What better place to
start than at the beginning. The key to
being organized is having a system that is easy to use, easy to remember and
easy to stick with. Think about your
system as a foundation – it’s the thing
that gives stability, ensures longevity, and provides security. Many of us have started an organization task
based on a specific storage container or space without ever considering a
“system” for organizing. In these
situations what we’re actually is doing is “storing” or “containerizing”, we’re
not actually organizing. To be organized
you must; Function within a formal
structure (a system), leave nothing out (take into consideration all the parts,
pieces and uses) be efficient in arrangement
and function.
or·gan·ized:
1. Functioning within a formal structure
2. Formed
into a structured or coherent whole.
3. Methodical and efficient in
arrangement or function.
Since my
goal with this email format is to keep the information short, easy to read and
understand in small pieces, today I’m only going to tackle the first part of
the definition – “Functioning within a Formal Structure”.
The
formal structure we use for organizing our craft supplies is called the 4
Section System; a simple name for a very formal structure. Don’t be afraid - formal doesn’t mean
difficult. In fact, in this circumstance
the formality of the system makes things very simple.
Think
of organizing your supplies into these 4 major categories:
-
Alphabets, Numbers and Punctuation Marks
- Themes and Sentiments A-Z
- The Calendar Year
- The Rainbow
These are large categories that will encompass a
huge variety of products and ideas but at the same time they are very simple,
which makes it very easy for your brain to connect to them. Let’s talk a minute about how the brain
works. Your brain stores information by
the spider web method, which means that one thing connects to another thing (or
maybe several other things) to get you the information you need.
As an example – you walk by a restaurant and
smell something delicious. Your brain
spider webs around trying to define that smell: you remember it from being a
kid – you remember your mom putting big dollops of sour cream in it - Ah… Beef Stroganoff! You may or may not realize the route your
brain has taken to get you to the answer, you just know you’ve got the
answer. After reading this, and maybe listening
to me harp on you about “thinking about thinking”, you may become far more
aware of what your brain is doing - and that’s a good thing. Thinking requires practice just like playing
the piano or doing algebra. People who
play the piano, do algebra, or speak French reach a certain level of expertise
when all of those things become very natural to them. They do it without thought – it’s a
“thoughtless” exercise. Most of us who
don’t play the piano, speak French or do algebra think that these people are
amazing as they are. But there’s another level of pianists, French linguists,
and mathematicians who consciously “think” about their skills. These people are constantly improving their systems through the
process of “thought.”
If we organize by what comes without
thinking, we tend to “containerize” rather than “organize.” This is what happens when we just put things
in a box on the shelf without “thinking” about:
How will I remember what’s in this box?
How will I get things out of the box?
How easy will it be to put things back in the
box?
How easy will it be to direct someone else to
the box?
How easy will it be to take the things that are
in the box to a crop or class?
Etc., Etc.
Do these questions seem overwhelming and
exhausting? When you have a good system in place that addresses them, they’re
answered without being asked because you’ve already thought about them.
That is the beautiful thing about the 4 Section
System: the questions are answered. So let’s talk about each section in detail
and address some of the common and not-so-common questions that come up.
Section
1 – Alphabets, numbers and punctuation marks
This is
the place to sort, organize and store all of your alphabet stuff that isn’t
theme or sentiment specific. It doesn’t
matter what type of product it is, if it’s alpha numeric and not theme specific
you’re going to find a way to store it (or a representation of it) in this
section.
Because
this section is about letters and words, I think about it as a whole – anything
that relates to non-specific letters and words.
This means things like Journaling Templates or Title Templates,
Journaling Stamps, etc. are also going to be represented in this section. If you’ve got Titletopia from Creative
Memories, this is the section where it belongs.
Common questions:
Should I group my alphabets by
color in this section? No,
group your alphas by size. This will
make it easy to find the size you need quickly and easily. It will really help when you’re trying to
spell something out, but the particular color you want doesn’t have all of the
letters you need. Having your alphas
grouped by size will make it easy to see that you’ve got the same font in a
different color.
Should I separate my chipboard
type letters and put all of the “a’s, b’s, c’s together? Yes and No. I
prefer to keep my chipboard type letters together by type and size - again,
that makes it easier to know what I’ve got in that particular size
category. With that said, I will
separate abc, def, ghi, etc. - into individual pockets.
Section 2 – Themes and Sentiments A-Z
Baby,
Birthday, Camping, Family, Graduation, Outdoors, Retirement…..All of these
categories belong in your second section.
The categories are based on what YOU scrap/craft about – everyone’s will
be different. Put them in alphabetical
order so they are easy to find, easy to use, easy to put away, and easy to add
new items! Are you seeing a pattern –
EASY is important when things are easy we get them done
Common Question:
Should I combine my cardmaking,
mixed media and scrapbooking supplies all in one system? – YES!!!! All
of these things can be used in all of these crafts. No matter what type of craft you are doing,
you are always working with a particular idea in mind. If you’re making a birthday page, a birthday
card, a birthday gift bag, or a birthday canvas – you’re going to find all of
the supplies for that particular project in one place – Birthday.
Section 3 – The Calendar Year
January,
February, March…Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall… you can use either or a mix of
both in The Calendar Year Section. Grouping products together by month or
season is really helpful when it comes to maximizing your use of seasonal products.
Common Question:
Why do I need a Calendar Year
Section? Why can’t I just put Halloween
under “H”, Thanksgiving under “T” and Autumn under “A” (or Fall under “F”) –
then I could eliminate this whole section?
In order to get the most
use out of your supplies, it’s important to keep things together that could be
used together. If you separate Halloween
from Fall and Thanksgiving, you’ll have to look in multiple places to find
things like leaves and pumpkins that could work on any of those pages or
projects.
Section
4 – The Rainbow
ROY G.
BIV and then some. This section is the
perfect place to store everything from Eyelets to Flowers. This is where you’ll store anything that
doesn’t fit into one of the first 3 sections.
These things will get grouped together by color - YIKES! Does the idea of storing your flowers in the
same container as your glitter, and your ribbons in the same container as your
bottle caps, give you hives or make you nauseous? I’m here to tell you nothing horrible will
happen when you let your embellishments mingle.
In fact, you’ll be delighted with the outcome. There are 3 really great things that happen
when you store your embellishments by color.
1.
You can find what you’re
looking for so much more quickly. Need a
blue brad? Flip to the Blue section and Bam – there it is.
2.
You’ll use more of your
products, but you’ll also use more of your knowledge. Look back through your scrapbooks, cards or
other projects. You’ll find that your
projects reflect the most recent technique or product type you’ve learned to
use. They reflect whatever is easiest to
grab on your workspace, which is usually the newest thing. Have you ever heard
Jerry Seinfeld talk about the stages of garbage? Well, there are stages of
craft supplies too.
3.
Lastly, you’ll become a
better designer. Instead of thinking
this page needs a “blue brad” you’ll begin to think differently – “This page
needs something blue and textured.”
Flipping to the blue section will inspire you to use more in different
ways.
Common Questions:
Who is ROY G. BIV? Roy is an
acronym that represents the colors of the rainbow: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green,
Blue, Indigo, Violet.
What about other colors?
You will definitely need more colors in your Rainbow section than the
basic Rainbow colors. Most likely you’ll
want to add Black, White, Browns/Neutrals, and Metallics.
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