Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Organized Scrapbooks

Tiff asked me how I organize my scrapbook stuff. So I am going to share that in this post.

I got sick of not being able to find things in my stash so I decided to create an "Organized Scrapbooks" folder. I am a big fan of IKEA Goddess so I download lots of freebies every month.(Although I have gotten a lot more picky recently as my 1TB EHD is filling up quickly.)

I organize into different sites that I like because usually I can remember which site I bought certain kits from. For the general freebie downloads and such, I put each into one of the categories on the screenshot below.

I like to categorize some things into "Holidays" if I would only use those things at say Valentine's Day. Within the Valentines Day folder I have subcategories such as "Wordart" That way if I am looking for a wordart for a Valentine LO I would have an easier time finding it.

I tried ACDSee and it just seemed too time intensive and it wouldn't work if I was working on my laptop with my EHD.

I love previews!!! I label the preview with the word "folder" so that it shows up as the defining thing in the folder(it must be a JPEG file - png's don't work.) That way, I can quickly look at the previews and find things easily.

In my "Organized Scrapbooks" folder I keep a Notepad file that helps me keep track of what I have done and what I am working on. It's crazy how easy I forget what I was last working on.

Organizing is an evolving process. I figure out helpful, new things all the time. I really believe in the delete key. I delete all the TOU's and extra previews and such because I feel they are a waste of space. I can always look them up later if I need them.

If you have any ideas on organizing that you would like to share please please please comment below. I am always open to new ideas!

2 comments:

julie said...

I am wondering why you don't like acdsee? I have a desktop and a laptop with an external hard drive and LOVE acdsee, just wondering if I am missing something as to why I shouldn't use it....

I will agree with you it is time intensive to initially set up but after that it is a breeze.

I love seeing how other people organize and the categories they use! Thanks for sharing!

SandyPie said...

Thanks for the tip about ACDSee, I love my EHD I wouldn't want to sink money into it and not be able to work with my EHD. I personally organize by designer and if there's something special I want to remember to use in a layout I save it in a special folder and make sure to change the name of that item to include the designer so I can find my way back to it. (I too love IkeaGoddess!)