A few weeks ago I shared how I organized my supplies in our mud room, craft room or office (it’s a really versatile space), which you can read about here. Well, I made a Target run and just for fun, went down the container aisle to find the baskets that I really wanted but were too expensive on sale, so I exchanged my black and white bins for the seagrass baskets. I immediately fell in love with the clean look of the baskets on the ladder shelving!
As I started to organize the crafts into the baskets, I realized that some of the storage under my desk wasn’t being utilized as effectively as it could. So I took EVERYTHING out of the baskets, bins and cleared everything in the space. Then I left it. I got way too overwhelmed with all of the supplies and paper and stamps and everything to even think about where things should go.
After the kids went to bed, I went back to the space with a clear head and was ready to get everything organized. Whenever I get overwhelmed with organizing an area, I either have to leave and come back, or start with a super easy task. I decided to start with the ribbon because most of the ribbon was on spools and could easily be color-coded.
Having a lot of ribbon, I decided to use an acrylic bin I had in the basement bathroom. Since the ribbon is so colorful, I thought it would be a nice touch to the shelves by adding a pop of color! I had some ribbon that wasn’t on a spool, so having read a great blog post about organizing a craft closet, I used Jen’s suggestion to clip ribbon with a clothes pin. All of my clothes pinned ribbon is now housed in a seagrass basket, next to the colorful ribbon that is on a spool.
Then I went through my stamps. I have a lot of stamps thanks to my Auntie Barb. When she was cleaning out her stamps, I got to pick through the ones I liked. I didn’t really sort them when I first got them, so now was the time to go through and categorize the stamps. I decided to group them into three categories so they would utilize three drawers that are located under my desk. I grouped the stamps into “sayings”, “winter and holidays” and “animals and flowers”. I got these categories by looking at what the majority of the stamps were and grouping like items together.
Finally, I put all of the envelopes, tags and stationary into this acrylic holder from the Container Store! In an effort to be more efficient with writing notes, I thought putting stationary out might help! You can read how I plan on doing that here.
Once the stationary was organized, I decided to put all of my office supplies in the top two drawers under my desk. This would make grabbing tape or a hole-puncher much easier.
I still had so much stuff to go through, so I thought this would be a good stopping point and finish the following day. There was a lot of random supplies that I needed to think about what I wanted to do and where to store them. I also had to go through all of my colorful paper. A part of me wanted to stay up and finish, but I knew I would be super crabby if I didn’t get sleep. Sometimes it is best to leave a situation to gain some clarity as to how to best utilize the space! Stay tuned for more updates!
Love how you organized your shelves! The seagrass baskets are a fabulous and beautiful choice, and I really adore the acrylic storage you paired with them! High fives to you, I think it looks great!
xoxo!
Thank you so much Jen! I am truly happy with how the space is turning out. Now I feel way more creative in a space that’s organized!
xo!
Hi! Where did u get that white ladder shelving unit?! The room looks great!
Hi Katie! The shelving unit is from Pottery Barn. It’s a great purchase and can handle being moved numerous times, as I have moved this unit into four different apartments and now our house!