Organizing My Craft Stuff!

Hello!  I've been BUSY lately!  Since retiring from Stampin' Up! a couple of weeks ago, I'd like to organize all of my crafting supplies so I know exactly what I have available to craft with.  I have OODLES and OODLES of "stuff" to go through.  The first thing I want to tackle is organizing and cataloging all of my stamp sets.  You might think that would be a relatively easy task, but..........I hope you're sitting down.........I have approximately 2,500 stamp sets!  THERE, I ADMITTED IT!  I hoard stamps - or maybe I should say I'm a stamp collector!  Collecting stamps over a 15-year period has given me quite a collection.  All of the binders in the picture below contain the image sheets of all of my stamp sets.  Each binder holds about 80 sheets.  So far, I have 20 full binders, and I'm not finished yet!  I have spent the last three days categorizing my stamp sets into different topics, so now I will be able to easily find things.  If I want to stamp a wedding card, no problem!  I'll just go to the binder with the "wedding" section and I'll be able to see my complete selection of wedding stamps, whether they're retired or not.  Some of my stamp sets date back to 1997!  And you know what?  They're still awesome!  Once I have a grip on exactly what I have, I will want to sell some of them.  It's difficult to house that many stamp sets and I really want to downsize, but it will take lots of time to go through each stamp set and decide whether I want to keep it, sell it, or give it away.  After I've tackled my stamp sets, then I'll move on to papers and punches and embellishments and ribbons and.........well, the list goes on and on.  I'm excited, though.  Although it's a HUGE job, it feels good to go through all of it and get it all in shape.  I haven't been stamping over the last couple of days, but I'll get back to it soon.  One can never go too long without stamping - and I've got some stamping projects to work on!

GOOD NEWS:  We received word yesterday that The Solana (the retirement center I've been donating cards to) now has a large one-bedroom apartment available for my mom.  YIPPEE!  We've been waiting and waiting and waiting - and the time has arrived!  She will move over quickly - probably within the next two weeks!  I'll be very happy to have her close by - she currently lives in Uvalde, Texas.  Many of you may not know that my father passed away on April 27th, just two days before I was to leave on the Stampin' Up! cruise.  I had to cancel my trip.  :(   My dad had Stage 4 kidney disease (and a hundred other things, too), so while it breaks my heart for him to have died, I am happy that he is finally free of his wheelchair, the nursing home, all of his medications, his bleepity-bleep catheter (which drove him absolutely crazy - and all of us, too), and all of the pain!  LOVE YOU, DADDY!  Every time I see a cardinal, I think of you.  There was a beautiful cardinal on your bird feeder the other day and it made me feel that you had come for a visit.  Somehow I get comfort in that.

 

 

 When I get all of this done, it will be AWESOME, and I'll be one happy (and organized) gal!