Our Hobby Inquiry for those who don't have a dedicated room

Interesting question. My problem isn't the scraps and the trash, it's having to put everything away. I scrap at our dining room table, so everything has to be cleared off for dinner every night. Once and a while I can get away with eating on TV trays, but not every night. It makes me think twice about getting everything out to scrap and then having to put it away again in a couple of hours.

It is not so much the trash generated but the very thought that scrapping makes such a big mess that I will have to clean up that causes me to reconsider scrapping. I do have a dedicated room but I can't stand a mess so unless I have enough time to scrap and do a total clean up I refrain from even starting anything.

When I only have a hour or two to play I just scrap digitally.

Honestly Kate, that is not a function of how much space you have. I think you'd find that if your desk were twice as big, it would just get twice as crowded. Trust me, I've had a huge space and I managed to cover every horizontal surface! Now I have stuff in my living room, hallway, office and spare bedroom!

I find that every so often I just have to clean it all up in order to feel creative again! It's one of the reasons that I am glad that I have the Scrapbook Buddies Meetups every other Monday. Makes me keep it sort of under control as I hate people to see my home in a mess!

M-C

I have a problem with the scrapb. I just can't get rid of them, just in case I could use that little piece...... I feel like I don't have enough elbow room at my table and it is so crowded that I find in difficult to get started. I have to get everything out and keep moving things to get to the things I need.

I know I HAVE to clean up my craftroom when my table is entirely filled with piles of stuff and I'm down to a foot-square working space... which happens entirely too often! I definitely do more crafting now I have a dedicated space, because I don't have to put it away to sleep (in my parents house, I used to have to scrap on the desk next to my bed, and I used the bed as a second table... which meant that everything HAD to go back in its place before bedtime or I wouldn't be sleeping :P )

I have a problem with scraps too... I hate throwing things out if I think I might be able to use them later! I just solved that problem though - I gave away two big mailing boxes of bits and pieces to other people, which was the guilt-free way to winnow my collection!

I am soooooo encouraged to know that I am not the only one who is "area-challenged" in the hobby room department!!! ::whew:: I feel much better now.

;-)

Carolyne in TX

I have had my scrapping desk totally cleaned off, and then stuff ends up collecting on it when not in use. I then have to clean it off to work, and then when I do end up working on it, I end up with a very small working space for my project! I like to have everything out within reach.(After looking at Sandys picture, my working space is similar LOL) I did get some cards done on Saturday, and once I cleaned it all up, I dont want to mess it up again! But I have to! I use a lot of scraps for cards, so I tend to save a lot of them. I keep a paper grocery sack next to my desk for paper trash, and then when its full, we burn it with the rest of the burnable trash. Linda

I can definately back MC up that it doesn't matter how much space you have. There were several times I would walk into MC's workshop/craft room and every workable surface had something on it. LOL So it's not exactly how much space you have. I truly think the bigger the space, the more the mess spreads out.

Thanks I think, Deb! As for scraps, I do keep them. I have a tendency to work on whole albums as gifts or 4others. I usually end up keeping all the scraps in that box and then using them. I actually don't have a lot of scraps left. Keeping the project boxes, also known as hoarding, cluttering or being a pack rat, actually worked well when I had to recreate my MILs albums I'd given her after Katrina! But I'm sure it cost me when we had to pay to haul it, when we moved back to FL!

M-C