Paperclipping: The Video Podcast | Design Your Story

Excuse the piles and stacks of mess above and below this cabinet. I’m in the middle of a long and slow room reorganization (slow as in, I’m moving about two items per month so far).

What I’m really meaning for you to look at is the open cabinet from Ikea (the middle of three) — it’s where I’ve been keeping the tools that are too large to fit in a bin or basket.

(I know the Cropodile is hardly a large tool but it’s larger than all of my other hand tools and I can no longer fit it into my hand tool bucket. Into the cabinet for large tools it goes!)

Level 3 on the “Within Reach” Meter

• Within Reach: Level 1 – on your work surface
• Within Reach: Level 2 – off the work surface but within arms length without moving from spot. May require standing.
• Within Reach: Level 3 – requires a zoom of the chair-on-wheels to a wall behind you or to the side (or you could take two steps if your chair is wheel-less; may require standing up to reach shelves.

Anything that requires more than two steps or a zoom of the chair is not within reach. That would include my closet, the cabinets to the right and left of the tool cabinet you’re looking at, and the shelf that is between my workspace and my closet.

The larger tool cabinet in the picture above is Level 3.

The Tools in my Level 3 Tool Cabinet

From right to left , front to back–

• Zutter Bind-It-All
• Cropodile
• Sizzix Big Shot Die Cut Machine
• Fiskars Paper Trimmer (still unresolved as to whether this is working for me).
• Fiskars Stamp Press

Why Isn’t My Cutting Tool on my Work Surface (Within Reach: Level 1)?

I got really tired of having a cutting tool in my way. I demoted it years ago.

Here’s the thing. When I move onto the embellishment phase of scrapbooking I do not need a cutting tool. Why have it take up so much space?

(Paperclipping Members should know my typical scrapbook workflow by now and why I have an “embellishment phase”).

When I’m mini-booking and using my task-batch mini-book process, I no longer need my cutting tool after the first step of laying the foundation.

Plus, I do other things on my table. I paint and art journal and sometimes I even alter three-dimensional items. Sometimes. I don’t need a cutting tool for those things.

Do You Really Use Your Cutting Tool All the Time?

I love that I can pull my cutting tool out for when I’m cutting, and then free my surface area when I’ve finished that step. Cutting tools are big — even my little Fiskars Trimmer is relatively large when you’re looking at the percentage of surface area it takes.

It goes like this . . .

• When I’m painting, inking, or misting, I pull out a mat.
• When I’m cutting paper I get out my cutting tool.
• When I’m adding embellishments, I pull out my embellishments.

An Empty Surface is Full of Possibilities

I guess for some it could feel as intimidating as a blank page, but I doubt that. Over the past months I’ve removed more and more regular items from my work table until now it is empty except when in use!

Empty!

I love that.

How would you respond to an empty scrapbook work table? If all of your tools and supplies were above, below, behind, or to the side of you, would you be inspired or intimidated? Or something else?