self imposed buying freeze

I have a ginourmous amount of scrapbooking supplies. Remember this picture of my recent stamp sort/purge?

I finally got the drawers labeled with my stamp categories. Used my trusty Dymo, even though I so wanted to make cute little stamped tags to hang from the drawer pulls.

I really do have enough crafting supplies to open my own booth at a local flea market. I used to be a Creative Memories consultant, until I realized I am a horrible salesperson, a great teacher and crop hostess, just not so good at selling. During that time I amassed quite a collection of "stuff." For a while, I couldn't pass the clearance aisle without getting a sticker pack or two. I honestly never spent a lot on supplies, I would buy them for .29 cents but if you are buying them often, they start to spontaneously multiply. Then, my mom gave me this big drawer set full of her supplies. She decided she just wanted to put her pictures in regular photo albums. While I was so thankful for all the freebies, I was starting to feel like they were going to smother me in my sleep (my scrapbooking area is in my bedroom after all!). I found myself sorting supplies and making piles of stuff I wanted to use instead of actually scrapbooking. Hello?! That was not going to work for me. Scrapbooking is one of the few pleasures I indulge in just for me and I wasn't going to let it go.

About a year (or so) ago, I put myself on a buying freeze. I would not let myself buy any more cute stickers, paper, embellishments, or stamps. I did however buy adhesive (tape runners, glue, etc.) as I needed them. And every once in a while I did buy a couple cute baby boy stickers or embellishments (I mean, does Tanner have to have leftover everything?!) but that was it. I swear! It was so freeing. No more trying to decide where to put my newest purchase until I could use it. I just "shopped" in my own stuff. I spent a lot of time looking through my paper and stickers and saying, "ohhh, how cute, I forgot about that one." Now, did I oogle the latest designs in my magazines as they were delivered to me, yep, you betcha. But that didn't deter me. It was hard to go to Michaels or Archivers and not buy, buy, buy, those little red clearance stickers just call my name. I just had to tell myself I was frozen.

I am still in the purging process. (I am working on this sloooooowly in between getting kids' closets cleaned and ready for school and etc.) It is my hope to have my area fully purged and reorganized by October so I can craft away for the holidays. I am still scrapbooking and card making here and there (in fact, my hubby just asked me to make some invites for a school function) but I truly feel that a clean and tidy workspace will make me so much more efficient. I am really looking forward to stealing some time while Parker is at preschool and Tanner is napping, shh, don't tell them! I promise to post pictures as I go along.

I am thinking this freeze might be good for other areas of my life, like no new t-shirts from Old Navy. No more flip flops from the summer clearance rack. No more magazines at the grocery checkout. Let me ponder those for a bit, I think everyone (myself included) could make due with a little less.