No More Scrapbook Albums: The New Way I Store My Pages!

[@VictoriaMarieScraps]

I LOVE this idea so much!!!! Especially for us scrappers who are running out of space for 12x12 inch albums or who want to scale down. Bravo!

[@jenniferoconnell3641]

What an innovative storage solution. I think many of us struggle with space constraints, and albums can be very expensive. Great idea to add a label and index. Not too long ago, I realized that I had a 4x4 Kallax full of WRMK albums, and I was out of room for more. In addition, my existing album covers had deteriorated over time, so I didn’t really want to invest in more. This is also a very efficient way to transport layouts for long term storage or in the event of a move or evacuation.

[@HansonLacey]

I'm so happy I found this idea. I had all my albums on an Ikea shelf, and the darn cat scratched them up badly. So I was planning on buying all new ones. But this is a much better idea!!!

[@melissamakes4048]

Wow! What an amazing idea! I love how you talk about them being more interactive this way. That would work so much better in my family because albums are so bulky when everyone is like "nuh uh! Let me see! Me too"

[@life_documented7]

I personally love albums and having them on my shelves but this is a good idea for older layouts or for my son to keep layouts when I’m gone if he doesn’t want all the bulky albums.

[@dianekarn7943]

I don’t think it would work for me. It seems similar to storing your photos in boxes, like we used to do before we scrapped them and put them into albums. I understand the boxes might work good for some people though.

[@bostoncrazy1671]

Oh my! I basically do this on a smaller scale....but mainly because I haven't been able to buy books. Mine are in plastic cases. I may just do an index and call them good!🥰

[@mercytiara]

That's a great idea!

[@stampbooker]

Wow!! This is mind blowing!! I even have some of those boxes in an aqua color that I love!

[@TLMarzewski]

Clever idea, Tracy! 😊 I wonder if adding the box# to the page protector would help with multiple boxes reminiscing parties when returning to the right box. One could also pull favorite pages to fill a coffee table album and switch out periodically too. ❤

[@SuseFishUK]

Love that idea. You could theme the layouts - pull festive ones for Christmas etc

[@SimpleJoyfulCreations]

Very cool

[@ritafadams]

love this idea! thanks for sharing!

[@sharonwelsh2645]

Concept is very interesting, I might give it a try

[@iluvtojournal]

You are doing a fantastic job of organizing the treasured moments in your life. You put your heart into the layouts so it is a wonderful showcase of your hard work. 🌺

[@mercytiara]

Thank you so much!

[@sarahalvarado2200]

I really love this idea! I probably won't go to the trouble of reorganizing layouts that are already in albums, but I might do this with new layouts going forward!

[@carlarice9099]

I have periods where I scrapbook like its my job. This is perfect for my older layouts!

[@colleenokeefe5445]

I absolutely love this idea! My biggest struggle is getting layouts into albums and this will be my solution! They don’t have to go in albums! Thank you for giving me “permission” to explore an unconventional option!!!!

[@mercytiara]

You can do it!

[@LauraBlackbird]

😇 you posted this at the perfect time: I’m moving into my parent’s basement for a year-ish while moving. I’m going to convert this for my storage of layouts, old albums etc. Love your content!

[@carryon9538]

I like idea. I might use this idea when it comes to my travelling photo pages. Save me space and money this way.

[@pamelagarza7741]

I’ve thought about doing this so many times! You’ve convinced me. Thank you!!

[@olivemaycards]

Great idea for folks with tons of layouts ❤ I agree that albums are not as easy to look through or share as we imagine, especially 12x12 albums (so HUGE and hard for some people to handle!)

[@leejacobs3620]

What a wonderful idea. I've been scrapping for a VERY long time and although I purchased quite a few additional albums before I needed them, I am currently filling the last (24th) one. They are no longer available so I think this will be a great solution for me. The fact they the boxes will fit a readily available storage unit is an added bonus. Thank you for sharing.

[@mercytiara]

You are so welcome!

[@kathleenlewis239]

Thank you for this very helpful video ... a process I'm now seriously considering. I recently bought a Kallax unit to store supplies, so this will be an easy transition.

[@rhondaedwards6665]

Great idea! I love it.

[@angelaebert2556]

Oh this is interesting!!??? I think I like the idea for a place to store finished layouts before they move to where they are going to live permanently. Yes agree that albums are heavy and only one person can look at it at a time. And the elderly find them too heavy and awkward. I have recently been thinking of moving my albums into the living area so others can look through them more often….. now I’m thinking of using a softer cover for a smaller topic to be displayed on the coffee table and easily accessible - which could change periodically. I like that the boxes do fit into the IKEA Kallax cubes especially and that you could place one inside your soft fabric cube - excellent!!! 😮 from W Australia 🇦🇺

[@lindyholland3273]

This is amazing. Thank you for sharing with us.

