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Organizing my minis


kellee

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I have been some serious decluttering and organizing in our home. I've been working slowly in my craft room. I need some ideas for organizing my minis.

How do you organize minis?

- separating everything by room. Bedroom, kitchen, bath, dining, porch, etc.

- putting all furniture in a tote

- separating accessories by room in baggies.

How do you have your organized. I honestly don't know what I have anymore, it's all in about 3 totes. Those totes include everything that will go in a dollhouse.

Thanks.

Kellee

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Weeeelllll....... I started with one of those 3-drawer thingies and a barrel. I used one drawer for fabric, one for wallpaper and one for wood bits and used the barrel for long trim and wood stuff. Then I used a million and two coffee cans for cut-offs. Then I used a bin for all furniture. Then I used a cardboard box for damaged furniture. Then I used my desk for stuff that needs to be done soon. Then I used another table for stuff that doesn't need to be done right away, but I want to do right away.

Let's just say - if you figure out a system that works - let me know.... hahahahaha

I'm sorry that this wasn't helpful, but maybe it'll make you feel better about not being organized as you would like to be.

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I use the Trofast tub/drawer system from Ikea.

The very deep tubs are sorted one tub per dollhouse that I'm collecting stuff for.

Then the medium tubs are for things that I find in the shops and can use at any time in future, but take up space (like fake trees, odd furniture sets).

And the shallow tubs are for things that are grouped like with like (or where they fit in).

Then I have shallow compartment boxes for the really small stuff - about 16 of those stacked in a corner.

And I have an Ikea art trolley (very old) that I use to keep my tools and paints in.

I don't mind looking for things, if they are in manageable containers, one layer deep and easy to glance through.

Have a look at Craigslist or at yard sales for suitable storage options and slowly build up to a system that works for your space.

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I use the large totes for most of the furniture, appliances, and accessories but unfortunately them seem to have gremlins that live in them and scramble everything up when the lids are closed.

I do have them separated by categories and types. I use tons of baggies. For the tiny accessories, I use the mini bags and group them together ie. food items, dishes, flowers, door hardware, etc and put all the small ones in a larger one with a label as to the contents.

I have a separate tote for unfinished wood furniture and dollar store ones that I'm going to repaint before using.

My wood scraps are in another.

My trims, molding, small long wood like that, are in skinny tubes, baskets and oatmeal boxes.

Components like doors, windows, shingles, etc are in another tote.

I have a some of those plastic drawer sets. One set is exclusively for spray paints. Another smaller one has glues in one drawer, sparkles and tiny bits of metal or jewels, etc in the top drawer and in the middle drawer there are popsicles and decorative toothpick size wood. Another set of drawers has wallpaper and electrical items in it's drawers.

I have a cupboard that has plastic baskets in it with the acrylic paints by color, paintbrushes, sealers, etc.

My tools are supposed to be in my tool box but they rarely are. Mostly they end up sorted into clementine boxes on my work tables for easy reach.

Beading supplies are in 2 sets of drawers. Clay supplies are in another set of drawers. Egg cartons and things to save are under the tables. Kits are stored under any available location and finished or in progress houses are on some shelves over the table.

I work in three different rooms so it gets confusing as to where things are. I have an unheated woodworking shop (seasonally usable), then I have one room for clean crafts like sewing, yarn, jewelry making, scrapbook/paper crafts, etc. and one for messy crafts like sawing, painting, gluing, etc. .

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I was thinking about organizing all the stuff according to the house I want it to go in.

I have so much I will never use. I am going to make a box for the stuff I dont want, and a box for things that need fixed.

Keep sharing your ideas. Iappreciate all the ideas.

Kellee

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I put accessories and small furniture pieces in clear zip-lock baggies and the larger pieces of furniture in tote bags that I sort by room. However, now that I got my first dollhouse renovated, most of the better furniture I have is now inside of it. I have a few pieces I am saving for my Garfield when that too gets a makeover, but I am hoping to purchase mostly new furniture for that house. When I do my final sorting, I know I will find some broken pieces that I plan to toss. So my bags should become smaller, containing only the things I am saving to change off.

Now my problem is going to be where to keep the bags. I don't want them in the basement any more, as the houses are no longer down there, but I may not have a choice. If that's the case, I need to keep them all in a compact space that is easily accessible. I don't have craft supplies, so in my case this shouldn't be too hard.

