Cricut Cartridge Storage: Solved

A couple of days ago I posted about my limited-space-in-new-home dilemma. I can now mark off one item from the to-do list. Using the idea I got from YouTube, this is what I came up with:

First, the case. I originally thought it was a briefcase (I remember Dad having a similar one when I was a kid.) Turns out it was actually a cheap toolbox. I was at Lowe's looking for something and came across it by accident. It cost $21, plus tax, of course.

Inside is a flat thingie that I suppose was supposed to hold tools. I didn't want all these pockets, so I took a seam ripper to them. It looks ugly, so I used the other side, which was blank to start with.

I took round Velcro pieces and lined them up on the insert. I put the sticky side on the cartridge so that the fuzzy stuff wouldn't fall out into the Cricut and possibly mess it up. Here is the insert, mid-process.

I have 22 carts - not a lot, but more than some people, I suppose. (Mom probably has twice that many.) Anyway, as you can see, I still have room for five more on this side before I have to flip it over.

Here's the inside - not only do I have plenty of room for all the booklets, I also put in my tool kit and the paperwork that came with the Cricut. Niiiice. Even if I fill up the insert with cartridges, I won't run out of room for the booklets. Of course, some of that is because I have a lot of Solutions/Lite carts, which don't have booklets, but still. Somebody suggested tearing out all the pages from the booklet that were in languages I didn't need, and that helped considerably, especially with the older booklets.

Cool, huh? My next task is figuring out how to store my Sizzix & Cuttlebug stuff. That's going to be trickier, since the sizes are not uniform. Any thoughts?

Pending Storage Problem

Although I am looking forward to our move, the house we are moving into is much smaller than my current one - two tiny bedrooms, a tiny bathroom, a tiny living room, and a tiny dining room. (Thankfully, the kitchen is about the same size as what I have, otherwise I'd be in serious trouble!)

All these tiny rooms mean I will have to do some serious downsizing. I'm actually heading straight into panic mode, because I've always had an office/scraproom. Always. I've got tons of stuff - dozens of stamps, a Cuttlebug and a Sizzix Big Shot, four different plastic paper storage drawers, a big Cricut and several cartridges, and miscellaneous tools, embellishments, and idea books. Then there's my PC and laptop, two different printers, and a scanner. Oh, and my textbooks. I have no idea what to do with it all! I've invested far too much money into the die-cutters to get rid of them. I can weed out the paper and a lot of the embellishments, but that's about it.

To further complicate matters, Jeff thinks I should put it all in the basement - which is not insulated and will require at least one dehumidifier because it leaks on one side. I'm very hesitant to put my stuff down there, particularly the paper and electronics.

So... I need storage ideas - and cheap ones. Jeff doesn't want to look at it, whatever I wind up doing with it, so it's gotta store easily, neatly, and unobstrusively.

For the Cricut, I'm considering this really cool setup from a fellow Cricut junkie. It was originally intended for ribbon, but works beautifully for Cricut cartridges. And who would have thought of using plastic canvas to make dividers? Brilliant, I tell you!

I found another possibilty on YouTube. I love this idea, because the cartridges are completely out of sight.

Anybody have another suggestion? I figure I will focus on one problem at a time, starting with the most expensive stuff. lol

Help? Please....

Movin'

God is pretty incredible. He has a knack for answering prayers 1) in a completely unexpected way; and 2) sometimes even before you knew you needed to pray for it!

Case in point: Friday we found out that we have two months to get out of our rent house, because the owners want to sell. It had been a pretty rotten week for me, and that was not exactly welcome news. We really had hoped to wait until I graduated to move - sometime in January. When Jeff called to tell me the news, I just sat there, kinda numb.

Five minutes later, he called me back. A friend/coworker of his had offered to let us rent her house back at the first of the year. She's getting married and heading to Nashville in a few months. We turned it down, because we weren't ready to move yet. The last we heard, she had several other possible renters.

Jeff called her right after he broke the news to me... and guess what? She still didn't have a renter, and was actually relieved that we still wanted it! Seriously, how awesome is that? Within hours of being told we had to move, we had a place to move to. Absolutely amazing. It was as if God was just holding it for us.

Oh, and did I mention the house is in Chattanooga? Yeah. We are getting out of Marion County. Finally.

Woot!

Rattled

I'm utterly exhausted - emotionally, physically, mentally. Too much is coming at me at once.

If you are the praying type, I would appreciate it greatly if you'd offer up one for me.