They called me the ‘binder queen’ at my old job and I use this organizational system at home as well. Recipes, paint chips, decor ideas from magazines and other sources…all in clear plastic sleeves in binders. I have several. Right now they are organized by ‘color’…inspiration pictures of rooms in white, brown, green, blues and turquoise (favorite colors). Also have some organized by room. I use post it notes to tag things I liked about the photo such as furniture style, loved the lamp, like the mirror, paint color, etc, etc to remind me why I clipped the page if its something specific. I also have alot stored online but I find the binders more to my liking. Sometimes I get tired of looking at my laptop screen but when I flip through a binder I feel like I am flipping through a magazine. I see I’m in good anal organizational company…hahahahahaha! I love it!

I totally stole your organization idea and I’m loving it. I’m as giddy as a little kid on the night before Christmas about having all of my inspiration organized!!

http://amandajillsblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/organized-inspiration-achieved.html

Thanks!

I, too, have magazines waiting to be clipped and culled, and Someday, I’ll get a round TUIT. In the meantime, and/or in addition, I have developed a FileMaker database on my MacBook for just this sort of thing. I call the file Domestica (I have similar ones called Craftia, Costumia, Cookery Bookery and My eBAmazOnline to record my online purchases.)

Domestica has a container field were I drag-and-drop a picture, and 5 pull-down fields as follows:
Room (Any, Bath, Bed, Closet, Craft, Dining, Garage, Garden, Hall & cetera)
Surface (Ceiling, Door, Floor, Wall, Window)
Function (Art, Display, Entertaining, Furniture, Linens, Pillow, Storage)
Colour (the ones you are likely to care about with WHITE at the TOP!)
Technique (Assembly, Paint, Sewing, Stencil, Tile, Wallpaper)

Then there is a section with ‘radio buttons’ for Craft/Decor, Paint and Pets). This is followed by 3 free form fields: Notes, Materials and Instructions
And the final field is a pull-down for Source (Apt Tx, BHG, eBay, etsy, HGTV, IKEA, MSL, RS, TOH, other)

Now, this system helps best if, after dragging in the photo, and copying the URL to Notes, these various fields actually get filled in. I do this in batches, say, while I am waiting somewhere where there is no WiFi. I can then do a quick find on any combination of fields, say Room (Library) Colour (White) and I will get a list of all my entries that fit those criteria.

I also will use the Materials field for keywords related to items in the picture: iron beds, painted brick (I LOVE the texture of painted brick!), beadboard, framing and so on.

This database has over 550 entries gleaned from the Sources mentioned above (Apartment Therapy, Better Homes & Gardens, Martha Stewart Living, Real Simple, This Old House) with more added to the list if they become frequent-flier resources.

Frankly, I DO love being this organised if only on my Mac. Real Life is another matter: it isn’t as easy to create a folder and sweep all the Desktop clutter into it. And Real LIfe does NOT have an effective Spotlight search tool, either.

All the best.

I’m seriously bummed that I had never heard of the magazine Domino until today since they don’t publish it anymore!! I had to check it out online to see what it was, and it looks like a FUN little magazine!!

How many issues were there of Domino mag??

Thanks, Sherry! I just may have to get my own set on eBay… :) Have a great day doing your photo shoot!

P.S. – LOVE your blog!!! The first thing I do every morning is to check and see if it’s been updated – and I hit refresh until it has been. :D

I’ve been saving and updating my binders for over a decade. Last year, I fancied them up a bit by purchasing cutsey binders that look attractive on a bookshelf and divided up my stuff by rooms instead of the two mega-white binders. I love flipping through them, especially now that we’re in the market for our first home.

I’ve submitted to your blog via Bloglines, as I’ve loved so many of your posts and photographs.

Oh how I love (and miss) Domino. Sigh…I always get a chuckle out of your blog and pics. We have SO many similar (or exactly the same) items in our homes that it is uncanny. The three magazines that I “had” subscriptions to were Domino, Cottage Living, and House Beautiful. House Beautiful lives on only, sadly. Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications are my downfall now. I did see a new mag the other day…can’t remember the name, but it had a young-mod-vibe, and it was geared towards “hands-on-people.” LOVE THAT! Oh..if only the library wasn’t 25 miles from my house.

Target has some really cute binders out right now, I think it’s the Liberty of London brand. I have collected clippings from magazines for a long time, but have always taped/glued them inside a spiral notebook. But I really love the idea of the binder. Thanks for sharing!

Silly question: For your desktop inspiration folder, do you screen shot great rooms/ideas that you see? Do you bookmark URLS? I’m trying to envision how you actually store the online room/idea.

Thanks so much!

There is a website called imgspark.com which allows you to right-click any image and paste it to its online library. It automatically notes the URL you took the image from and it also allows you to write notes and tags to the photo. And, you can browse other people’s libraries (the ones they choose to keep public). Check it out!