Trends In Scrapbook Organization

As I began to put together the content for this special week on Scrapbook Update devoted to organization, it began to dawn on me just how much some things have changed in the world of scrapbook organization since I made my first page.

Ten years ago, for most scrapbookers, storage was all about totes they could use to haul their entire stash to regular crop events. “What’s new in organization?” really meant “What do the new totes look like?” in those days.

I remember in 2000 when the massive Crop-In-Style XXL tote came out. I was thrilled because it was big enough to haul most of the stuff I had accumulated as a scrapbook store employee buying with a discount. It wasn’t long before crops at the store I worked at were filled with people pulling the huge rolling tote, or one of the ones that followed it into the market.

But ten years has changed a lot in the scrapbook industry. Many places no longer have a local scrapbook store, and many of the remaining stores no longer host open cropping. Long-time scrappers have had time over the life of the industry to accumulate stashes that are way too large to haul with them. Scrapbooking has become less portable and has moved into permanent storage in our homes instead.

Because of all of this, we’re now seeing two distinct changes in scrapbook organizing: fewer and smaller totes, and a focus on home organizing.

There are certainly fewer totes on the market. Once-dominant tote manufacturer Crop-in-Style was part of the bundle of brands that Creativity Inc. recently sold to ANW Crestwood. Most of the CIS totes are currently out of production. Cropper Hopper, which started out manufacturing mostly portable storage, now focuses mostly on home storage products. A few other companies have entered this market but not with broadly successful product lines in recent years. ThermoWeb’s MiMi line of totes, with its focus on small, style-conscious totes, seems the closest thing to dominance in the market lately.

Small is the other trend in totes. Since it is impossible for most scrappers now to try to haul our entire stashes with us, totes are now mostly sized for hauling just the necessities for a crop event.

In fact, my current choice of tote, instead of the huge XXL I used to tow around, has become the much smaller MiMi Travelmate (pictured above). It’s just large enough to carry a few page kits and essential tools & supplies for a crop.

As scrapping has shifted largely to a home-based activity (and many scrappers have larger stashes that need storing), the majority of new scrapbook organizing products are now aimed at home storage in a permanent scrapbook space. The most popular current products, such as vertical paper holders and storage cubes, aren’t portable at all. Most of the new ones being introduced, and finding a foothold in the market, aren’t portable either.

One of the most successful new products in the market recently is an example of another major trend in scrapbook organization. The Clip-It-Up system by Simply Renee is typical of the “non-specific” types of scrapbook storage that are now dominating the home storage market. Items such as the Clip-It-Up, cubes, drawers and even vertical storage holders can be used for a variety of items. They aren’t designed for a single use, so they can be put to different uses as a scrapbooker’s style or taste (and thus the supplies they need to store) changes.

Another recent trend that has been created by the shift to home storage is that the appearance of our storage has started to matter more. Storage has become more than just functional - it has become decor. Gone are the days of practical but dull canvas totes. We want our storage to work and look good doing it, because we have to live with it every day. This trend is both recorded and fueled by regular magazine features on scrap spaces and by publications like Stampington’s "Where Women Create".

Part of the search for items that look good while serving a practical purpose has lead many scrapbookers into another trend: repurposing items designed for other household purposes to use them for scrapbook storage. Decorative baskets, jars and canisters, wood shelves, spice racks, and curtain racks are among the household items that can find new (and decorative) use in a scrap space.

What trends are coming in the future? Stamping is currently becoming a hot market segment and it is under-served in the organization market. There aren’t a lot of organization products aimed at the large amount of clear stamps on the market, and no one has produced a “killer app” product yet for dealing with difficult to store items like wood-mounted stamps or ink pads. These sorts of items are the storage growth market of the future.