to use it this year? Really??
Is it usable?

If you answer no to any of those questions, it might be a good idea to move the item to your "It goes" pile.

TIP: If you still aren't sure about something, pack it in a box and put it away into storage. If in 4 months you don't miss it, add it to the "It goes" pile. Be sure to set an alarm in your calendar, so you don't forget to deal with the item in 4 months.

Step 3: Create 4 piles from your "It goes" pile

Throw away
Sell
Donate
Belongs in another room

Deal with each pile appropriately.

Step 4: Sort through your "Keep it" pile

Create category piles to organize your supplies. The categories might look something like this:

Ink Pads
Paper
Markers
Punches
Ribbon
Embellishments
Tools
Watercolor
Journaling
Photos

Rank your pile categories by most used supplies. This ranking will help decide which products you want easily accessible. Be sure to toss any unusable supplies (dried ink/markers, broken tools, etc.).

Week 1 might be the biggest challenge, but we know you can do it! Focus on making progress, even if it means just purging items that are broken or can no longer be used.

Next week, we'll step back to look at our supplies and plan to lay out our space.