[@mercytiara]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@bdebsing]

Thanks for sharing, Tracy! I'd be curious to know what sparked this idea and caused you to consider using boxes rather than albums. I love how they are working for you!

[@tarascraps]

I'm going to start using this system moving forward. Such a good idea!

[@emay1903]

Thankyou for this. I'd drifted away from scrapbooking as i have nowhere to store any new albums, but i have floor space for these boxes.

[@wendyurban7722]

Brilliant idea, the number of albums I have filled was starting to bother me, I like the box idea. No IKEA yet in NZ but I believe our first one is opening soon, yay!

[@SandraBevr01]

Great idea. I love the index sheets. I’ve been trying to do index sheets for my digital papers

[@melodeeruley3809]

After spending 2~3 hours putting layouts away this morning I am considering this idea ,

[@duffer9904]

I really like this idea, and will have to try it!!

[@Beckyinstacreative]

This is such a great idea! I’m definitely going to do this as I just can’t afford albums any more and I’ve nowhere to store them!

[@scrapincrazed]

This is such a great idea. I’m going to ask my kids and grandkids what they prefer since they will inherit them.

[@mercytiara]

great idea to ask them!

[@celinescrappassion2184]

this is a great idea, very well organized!

[@lilianaawori8538]

I love this idea. I’m redoing my living room and trying to figure out he album storage. Question what about your non 12x12 layouts, you know December Daily, mini books, etc?

[@deejcarter2003]

This is an interesting storage solution. My family regularly pulls out my albums to view so this wouldn’t work for us.

[@marygiuliano1891]

Oh my god. So great! I am struggling with the cost of the albums and also not finding them easily. Also my wrists can be weak and I’ve seen my elderly parents struggle with the heaviness of them too in the past. Brilliant! Also working on archiving my parents’ family photos too .

[@Beckyinstacreative]

How are you going about archiving your parents’ family photos? I’ve recently got mine and they are in two boxes and I don’t know where to start!

[@marygiuliano1891]

@@Beckyinstacreative my plan right now is to remove duplicates and ones of people we don’t know. They used to print lots of doubles back then. Then I am using those photo cases to divide them up based on occasions, trips, time periods as best I can. Then I will leave them organized in this boxes till I have time to scan them just in case water damage etc…

[@Beckyinstacreative]

@@marygiuliano1891 thanks for replying! I was thinking of scanning them too.

[@KathyHull-i7f]

Do you have a link to where I can buy the boxes? Glad I found your page. I will drive in next week,

[@mercytiara]

The boxes are from Ikea- they are called Tjena: www.ikea.com/ca/en/p/tjena-storage-box-with-lid-white-40469302/

[@marybethcully5883]

Such a great idea…love the cloth over boxes too!

[@stephiebella]

If it works for you, that’s great. Most important is to find the solution that makes sense for each of us. ❤

[@jeannetimme7337]

Great solution! Albums get so heavy and awkward! TFS.

[@ScrapbookingQuebec]

Very interesting. TFS!

[@astrieanna]

How well does this work with pocket page layouts? I have a lot of PL albums with Design A, and while the compact storage is really appealing, I worry that a box of pocket pages would be too floppy. The full sheet of cardstock in a traditional page adds a lot of stiffness, where the seams of a pocket page are very flexible.

[@mercytiara]

I've found that it doesn;t work well at all with pocket pages- as you said, they are too floppy! I keep my pocket pages in D-ring 12x12 albums.

[@weeblez72]

While this is a GREAT idea. It takes away from the spontaneous opening of a book. The inventory sheets seem to be a ton of work and already stressed on finding time to create pages, never mind an inventory sheet. I am glad you found an amazing system to organize, especially since this is part of your business. Does anyone else feel this way? Feeling on the outside of a great idea.

[@mercytiara]

It's definitely not for everyone, in fact I would guess that this approach would work for very few scrapbookers. The inventory sheets were an after thought, and were fast to make up, but only because I already have all my layouts photographed and stored in a separate album. I would not want to take photos of all my layouts just to make these inventory sheets, that's for sure! You're right about the loss of spontaneity! Thanks for your comment!

[@MaryMoisan]

Towards the end of my scrapbooking days (10+ years ago), I got lazy and was just storing my layouts in 12x12 plastic paper keepers. The albums I had been using where discontinued and I didn't want to think about replacing the old albums or going forward with non-matching albums. I have 20 albums and they actually don't fit in those Ikea cubbies. This may end up being a great long term storage method for my layouts.

[@taniab2018]

Very nice idea. Not sure it works for me, we like to look at albums. And I find boxes like tat difficult for me to manage; I'm in a wheelchair and it can be tricky to figure out storage stuff.