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I was thinking about organizing all the stuff according to the house I want it to go in.

I have so much I will never use. I am going to make a box for the stuff I dont want, and a box for things that need fixed.

Keep sharing your ideas. Iappreciate all the ideas.

Kellee

If it's of any encouragement, I like your way of organizing.

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I find I really need several different types of organizational tools for the different tasks, because I need a way to store my house kits (vertically in a bankers box), furniture kits (again vertically in a more shallow box so I can flip through them), craft supplies (over-the-door wire racks inside a closet for the miscellaneous little stuff; clear plastic totes for paint bottles, etc), flat goods like wallpaper (shallow drawers in a plastic roll around cart), trim and wood scrape (trim bundled by type and loose in a vertical sorter; scraps, yeah everywhere), furniture (plastic totes by scale), accessories (multi-drawer unit like those used for screws, bolts, etc).

I also use a ton of ziplock baggies in various sizes.

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I store furniture, craft materials, fabric etc in four-drawer plastic tower units. I already had two, and I bought two more a couple of months back. They are fantastic; room to store a ton of assorted items AND room on top to support a doll's house or shop.

They are on castors, too, so are very easy to move around. And they're cheap.

I use ziplock baggies, also, and shoe boxes!

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Shoe boxes, pill bottles for small beads, wooden turnings, etc, little baskets and two plastic pencil boxes--one for the exactos, small tools, and the other for scraps. All, along with longer scraps and dowels are laid flat inside a funky cabinet I built for the purpose. It also holds a couple of the power tools. (We still need to build one more stall in the new barn so all the horses are under one roof with a water hydrant and I get the old barn for my workshop/garage for the car and two tractors. Not purpose built like Holly's new shop, but I still can't wait to gather all the tools and workbenches in a well-lit space.)

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Now that everything except the power tools and most of the 1:12 house kits have been moved to the workshop I am frantically hunting places for everything. The old bookcase that used to be in my old workroom now, with the addition of under-shelf wire baskets, holds all my paints, art supplies and paper (including the sumi-e stuff), with sealers and wallpaper paste, gesso and stretcher frame parts on the bottom shelf. DH had made a couple of bookcases mini years ago (almost 50!) that are now on two walls of his storage closet and dolls and beads, furniture and furniture kits are going in there (including all the Barbies for makeovers). Sad but true, I have outgrown my big red rolling toolbox (*sniff*); I used to be able to fit all my mini power tools in their cases in there, but we have totally filled one of those drawers with clamps (not including the larger "C" clamps or bar clamps...). I have figured out that I want my baker's rack to face my regular workbench and put my set of stel shelves backed up to it' the house kits will go on the bottom shelf, finishing materials (floor tiles, wallpaper, spackling compound, etc) will go on a shelf, landscaping and floral suppies can go on a shelf. Then I have another little bookcase full of shoeboxes plus all the shoeboxes DH brought in from the garage and sat in the middle of the floor that I will get to go through and sort. Eventually I think I'll commandeer a couple of the empty banker's boxes to rehouse all the woodsies in one and all the plastic goodies in another and fit them back into that little bookcase. I hope when I'm done to only take up about 1/3 of the shop; DH & I share the scrollsaw, bandsaw, belt & disc sander & full-size lathe, so the small lathe will end up in or near my corner.

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The one thing I couldn't live without for organization is my label maker. Every drawer,Plano box and basket gets a label. Since I have supplies and tools for jewelry, basket making, all kinds of needlework and other occasional hobbies in one room, it would be impossible to find anything without labeling all of the containers. The furniture, tools and yarn goes in large plastic drawers. Smaller drawers for wicker, basket making, electrical and odd tools that I don't use that often. The Plano boxes are for all of the smaller items. Mini accessories, beadwork, three are embroidery floss and other kinds of needlework like tatting and mini crochet and knitting. The four walls of my work room have all turned into storage. I work elsewhere most of the time. That reminds me...it's about time to re organize once again... Somebody hand me a shovel!

