a very temporary solution

Holy ribbon, Batman!

I have these cute rainbow cubby drawers for my scrapbook & paint supplies in the craft room. One set for paint and one set for scrapbooking. In the scrapbooking set there are two drawers designated for ribbon. And then I have more ribbon elsewhere. There's no such thing as too much ribbon in my opinion.

This drawer housed the unspooled ribbon. It was so out of control that I ended up pulling it out and setting it on my paint table. And there it sat. For months. And months. Things piling up around it. Our life tends to get like that.

And then I wanted to use the paint side of the table again. Time to clean up.

But what is a girl with a lot of ribbon and inadequate drawer space to do?

About a month ago oatmeal was on a very killer sale. The kids dig this kind, so we bought several boxes. Like a pack rat thrifty gal, I cut apart the boxes and saved them for repurposing. Do not report me to that hoarders show! I had three very specific uses for these in mind when I cut them. This is one of them.

I cut the panels in half, then wrapped my unspooled ribbon around them ~ tidy storage and it's easy to see what I have.

First, I taped one end to the cardboard. Then wound and wound.

Then I pinned the ends to keep them from going every which way.

Oooo ~ look at this handy dandy sock sorter I took out of Stephanie's drawers a few months ago. It's the perfect size for my cardboard. I sorted the rolls by color.

This tote already had the blacks and browns.

Much better.

Oh. Before you go thinking I did an amazing organizing job. Here's what's left in the drawer that now fits back in the rack. There's still another drawer of spooled-but-seldom-used-but-I-still-might-need-it ribbon. In the middle of this project I realized it really wasn't going to work for my space. I don't really have a good spot for the sock organizer and yellow tote. I have another solution in mind, but it will have to wait a little bit. This is good enough for now.

So why am I telling you about this solution that's not really a solution? Well, it could easily be a solution for someone who has a reasonable amount of ribbon. Maybe you? I got the idea from this Just a Girl post and it seems to work well for her.