Magazine Rack

If you do scrapbooking, or know somebody that does, you know how hard it can be to keep all of the paper and other supplies organized. In fact, the "messiness" of the hobby is often mentioned as one of the challenges of scrapbooking. Using magazine racks in your scrapbook work area can help solve this problem.

One of the more difficult scrapbook supplies to keep under control is paper. While some of the paper supplies come in sizes that are too large for your average magazine rack, 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper fits perfectly into the compartments, since they are designed to hold full-size catalogs and brochures.

Using this magazine rack method, you greatly reduce the chance that your scrapbook papers will become bent, creased or damaged due to improper storage. Scrapbook papers can be rather expensive, especially the more specialized papers, so it's important to protect them. You will also reduce the chance of purchasing papers that you think you need, only to find later that you already had that variety of paper, it was just hidden under other papers, and you couldn't find them.

Depending on how much wall space you have available, you can develop a number of different strategies for how best to organize your scrapbook paper and supplies using the magazine racks. You might choose to organize papers by color, or perhaps by type, keeping your card stock in one rack, and paper in another. Or, if you are working on a particular scrapbook project, it might be handy to devote an entire rack to a specific project, so that you can keep everything that you need for that scrapbook close at hand.

Clear plastic magazine racks are also useful for storing other types of scrapbook supplies besides paper. Using individual compartments to store stickers, decals and paper cutouts can help you keep these items organized as well. When using magazine racks for these other types of supplies, a full-view type of rack can be nice, since these items are smaller and might not be adequately visible using the "overlap" style of rack. However, if you don't have the wall space for a full-view rack, you can still use an overlap style effectively with adequate labeling of the compartments.

Wall-mounted racks are not the only type of magazine rack that you can use in for your scrapbooking supplies. You might be short on wall space, and don't have room for wall-mounted racks. Or, you might have a desire to keep your papers on your work table in an organized fashion. If so, using a magazine rack that is designed to sit on a counter or tabletop can help. These racks also come in clear plastic styles, to keep your papers visible. These racks are usually designed in a "stepped" style, with the top edges of each compartment being visible. They are available in a number of sizes, so you should be able to find one, or even several, that will fit neatly on your work table. Some of these models even rotate, giving you easily accessible compartments on all sides of the rack, which is very handy and saves space.

Another option is using floor-standing magazine racks. These come in a number of designs. Some are free-standing and rotate, with multiple compartments on all sides of the rack. These can be handy to have close by to your scrapbook work table, since you can rotate the rack to easily locate your papers without the need to get up from your chair. Another style of floor-standing rack is more "bookcase" in nature, and is generally a solidly-built unit with rows of compartments on the front side. These types of racks can either be put against a wall, or can be placed close to your work area. If your work area is large enough, you could place two of these racks back to back, and double your storage space, having compartments available on both sides.

Of course, one of the obvious uses for magazine racks in your scrapbooking hobby is to keep your various scrapbooking magazines and publications organized. Scrapbooking magazines and publications are often used as idea-starters for those who scrapbook while they work, and using a magazine rack can keep these instructional publications close by for easy reference.