Hampton Photo Arts

If you don't have a photographic memory (which most of us don't have) it is best that you store you scrapbooking papers in more organized manners. Or else, you might find yourself lost with "out of sight, outs of mind" brain. You might already have a huge collection of paper stacks but not knowing it. A waste of an investment. And besides, it is always a good practice to get organized to really know what your resources are.

We can't forever buy papers and store them in disarray. And buy another set and go on with that same process. Somehow, clutter must stop.

We cannot exactly provide you with strict guidelines of storage. In scrapbooking, so long as the methods fits you, it will work. Let's move out from the box and do our own things in our own ways.

We have covered some general techniques here, which you may apply. Only you have to fill in the gaps if you require some modifications.

Most scrappers find it hard to know their organizing style. In general, you have two options. One, that is horizontal stacking and the other, vertical. It ill always be your preference to choose. There is no best way for everyone and you can do whatever fits your case.

Most stores keep their papers in horizontal stacking, either by racks or by shelves. This is largely because they are equipped with much space to work with. Unfortunately, most of us don't have that enough space so the best solution would be to furnish snap top cases for better organization. Not only are these cases great for paper stacking, they also work well for storing other scrapbooking materials that you normally or presently use.

If you have no other option but to store your papers in horizontal formats, you may always try using vertical solutions.  Storing papers vertically works best for cardstocks and for papers that you often use. Storage papers for vertical positioning normally comes with dividers, thus the capacity to store multiple files all at the same place. Just be reminded though that this method will require you tall shelves.

Second, you must know what kind of scrapbooker are you when it comes to shopping papers. There are again, two types. One, the organized people and the other are those that adhere with any-thing-goes principles.

The organized group are those buyers ho take time to bring with them photos and memorabilias as reference for when buying. They browse aisles by aisle and choose specific types of papers according to their immediate needs, matching their choices with the materials that they have.

And these people will most likely gather sample die cuts and embellishments and stick-ons for each planned page. Thus, they tend to choose the right pieces together for their possible layouts. At the end, they will collect other stiffs that will match their themes.

The unorganized group though is the exact opposite. They arrive at the store with hardly an idea to focus to. They would grab random kinds of scrapbooking papers depending on what catches their eye. While tossing cool and pretty papers, they would soon realize that the cardstocks at the next eye "might" be of future use. Lastly, they'll run to the register and the whole thing is over. Once they start the project, they'll soon discover that several things are missing.

The second attitude is easier to do, however you must learn to accept the risks. The first one obviously will require you to plan prior to shopping but will create lesser chances of committing mistakes. If you are dealing with scrapbooking papers, it will always prove best to choose the latter one.

Organization of papers will require you to pay attention to details. The more chaotic your files get, the more attention you will have to invest. It is far less time consuming in the end to start organizing stuffs and keep things that way than to organize and reorganize over and over again. Besides, when your papers are arranged, you would have better pictures of what are available to you and you will be able to work on them better.