The Scrap Pile Yelled At Me....

My mother always told me then you felt overwhelmed about a task to start with the task that bothered you the most.
Looking at my craft room with a critical eye, I analyzed each area according to the degree to irritability factor The scrap pile won hands down.
Like most of you, I don't like to throw anything away "in case I can use it". Scraps are convenient for creating punch art, photo corners, mats, journaling blocks and other page accents. Over the years, my scrap pile grew and grew, filled one bankers box, then a recycling box and eventually spilled over onto the floor. This pile was the first thing one saw as one entered the craft room. The disorganized pile "yelled" at me, and I could never find the particular scrap I was looking for without creating a huge mess.
So, my number 1 task was born....organize the scraps, not only to stop the "yelling" but to make the most use of my scrapbook paper buck.
Little did I know how long it would take me; little did I know the degree of satisfaction it would give me; little did I know how much calmer my craft room looked with that pile in order.
1. Dump out your entire lot of scrap paper. Use a pair of scissors to trim off any frayed, bent or awkward edges to make containment easier.
2. Sort scraps into piles by colour family. It isn't necessary to separate out solid and patterned paper. Put scraps into the following piles: white/white patterns, black and black/gray patterns, brown/brown patterns, cream/cream patterns, red/red patterns, orange/orange patterns, yellow;/yellow patterns, green/green patterns, blue/blue patterns, and violet/violet patterns.
3. Sort specialty papers by group: handmade, metallic, mulberry, suede, vellum, woodgrain,or intermix types and sort by colour.
4. Once sorted, determine the most suitable-sized storage container. An accordian type folder works great.
5. Throw away scraps than are no larger than 2 by 2".

I will honestly tell you the task took hours and hours, but it has made my life so much easier.