*Here is an updated, and currently available resource for the CD Holder*

Hello, from the pile of boxes that is my studio at present!  I’ve been kicking the bucket for the last couple of weeks.  By bucket I mean the BUCKET-ISH way I’ve been storing things (or not) — so that’s been the theme of my room for too long – with the big buckets of schtuff that you have to sift through to find anything.  Even a drawer can be a ‘bucket’.  My mission is to get containers within my buckets.  And with this in mind – off to IKEA I went.

I brought a bag of art supplies.  One of this and that to see what I could find to contain these things logically.  My overarching goal is to have containers that I can simply pull to get what I want, instead of sifting and to have it look as neat as it is functional.

The target for this week is to attack the area directly next to the left hand side of my workspace.

Logically, items at arms-length and eye-level should be among the most used in your studio.  Well, it wasn’t so – at least not anymore. I had a wonderful set of tilt-bins on the wall.  Over the years they’d gone from having colorful embellishments in them, all sorted by color (long gone are the days when 10 little bins would contain me), and had then become a place for metal things.  But still quite ‘bucket-ish’.  And now they are just a catch-all, with most of the contents just staring bleakly at me from out of their clear buckets.  So off the wall came the tilt-bins.  I have a thought for where they will move to – but not what they will house yet.  I just know they no longer deserve that swanky bit of studio real estate.

What I do want right at hand are my Copic Markers.  There are a LOT of them, right?  346 is the current color collection.  But the majority of the systems I’ve encountered for organizing them are desktop units; or wall units that are too ‘bucket-ish’ for me.  I wanted something in-between the lovely labeled store displays and a simple marker stand – but on the wall.  I want it labeled, so when something is out of place or missing, it will be obvious.  There is little worse when you are coloring with Copics to reach up for a marker that suits your needs, and it isn’t there.

I have to be honest and realize that I am NEVER going to have custom-made cabinetry.  I don’t even buy lottery tickets and Joe the Handyman has way more things to do around here.  But when I spotted this little number in the aisle at IKEA – my heart whirred a little bit.  It’s a CD holder.

This brought me back to the ‘old days’ when I used tape cassette wooden rack for inkpads.  The limitation of that holder was the fixed shelf height and width.  But I realized that I could make shelves of ANY height with this unit.  I could have that custom marker holder with a little ingenuity.

So I took out the little cardboard insert…

And held it up to my computer screen as I created tables for a list of Copic Marker colors and swatches.  I’m happy to share this.

Here is the file so you don’t have to e-mail me for it.  Updated for 2015 to include all colors as of CHA Winter 2015 trade show.

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Then I pondered what my shelves would be made of.  Should I buy some empty CD jewel cases at Staples?  But wait!  I’ve got several ‘bricks’ of microscope slide holders in one of my ‘buckets’.  I cannot even remember the last time I pulled one of these out to decorate (but like most ‘blanks’ it’s hard to get rid of a good stash).  So I decided to repurpose some instead.

Labeling keeps me honest.  Labeling makes me put things back where they belong.  I think that has got to be a key to sucessful organization – knowing your strengths and weaknesses, as much as your supplies.

And I know that I want these hung on the wall in a way that I can easilly pull them off and plop it into my rolling tote so I went after these great furniture safety brackets that are meant to keep furniture from falling over onto climbing children, or earthquakes even.  Screwed one into the top and put a screw hook into the wall.  Add a tie wrap – and it’s a nice loop for hanging up the containers and getting them down easily too.

Three units covers the entire collection of 346, extra shelf for a few spare blender pens, my glitter pens and a big, honkin’ bottle of blender solution.  Essentially there is room to grow.  So if Copic decides to release more pen colors in the future, I’ll have that magical number twelve covered.

Now this is more like it.

So now I’ve got the Scrapbox MiniBox organized and my pens organized and better situated for use.

Next up?  The dreaded stamps!  As I’ve said before, my system is flawless.  It’s keeping it up that has been seriously flawed.  You can read about it here.

Stamp Organization – aka knowing what you have and using it!

How is your organization going?  Any great finds to share?