Setting up a stamp room part 2 - How I store my stamps

It's been a while since I last posted about setting up a home office/stamp room so I thought I'd share a little something today. (You'll have to excuse my messy desk, I made a spur of the moment decision to take these pics, but this is what my desk looks like most days so it's an accurate portrayal lol)
ETA: The wood frame behind my desk on one side is from where we took out a wall and rebuilt them slightly into each bedroom to create built in wardrobes, we haven't been able to plaster the office just yet but fingers crossed it will be done later this year - who knew a few sheets of plaster board could be so expensive??
This is how I store my stamps:
I have one of those corner computer desks to stamp on (once upon a time it actually held a computer lol) I store them by size then by set (eg Loads of love, loads of love accessories & Boatloads of love are all together) I use the little shelf things that are designed for CD's (I just unscrewed the little plastic cd holders) to store my medium, extra small & a few of the small sized stamp sets. I have a cheapie $20 reject shop DVD rack that I turned on it's side and laid across the top of the shelf for my small sized stamp sets. I also store my markers, embossing powders adhesives (except for SNAIL) etc in the back part of the shelf (the things I use fairly regularly but not often enough to leave out on my desk all the time). On top of the DVD rack I have my background stamps stacked together, my Stampin' Around Wheels (in the storage case, well worth the money if you own more than 1 or 2 wheels - my upline and I went halves in one order of them as they come in packs of 2 so we could get both sizes for the price of one pack) on top of them I store my one stamp set that comes in an extra large case. Next to the wheels I store the stamp sets in the Large Cases & next to them I store my alphabets.
The purple box has the contents of a *TOP SECRET* project I'm working on at the moment. It doesn't normally live there. Same with the inkpads, I left them out when I was working on something and they haven't made their way back to the colour caddy yet.Next to the DVD Rack I keep my stamp sets that are on current promo's or mini catalogue so that I reach for them first, I find that sometimes if I buy a stack of new sets all at the same time I tend to lose a few in the mix and then it's a waste of my money if I haven't had full use of the sets. So these sit straight to my left as I'm stamping where I see them first and it really has helped me use my new stuff more!
Next to them I have my BIG Three for You Punch Box set and then on top of that I have my hodgepodge sets, pretties kit & flower fusion. I also find that having them right in my view when I'm looking for stuff helps me to use them instead of hoard them! I am such a hoarder, I don't use stuff because some of it cost a bit (even though you get heaps of pieces a hodgepodge set is still $50+) I don't want to waste money so I save it for that "special occasion" but I've already paid for them so to have them sit there without using them is more of a waste of money than using them on something that doesn't live up to special occasion status, but if you're making a card then it's generally a special occasion if you catch my drift. Anyway enough rambling back to the post: The side of my desk has a small bookshelf built into it. I use that to store my retired stamp sets, so they are easily accessible if I want to use one but if I reach for a set to use in a workshop or class I don't have to sit there and umm & ahh over whether or not it is retired. You can see that I've stored a copy of the spring mini with the sets that retire from the spring mini catalogue, that's just to make it easier when the new IB&C gets released I know which sets make a comeback without having to check every retired set on the shelf. The little ovals on some of the boxes are the sticky part of a sticky not punched with the small oval punch, i was using them to keep track of what retired from what catalogue but some of them fell off and it got confusing so i don't bother with that anymore.

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Setting up a home office *cough*stamp room*cough* part 1

If you have been reading my blog over the last few months you will know that we are in the middle of renovating our house. We have FINALLY (after 4 1/2 months of sleeping on the loungeroom floor) finished our bedroom as far as we are able to take it at this stage.
Here is the final product, not huge but after not having a bedroom I really do appreciate it. Do you recognise the feature wall colour?
I took in a scrap of Almost Amethyst Cardstock to the paint shop and asked them to colour match it. I then got a 1/4 tint for the other walls, 1/2 tint for the trim and about a 1/32 tint for the ceiling. The big white patch next to Justin is actually the door, we haven't painted it yet as we aren't sure what colour we will want to paint the hallway and I don't what to repaint something that doesn't need repainting so for the time being it is only undercoated. My brother in law will also be around sometime (hopefully) soon to finish the doorjamb so we can put the door handle on.
So now that our bedroom furniture is in our bedroom and not in the Stamp Room (or the office as Justin is under the impression it is called) it is time to organise ourselves in there and set up my desk so Justin can have his back and his computer is off the coffee table.
We were hoping that we would be able to do it up straight away but for the sake of my sanity as well as financial reasons (ie termite treatment is damn expensive! - even when you catch it before they have done structural damage) we have decided to leave it for another 6 months or so, meaning that we need to make our house look more like a home than a storage unit.
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Sooo... since I may not get as much stamping done over the next few weeks as I was hoping to, I thought I would take the opportunity to review some of the space saving & storage solutions that I come up with along the way.
The first one I thought I would share with you isn't strictly stamping related but the more space you save with the boring stuff means the more space you have to store stamps ;o) anyway these are great little Stackable drawers by Oates. I got mine from Big W for around $16 each.They are designed to hold DVD's or CD's, however we will be using it to store software CD's & DVD's because I hate how you have to keep them handy in case you ever have to reinstall the software but they aren't something you need to access on a daily basis.
These will be going on a shelf in the wardrobe so we can stack other things around them but we don't have to go digging through boxes when we need to reinstall a program, instead we will just slide out a drawer and they will be sitting there spine up so we can easily grab what we need. They come with little dividers so that if it's not full they won't slide all over the place.
I will be buying another one to go in the bottom cupboard of the entertainment unit as it would be a better way of storing our console games (a nintendo DS or PS1 game will fit perfectly instead of CD's and other game types will fit as DVD's) so they don't fall over every time you even look at the stack of games in there...
PS If you are looking for a great way to store ribbon these fit a large ribbon spool easily and depending on the thickness of the ribbon you could probably get about 11-15 spools per drawer