Clever Ideas For Scrapbook Paper Storage on Every Budget

I have a confession to make... I'm a paper hoarder. I'm also a material hoarder but that's a story for another day! I buy paper when it's on sale and as a result, have way more pretty paper than I actually need.

Until recently, I had piles of scrapbooking paper in various spots all over my craft room, which doubles as my office and my sewing room. My crafting was starting to spill over onto my computer desk, making it very easy to get distracted.

I had to do something about it!

After an hour of researching scrapbook paper organization ideas on Pinterest whilst I should have been sleeping, I found quite a few great ideas. Fortunately, most of these don't cost an arm or a leg.

The hardest part is deciding how to sort your paper. I sat on the craft room floor and spent way too long just staring at the paper deciding if I should organize it by color, texture (sparklies vs glossy vs matte), or theme. In the end, it was a little bit of both.
So without further ado, here are my favorite scrapbook paper organization ideas, most of which I have used in my own craft room.

I rarely use magazine holders for actual magazines! I've been using them in my office for years to store folders and paperwork that I refer to daily and need within easy reach. It just makes sense to use them for scrapbook paper organization.

The most satisfying thing about using magazine holders to store your scrapbook paper is that you can easily see the colored papers. So depending on how well you have sorted your paper by color, it looks very neat and strangely satisfying to see all the pretty paper in there.

Also, if your magazine holders are kinda dull and a bit old, you can easily give them a make-over with your scrapbooking paper.

A scrapbook storage tote is a bag that's designed specifically for both storing and traveling with your scrapbooking supplies. There is usually one or two large compartments in which you can store your papers within paper sized plastic tubs, as well as many other small compartments for all your nicknacks, scissors, glues, etc. They're ideal for anyone who doesn't have a dedicated space or table in the corner for their scrapbooking obsession.

Many of them work like a rolling luggage bag featuring wheels and a retractable handle. This makes it really easy to take your supplies to a friend's house or to a local scrapbooking group if you're lucky enough to have one in your area!

You really can't go past a simple cube bookshelf for organizing your scrapbooking papers. They're not usually expensive and they come in a variety of sizes that can be found at most stores that sell home storage solutions. You may commonly see them from IKEA, or your local office supply shops, and even in large department stores like BigW - if you're from Australia!

You can store your paper directly onto the shelves with each shelf having its own theme or color schemes. Level up your scrapbook paper organization by using pull-out trays, baskets, or magazine holders, which usually slot in there quite nicely.

Clear plastic sleeves from the office shop are a great storage solution for your pieces of scrap paper that are too pretty to throw out. Simply group your scraps into piles of similar color and slot them into the plastic sleeves.

The plastic sleeves can then be stored in a large binder folder which you can flip through when you're looking for something in particular.

Ok, here me out. This idea works surprisingly well and you get to eat pizza with a little less guilt knowing that your pizza box will be 100% recycled.

The secret is to get the pizza out of the box ASAP before the oil from the pizza ruins your yet to be made scrapbooking paper solution. You really don't want that oil transferring to your beautiful scrapbooking paper!

These can be constructed in multiple ways, depending on the shape and style of your pizza box. But since I love actually being able to see the paper, I made sure to cut an open front as you can see in the photograph below.

Since scrapbooks are about memories, wouldn't it be nice to remember the recipes to some of your favorite meals? Did you cook a delicious meal the night you threw a house warming party that you forgot about? What did you eat on your wedding night?

How about Gramma's pumpkin pie recipe? Create a section in your scrapbook for recipes that you absolutely cannot live without. Another creative idea you can incorporate into your recipe section would be adding envelopes of certain kinds of recipes.

Have an envelope of desserts, side dishes, snacks, or breakfast dishes and create small, creative recipes to put in the envelops. This will save you time and space in your scrapbook. You can also use something food related, such as wax paper, for the background.

Now that my kids gravitate more towards chapter books than over-sized picture books, we have a cool cotton sling bookshelf that turned out to be just perfect for scrapbook paper organization.

This works amazing for cardstock stacks, which are similar in size to kids picture books. The color or pattern peaks out the top of the cotton sling making it really easy to see and grab what you need.

If you don't have one of these yourself, they are usually sold at large furniture stores such as Fantastic Furniture and on Ebay.

Plastic drawer trolleys are sold at most large office supply stores and work a treat for storing scrapbooking paper and scrapbook supplies. The drawers range from shallow to deep enough to hide your latest lot of bargain cardstock stacks.

The trolleys have wheels so they can be easily moved around the house and the drawers will either be transparent or blocked out.

Sew your own custom hanging scrapbook paper organizer. Basically, you want to sew something with tight (but not too tight) fitting pockets that the paper can be slotted into.

I love this scrapbook paper organization idea as everyone has varying amounts of paper they need to store and varying amounts of space. Sewing your own hanging scrapbooking paper holder allows you to make the best use of your available space. I made mine the same width as my cube storage bookshelf so that it can just hang off the side neatly.

I hope I've been able to inspire you with these scrapbooking paper organization ideas and I would love to see what you come up with. There is nothing more satisfying than rows of perfectly organized paper and craft supplies! Happy scrapping!