One Goal is DONE!

I officially have one of my projects from my Better Me list DONE!

My stamp room is clean and (I think) more functional!

This is what it looks like right now.

{I wanted to start off with the pretty image so you wouldn't immediately be horrified by this post....LOL!}

{-- oh, and all of these images should be clickable so that you can see the details better.}

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But this is what it looked like when Ben left just 3 days ago....

I had gotten where I was constantly piling my stuff on the floor around me because I didn't have anyplace to put it. All that stuff on the shelves was pretty much long-term storage....not a good use of my space (which is already VERY limited...this room is tiny!)

more before photos....

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And now the after, but they aren't in very good order. One of the glitches with my new Mac though is that if I re-arrange them, then you can't click on them (don't ask me why because I have NO IDEA!) So we will just leave them as they are and you will forgive me, right?

I was basically just playing here and taking a fun artsy shot of my stamps. I am pretty sure that this "artist" stamp is a Tim Holtz stamp. In the background are just about every other brand of wood mount imaginable. I love my stamps! ;o)

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These are my MUST-USE wood slide mount Unity stamps. They sit in this pretty little basket from World Market and are so accessible this way!

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She was just looking cute so I had to take a photo. She claimed this Tattered Angels chipboard butterfly as her own, but was VERY CONCERNED that his eyes were gone....LOL!

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My newly cleaned tabletop. Notice my Unity handles just waiting for stamping and that black thing on the right is my mini-dvd player....so perfect for my table top.

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My newly re-organized shelves. These sit directly to the right of me when I am sitting at my table. That white thing on top is actually a medicine chest from Walmart that I bought to hold all of my Prima flowers...it's perfect!

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This is one of the main areas where I re-organized. This is a Martha Stewart kitchen island that I had in my kitchen in our last house and now it is a key place in my stamp room. It's counter high so is perfect when I want to work standing up. I have 2 work areas...the first was at that table and this is my second. I added these shelves to the top of this. I had found these great bookcases at World Market for $39 each a few weeks ago and bought several of them. This was an extra and by actually putting it on top of the island, it gives me so much more storage and organization! I love it.

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The little rectangular wire baskets are from Target's dollar spot (although they were $2.50 each) and I have my embellishments separated into them...one for bling, one for metal embellishments, one for journaling embellishments, and one for everything else.

The shopping style baskets (one big and one little) are from Hobby Lobby and I have had them a while (I buy lots of these kind of things when they put them on sale for 1/2 price.) The large one houses my alphabets and stickers and the little one has some more misc. items.

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This photo is taken from the island so you can kind of tell how the room is laid out. That table is a sewing table that I have probably had 15 years. It is only opened half way, and it provides another counter-level workspace if I need it, but I tend to use it as simply a place to pile paper and such.

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This wire shelving above here is actually made for laundry areas to go above a washer and dryer. It works so perfectly for this area and was only about $35. There is enough room for me also to pile my old Iris carts that hold older stamps and alterables in this space.

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Just another view of my main workspace. I keep most of my patterned papers stored in the closet, but a few favorites stay right at my feet that you can see here. And you wouldn't normally believe it, but that chandelier gives me the absolutely perfect lighting for working. I LOVE IT!

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Crumb! I just realized that a close-up of my new Unity storage isn't on here so I am going to have to add it and move it down here...I REALLY hope that doesn't screw up all the photo's clickability...

These are my Unity stamps (cling-mounted storage.) Before my re-org, this was a lot of that mess on the floor. Now it sits on the top of the sewing table just to the left of where I sit.

I have gone through several generations of how I store these.

1. To the right are my oldest Unity....they are stored on laminated cardstock in gallon sized ziploc bags stored in magazine holders

2. The green boxes are the document boxes that, sadly, Target discontinued. I loved these boxes and at $2 each, they were a huge bargain.

3. Now all of my clingmounted Unity go into folders into the Scraponizer boxes that Unity sells. You can see them here. They fit perfectly into this brown crate and as you can see, I still have several to fill... ;o)

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And that is my newly organized stamp room. Now I need to get in there and see how well I can create without the chaos...LOL!