An Organised Printer Unit

There is a place in every room where you just tend to leave things down.   True?

I know that happens in our house and I am pretty sure it happens in your house too.

But the Printer Unit in my Study really is not the place I think that should happen but that is exactly what has been happening.

I think it was because it was the place that had shelves that were not so full of things - well to start with!

Then it just seemed like there was space there so something (and everything) could just be set down there until I had time to put it away or indeed decided where it should go.


Hence it became one big mess.

The only way to do the job properly was the usual Sandra method of

"take everything out and only put back what needs to go there"

But Fred calls it

"take everything out and make a mess somewhere else"

Well what else can you do until you have decided where all the "stuff" will go?



So I cleared the shelves and left only 3 things:

• the printer on the bottom shelf
• my containers for various sizes of laminating pouches on the second shelf up
• the A3 laminator on the middle shelf

The printer goes on the bottom shelf with plenty of room above it for the back feed tray and also a better position for lifting out unto the floor when needing to get at the connections and plugs.


The second shelf up is a pull out shelf and I keep the laminating pouches there handy for use with the laminator just above on the middle shelf.


I love the containers I have for the pouches because they hold the different sizes (except for A3 but what could hold A3 size?) and they sit on top of each other taking up less space.
They were a good buy but now I don't remember where I got them.


There are three containers

The first is A4 size so holds the A4 pouches and then there are two A5 size, one for the A5 pouches and one for the A6 and A7 and business card size pouches.

At the moment I have run out of the A5 size which explains why one is empty.

These two smaller trays sit on top of the larger one

supported by the shape of the sides of the larger tray.


It is very handy to grab the pouches as I need them and just lift the front top tray to get at the A4 ones in the bottom tray.


So these were the essentials for the printer unit.



Then the decisions had to be made about what other things I should keep on the other shelves.


The most obvious thing would be to have anything else that I would normally want to use with the printer at close to it so immediately you would think of paper

but 

I already use the two Ikea drawer units immediately to the right of this unit for all my paper and card and I see no reason to change this because there is a drawer for each type of paper and card so that is all well organized.

All I had to do with it was tidy up the top of it to make it neater  -  easy job.



So what should go on the other shelves in the Printer Unit?


Well I decided that I should consider how to make the best use of the space.

Firstly I knew that would not be to store my A3 white, black & coloured cardstock because that could mean losing out on the height allowance of the shelves by putting in something large and flat.


In the end I decided it would be best to store my various boxes some with old greeting cards, some with note paper & cards and some with more miscellaneous items.  These are boxes which I will not be lifting out and in too often so it doesn't matter that some are on top of others but look how well they fill up the two top shelves - good use of space here.

Then I remembered something else which definitely should be kept in the unit and these are the new ink cartridges for the printer so I grabbed an old small black box I had kept (knowing it was good and sturdy and would come in handy for something) and put the cartridges in it and placed it at the back left corner of the middle shelf behind the laminator.


Another item that made sense to be in the unit because of it's height and what it is used for was the Photo Negative Scanner so I placed it at the back right corner of the middle shelf again behind the laminator.

I have a small metal case which came with a shaver or something for my husband a couple of years ago and I decided straight away when I saw it that it would be ideal for keeping things to do with my phone and mp3 player and bluetooth gadget and charging leads so it was put back on to the shelf beside the laminator pouches where it had been previously so not much change there.



Well with the printer unit and the drawer units done I thought I might as well finish off with the metal & wicker shelf unit that stands to the left.


This is now the place for most of my other books that I need to read and then after that decide to give away or keep - they are in the wooden crates with the chalkboard fronts.

The other nice boxes and files are for

• my recipes,
• greeting cards for use throughout the year,
• old letters
• A4 Overhead Projector Song Sheets for when we are working with the Kids Club in the school.

Did you notice the little bit of decoration I had hanging on the printer unit?

Yes the heart that had hung on the key before

Well it is back again - it is a heart and I love Hearts and it is dark red which ties in with other decorative things in the Study.  Plus I love that old "Home is where the Heart is" phrase.


And now

I am pleased with the difference in looks and the better organisation of the unit and the shelves.

compared to the before

This was more Housework than Funwork this time and more housework to come very soon with the sorting out of the other stuff that had been left on the printer shelves in the past

but

then eventually it will be more Fun because I will take some time to read my old letters and look at the old cards and enjoy memories  with a nice cup of coffee on several occasions yet to come.

This project also brings another project to my mind

How to imaginatively keep old greeting cards - might need a bit of research time on Pinterest for that!

But for now this job is finished and the pull down door can be closed on it when we want to but if it remains this well organised we won't need to try to hide it.

So another part of the Study has been overhauled and organised but we still have many more parts to tackle.


For the other parts of the Study already overhauled and organised click below


An Organised Craft Armoire

Organised Bookcases

For More Posts on Organising please click below

Organising

Organised Bookcases

I was still working at organising the study this week and I finished the Bookcases there.