[@OneWeighorAnother]

If you’re going to put those boxes into bins, you’re gonna want to move your index onto the top of the box so that you don’t have to pull every box out of it’s bin to read the label 😊

[@crashbang453]

I have to ponder this for a bit. I agree that 12x12 albums are bulky and hard to engage with. This would be a good way to divide layouts to gift to family and would take up less space than the bulky albums.

[@mercytiara]

There are definitely pros and cons to this approach! Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment!

[@marilynt9599]

Never…stored like this, I’d never look at them, so what’s the point? I also don’t see how it saves much space, unless you’re stacking them someplace out of the way. This would be the first step toward them ending up in the trash. A hard no for me. ETA: I have over 100 completed albums and have been scrapping for over 25 years; just so you know, I’m not talking about having only a few pages…I have thousands!

[@cre8withjolene]

Not sure what I think about this idea. However I do not scrap in chronological order so it would be a great way to store pages until I put and album together

[@mercytiara]

That's a great idea!

[@ChelleStamps]

This is an awesome idea! But, I have questions. Do you scrapbook chronologically? I don't. I jump around in different years. But I store them in chronological order. So I would be concerned about numbering the page protectors because what if I make a page that needs to go between two that I've already put in there?

[@kimmc3055]

You could always number the pages by dad/mm/yy. Then you’ll just slip pages in as needed.

[@ChelleStamps]

@@kimmc3055wow. I can’t believe that didn’t occur to me. Lol. Sometimes I don’t know the exact date though. But then I could just stick those in from and maybe sift them into a more appropriate spot/date as it fills up. But then I have several boxes going at the same time. I guess that’s no different than having several albums going at the same time.🤷🏻‍♀️

[@colleenokeefe5445]

My thought is I wouldn’t number the page protectors until the box is full. I always date my layouts themselves so that would help keep them chronologically.

[@ChelleStamps]

@@colleenokeefe5445 that is a problem for someone who doesn't scrapbook chronologically but stores pages in chronological order. Because a box might be full but I may have just made a page that needs to fit between others in that box from the same or close dates. I'd constantly be shuffling layouts between boxes to try to keep them in chrono order.

[@sandrajames8143]

What are the ikea boxes called

[@mercytiara]

they are called TJENA

[@camcas727]

What is he IKEA name of the boxes please?

[@bernicetaylor823]

I would like to know as well. why make a video with no product information

[@nreif24]

Are the boxes acid free?

[@mercytiara]

they are probably not, so if that's important to you, this approach is probably not for you, although the layouts themselves do not touch the pages, so maybe it would be ok. I am not an acid-free scrapper, so I rarely think of those things. Thanks for bringing it up for others to consider!

[@cre8withjolene]

@@mercytiara I think it would be ok because they are in sleeves

[@stampbooker]

Ok, I’ve already commented but I have been processing this genius way to store layouts and have a question for you. You do pocket pages. Will you be storing them this way, as well?

[@mercytiara]

No, I will not be storing my pocket pages this way. They are too flopsy to handle outside of an album. My pocket page albums are th eonly albums I have now, and they all fit on one shelf! This is not a solution for everyone, but it's working for me so far!

[@stampbooker]

@@mercytiara yeah, I was thinking about them being too floppy too. I really love this idea of storing in these boxes. I’m going to start with my massive amount of photoless layouts from CTMH workshops and see if being able to easily flip through them will help me match photos and layouts to each other 😊😊😊 and then I’ll see about doing more layouts. I do like to mix my pocket pages with regular layouts, so this might not work for everything, but surely some! I love the idea of pulling out layouts and passing them around 😊

[@karendjohn8803]

Very interesting! I’m not sure, yet, what to think of this. My first reaction, was why bother scrapping the pics. Just store the pics in the boxes. Seems like the boxes would take up much more space. I would be afraid of the boxes getting damaged. Not against the idea, just trying to figure out if it’s a better way.

[@AnitaPaiz-l3j]

I prefer the Albums so I can leave it out for People to enjoy.

[@mercytiara]

yes, having albums out on your shelves for people to spontaneously enjoy is definitely an advantage to traditional albums. Thanks for watching and commenting!

[@camcas727]

Looking just at an overview of your layout index cards as you hold them up -you don’t like the colour green 😂

[@creativelanedesigns6198]

Clever but I prefer albums.

[@lilianaawori8538]

I love this idea. I’m redoing my living room and trying to figure out he album storage. Question what about your non 12x12 layouts, you know December Daily, mini books, etc?

[@mercytiara]

My pocket page (Project Life) albums stay in albums (because the layouts are too floppy to handle outside of an album), and my mini-albums and DDs etc., also all remain as they were. I don't have many non-12x12 albums- the few DDs I have are kept with our Christmas decorations and come out for the holidays. I have a lot of mini albums- they are in a basket and a few are used as decorations in my scraproom.