Craft Room Storage – Folders and Photo Albums

     I had something else planned for today but then I got busy and never got round to making it so have a rushed change of plans post about craft material storage solutions instead! Today, I’ll specifically look at how useful folders and photo albums are.

     Really, sometimes you just can’t beat the good old A4 folder or ring binder. You really can’t. What’s a convenient way for storing A4 decorate paper so that it doesn’t get damaged but so that you can easily flick through them to see what you have? Why, an A4 folder and some clear plastic pockets!

     It’s as simple and as cheap as that, and who doesn’t love a cheap solution that works! Folders and plastic pockets can be gotten everywhere for super cheap so this really is the best solution for this size paper. Got multiple pages of the one design, just pop them into the same pocket and keep them together.

     I have two A4 folders right now filled up. The one above is for paper but I have another one just for sheets of die-cuts because they tend to be A4 size as well. You want to keep your die-cut sheets tidy so they don’t pop out and have pieces go missing. Well, the A4 folder and plastic pockets work perfectly for that.

     No need to get fancy. I can just easily flick through the pockets without the worry of damaging anything.

     Sometimes though with die cut sheets (like the one on the left in the picture above), when you want to use up one of the images, the second has a habit of popping out as well. What do I do about this?

     Well, I transfer the die-cuts to a photo album.

     A photo album? Yes, a photo album. 4×6 inch photo albums are surprisingly useful and they’re pretty cheap as well, even these really pretty ones! The one on the right only cost me €1.50. Let’s take a look inside and you’ll see why I love these albums:

     See? You can keep the loose matching pieces all together in a pocket and easily see what you have. It’s very handy. I used to use my photo album to store tags as well but I’ve put them somewhere else now.

     The best use for these photo albums though, in my opinion, is for storing journal cards. It can be really easy to build up a collection of journal cards and how do you store them all in a way that you won’t forget what you have? Photo album to the rescue! The big journal cards are 4×6 so they fit perfectly into a pocket and for the smaller ones, well, you just fit two in!

     Laid out like this, I’m not going to forget about what I have and end up with a neglected stash.

     Now, if you’ve gone and gotten yourself some folders for storage and want to keep them neat and tidy, you can go and get some folder holders…or whatever they’re called. You could put the folders in these…or you could do what I do and use them to store sketchbooks, printing paper, tissue paper and blank cards. They’re quite handy sitting there making use of shelf space.

     I bought these ones in Tesco last year so they weren’t too expensive. Again, another cheap solution for keeping things in order. Far better than just stacking things on top of each other!

     Well, I hope you enjoyed this post on storage solutions. Hopefully it’s given you some ideas on how to organise your hoard of craft supplies! If you have any suggestions for craft storage that work really well for you, let me know!