Hello, it's Jenny Larson, and it's summer, which means one big thing for me: organization. I teach high school students the rest of the year, so most of my organziation happens in the summer. I thought I'd share for you my sorting and purging process for my scraps, plus a way I challenge myself creatively while doing it.
First, I store my scraps by color in file folders in this bin (plus a seprarate file each for themes, multicolors, and stripes. If papers are two sided, I file them by my favorite sides). As you can see it is stuffed; I haven't sorted and purged in a while, so it's time!
The first thing I do is go through each piece. I don't look at brand. I just go by my gut if I think I'll use it again, particularly based on what's in my stash now. If I have a lot of a particular pattern (yes, red polka dots, I'm talking about you), then I just include one or two.
This is my finished, thinner red scraps file. (Note about the file folders: I think I got them in the Target dollar section, which is where I get most of my scrapping organization tools, in addition to the clearance section at Joann's.)
Occasionally I have to stop and get nostalgic. Remember Chatterbox and Scenic Route? Two of my all time faves. *Sigh*
And this is the finished, much emptier scrap bucket! It will be much less cumbersome for me to dig in and use my scraps now.
Next issue: what to do with the scraps?
There's many things you can do with them, but I take them to my sons' former day care. They use them to teach colors and have the kids practice cutting and making art projects. I don't feel bad at all about donating them there because I tend to use patterned paper more than once and still end up with big scraps at the end.
To challenge myself as I purged, I randomly selected pieces to use on a page. I started with the die cut paper on the bottom. I figured if I didn't challenge myself to use it, I would have to toss it. From there I kept out random pieces that seemed to match.
And here's the page I made with the final, random scraps! Everything here is old Stash, so I feel very good now.
Thank you for sharing my sorting/purging/organization process! Good luck as you tackle any organizational challenges yourself this summer.