Now I know I have a lot of ebooks on my kindle but I still have loads of ordinary books and that is one area I really find hard to tidy up and organise because I take ages to decide whether or not to get rid of some books.

The bookcases were really out of hand, completely cluttered and such a messy sight that I had to cut down on the number of books and move off a lot of things that should not really be there.

I love these 4 bookcases which we bought over 20 years ago when we were living in America and they are still in good condition after the move back to Northern Ireland and then the move to Belgium and finally back to Northern Ireland again.

Even though I decided to get a white desk 2 years ago I could have been tempted to paint these white to match but either I'm too lazy or I still love the type of wood in the bookcases and I think it truly is the latter.

The 2 bookcases on the left are full length shelved and the other 2 are shelved on top and have a cupboard on the bottom.

So taking them one at a time I decluttered and organised the bookcases and the cupboards.


Working from the left

This is the bookcase which contains our Christian Novels on the first 5 shelves.
They are in alphabetical order by author (yes I'm a bit fussy and like to be able to find my books easily - and now it is even easier without the clutter in front).

The bottom shelf is the hardest to get at so it contains all the bible study books we have had over the years working with youth groups and homegroups and personal ones too.

The second shelf has all my Davis Bunn physical books and then my kindle has the rest.  I have practically every book he has written and was also privileged to be part of his launch team for one of his books last year and got to review it on my blog - The Strait of Hormuz

The ornaments on the shelves are mostly little personal items and from previous blog posts you will know that I love Arks, and I love Bears, and I love Boxes.

The second bookcase continues on the Christian Novels in alphabetical order again for the first 5 shelves.

The bottom shelf this time is full of nonfiction Christian books.

If you look closely at the fifth shelf you can see a thick book (black & white cover) by Elizabeth Elliot who died very recently.  Sorting out these shelves made me want to read a lot of my books again and this is definitely one of those to reread soon.

Also on the 4th shelf are all my Penelope Stokes novels (as far as I know I have all the novels she has written plus her book about writing novels and her book about faith).
My favourite is The Blue Bottle Club which was the first book I reviewed on this blog.

The third bookcase has the top two shelves devoted to Bibles, commentaries, dictionaries and information books on the Bible.

Then the third shelf contains all my Agatha Christie books.
The red hardbacks are my complete Herron Collection of her books including the Who's Who and then there are two paperbacks of the two books that for some reason were not included in the Herron collection.  As you can see they are in two rows - 37 of them with two books in each.

I love to sit with these hardbacked books to reread the Christie stories before I review them on this blog.

The last bookcase has some photo albums of the kids (someday I might tell the story of those and why Linda always goes on about how you can tell she is the third child).

Then it also has some cookbooks and other miscellaneous books that are special to me, my journals from when we lived in America and in Belgium and some Dutch Novels.

The Bottom shelf just has some ornaments for now but I bet that later on it will be filled with other books because I just could not make up my mind about all of my non-Christian books yet.

Then there were the two cupboards under the shelves of 3 and 4

This is what was in cupboard 3 - Stationary but rather mixed up.


At least it wasn't as bad as cupboard 4 where lots of things tumbled out unto the floor when I opened the doors.

There were obviously too many books shoved in badly to the top shelf of this cupboard.


But then of course as Fred always says - I need to make a mess when sorting things out and that is what I did here because I pulled everything out and sorted it all there on the floor and replaced more than half of it.


It is now so much neater and better organised

with the top shelf dedicated to the books that I use to do the Sunday School Curriculum and the bottom shelf for all our Dutch notebooks and grammar books and exercise books.

Notice there is also some extra space on both shelves - wonder how long that will be there!


Well I also got everything out of cupboard 3 and sorted that into piles on the floor as you can see here when I remembered to take a picture half way through the job.

We love notebooks and files and folders as you can see above.


And the finished cupboard didn't end up completely full either.

Now I can see better what notebooks and journals I still have and can get at all the envelopes and files better.


You may have noticed something on the inside of the left doors of both of these cupboards too.

Gripping Stuff:
It is sticky on both sides so it sticks to the door (or other surfaces and then paper or card can be stuck to it.

It comes in sheets which can be cut to any size and I had cut two pieces just a little smaller than A5 size for the two cupboards a couple of years ago.

Then I had used 2 pieces of A5 card and written on them the contents of the cupboards with the intention of marking off things as we used them so that I would always know how many we had of things and where they were but I started that and then got lazy or forgot and after a while it was no longer accurate.
So not too sure what to do about this but that can be a decision I make when the Study is nearing completion.


Besides that small ongoing thought I am really happy with my

An Organised Craft Armoire

While we lived in Hockessin in Delaware, U.S.A for 3 years we we very fortunate to find some very useful good pieces of furniture which we still have after 22 years and are still in great condition even after being relocated to Belgium for 6 years in between.

One of those items is my Craft Armoire.

But organising is always a problem with crafts.

So

How Do You Organise Crafts?

How Do You Organise a Craft Armoire?