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I don't have as much furniture as some of you guys (give me time, I'm sure I will get there) nor do I have a dedicated mini space so I have to know where stuff is when I do have time to work on it. Because so much of it has to be stored "in plain sight" I find the pretty paper storage boxes that Michaels sells to be awesome! I have about 5 of them so far with a different scale in each one. I want to get some of the smaller ones so I can separate individual houses into their own box. My current house in progress (RGT 1/2 scale Bungalow) is stored in a large plastic tub in the corner of my dining room/office/pantry. I also have some of the roll around storage units from Michaels which store my paints, sandpaper, small tools a;though I am thinking of consolidating those into one larger unit. My Vermont Jr sits on a cabinet which I had my dad build for me. Here's a shot of that http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/index.php?app=gallery&image=78916 It's been painted white and hold all my kits, strip wood, some furniture and miscellaneous mini things. I'm reminded now that I haven't gone through that in a while so I should probably add it to the list. The most helpful thing for me is to go through all my stuff fairly frequently; it helps me remember what I have and don't have.

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..... nor do I have a dedicated mini space so I have to know where stuff is when I do have time to work on it. Because so much of it has to be stored "in plain sight" I find the pretty paper storage boxes that Michaels sells to be awesome! I

As to storing in plain site, I have an idea. Long time ago, I needed storage for kitchen things and had no attractive way to do it and not much $$ to do anything with. So I took a set of metal shelves from the garage, cleaned it up and set it in the kitchen. Then I took dollar store vinyl tablecloths and sewed a cover with nice square corners to go over it. I made it so it would open in the front but when closed it covered all sides. I set some prettier things on top and filled the other shelves with my kitchen supplies. Worked great and looked fine.

In addition to what others haven mentioned, I use a tall plastic gift wrap organizer box for lumber, and I use a plastic embroidery floss box for tiny things.

I love the gift wrap box idea too. I just got one after Christmas on clearance. Hm-m-m-m?? Do I really need that wrapping paper?

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<reverently entering the thread and sitting down, carefully settling my highly organized purse at my feet> I don't even know where to begin. This is my idea of heaven........a bunch of miniaturists sitting around talking about how to organize their miniatures. :chat:

I have two things to admit to right up front: I'm a Virgo and I have OCD. <chuckling> That last statement was an excellent example of redundancy because Virgo and OCD are pretty much the same thing. I can't walk past the Sterlite section at Walmart without stopping and when I go into The Container Store, this happens :worthy: . absolutely uncontrollably.

It would take too long to try and explain how I organize things and the types of containers I use. But a few years ago we had shared pictures of our work spaces and I made a gallery for my studio. It's here if you just want to see what I'd done http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/index.php?app=gallery&album=3387 That was at our old house in Denver and the room was literally bursting at the seams and overflowing to the point of not being very organized at all. Behind the photography backdrop was a closet that was stacked floor to ceiling with a little over 100 full scale kits so that's where I kept the big boxes. (plus a few under the beds and couches)

In our new house I have *two* rooms for my studio. :wub: Oh yes, I'm a happy lady with that much creating space. They're right across the hall from each other so it's pretty much like one big room. I just have to walk a couple feet across the hall to move from one room to the other. Anyway, one room is my sewing room that also has a little writing desk. I keep all the dollhouse furniture in there and have a table designated for dressing dollhouse furniture and another area specifically for sewing. I have two sewing machines......one big Brother that I use for normal things and then there's my baby Janome that I use for the mini stuff. <purring> I have such a love affair with that baby Janome.

The other room is my main studio and work room with all my building supplies on shelves and a nice long work table with my machinist's cabinet close at hand and I still have space to grow. I've definitely added lots more organizer type containers since we moved in. Everything is unpacked and orderly but I know that as I begin using the rooms more I'll rearrange stuff a million times till I find the perfect combination. When I'm at the work table with one arm and hand holding two walls in position and my chin securing a roof section, I want to be able to reach out blindly and put my fingers right on my EZ Cutter without even thinking about it. That's when I know I have it right.

Deb

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Deb, I notice that the three mini people are laughing while they discuss...I have a feeling that their workrooms are more like mine and they are saying things like...."I keep my saw in the sock drawer." or "My strip wood is in the laundry hamper."LOL

Seriously though, I really envy you for having two rooms...my stuff is all over the house. I have two small closets that are mostly dedicated to fabrics alone. Not bragging. Just complaining about the lack of space... If I had more space I would still be in trouble. The more space I have, the more stuff I find to fill it.

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