Now when we bought it originally it was a Computer Armoire and that is how we used it during our 3 years in America.

Of course it suited well as a computer armoire for then because of the large computers and keyboards of the 1990s, the fold out desktop was great and the ability to close the doors and hide everything was a great asset but later when computers did not take up as much space I was able to take it and use it for my crafts.

Again the doors were great for hiding the mess within but eventually it really was time to organise it successfully

because even though I tried over the years it never really got much better than this

Yes I had a lot of containers and bags and tubs to keep things in but they were shoved in tightly together most of the time and so it was not very inviting to actually use the crafts.

Still there was the fact that I could just shut the doors and try to forget about the mess and that is what I would do until the next time I needed something.

So last September I decided it was going to get the proper overhaul it needed and it did which you can see here in Too Many Places!

Over the past year it has remained the same - so it must have been a pretty good job and today I thought I would explain more about how it is organised.

How to organise a craft armoire:

CONTENTS:

A.  Top Left Shelf

Embellishments - some wooden, some card, some plastic in containers with compartments and handles for easy lifting out and in and taking to the kitchen table when I need a large surface to work on as in Easy Kids Heart Banner
Small items like this have to be kept separated for ease of use - no point in having to hunt through a box of mixed up items every time.

Punches - these are in two boxes, one for the smaller individual picture punches and one for the larger corner and edging punches.

B.  Second Left Shelf

Wooden Stamps - various pictures, words and sizes kept in compartment boxes and can clearly be seen through the clear lids.  The smaller purple boxes are double sided so hold two lots of stamps.

Clear stamps - various designs and the holders to put them on for stamping.

Stamp ink - various colours, clear for embossing, and cleaners

C.  Third Left Shelf

Plastic Lidded Containers - variety of craft materials for making projects for Christmas and other times of the year.


Two black & White Lidded Cardboard Boxes - I keep larger rolls of ribbon in one and coloured string in the other.  Although these were made especially for the purpose of storing ribbon I think I would like to get something better in the future.




D.  Fourth Left Shelf

Embossing Trays & Stencils 

This shelf is not as deep as others so it is a good choice for these larger or longer flat stencils which would get pulled and twisted if they were mixed in with other heavier objects.

I have the large Fiskars Embossing tray that will hold up to 12x12 sheets and also the smaller Fiskars card embosser.

E.  Fifth Left Shelf


Paper Cutter

This shelf pulls out so is ideal for the paper cutter to have a place of it's own.

F.  Second Bottom Left Shelf

Larger containers fit better on this shelf


Blue cantilever style container - double sided sticky tape, velcro dots, glue dots, craft scissors etc.

Blue tool box style container - lollipop sticks large & small, glue sticks for glue gun etc.

G.  Bottom Left Shelf

Deep Scrapbooks

Boxes of Papers & card 

Because it is at the bottom I thought it more natural to put some heavier things there and things I would not want to lift out so often.



H.  Large Castors

I know this is not storage and not crafts but this is a great thing that my husband decided was needed very shortly after we got the Armoire all those years ago.

We do laugh and say that Fred would like everything to be on castors but definitely in this case it made such a difference for all the times we have moved the armoire as we moved house and also makes it so much easier for cleaning around, behind and underneath it.



J.  Armoire Doors

These doors are great in that they have those special hinges so that the doors will open right back beside the actual sides of the armoire.
(you can see what I mean better on the left side)



K.  Top Right Shelf

Magnetic Memo Pads - these are also items that I have made and materials for making more

Magnets - these are laminated card magnets that I have made and also materials for making more

Bags - a box containing a variety of cellophane bags

L.  Second Right Shelf

Cards & Envelopes - these are ones for use with the kids in church

Greeting Cards - some cards that I had made previously

Black Roll-up Cases for Calligraphy Pens and Markers

M.  Third Right Shelf

Blue Expander Files  - sticker, paper embellishments, cards & envelopes
(I hope you like the labels.  I love to label things even if others laugh at me!)

Various Boxes of Special Themed Embellishments - ones that I have got for special scrapbooks I intend to make




N.  Cubby Holes

I keep some rulers, hole punches, long stapler, staples and odds and ends in these. 

This is the one area of the armoire which is under utilised and I should rethink it better.




P.  Fold Down Table Top

This is so handy as an extra workspace when sorting out things for our Sunday School and of course it is right beside where the paper cutter is kept! 




Q.  Bottom Right Shelf

Scrapbook Albums - these are ones I have bought over the last 5 years and intend to work on when I get some more time!!!!
(guess if you had frequented my blog before you will know how much I Love Arks)

Clear Plastic Box - a box for storing 12x12 scrapbook papers flat.

R.  Filing Drawer

This is the one part of the armoire which is not used for my crafts.

It still contains files for various things from over the years but may be changed later.

I do like to be able to open this craft armoire and see something that is properly organised

I of course would much rather be doing something like this even though it takes time, thought and effort; than doing any kind of housework.

Now just need to get the rest of the things in the study organised like the bookcases, desk, printer unit etc.