Top 6 Reasons We Don’t Scrap

I have a confession to make. I was once a scrapper. Note the past tense. I can hardly claim to be a scrapper in the true sense of the word these days when I probably haven’t completed a page in the last 6 months. I can also count the number of pages I’ve completed in the last 12 months on the fingers of one hand. ONE hand.

Why am I confessing this? I read an article over at Write. Click. Scrapbook. recently and in it a question was asked of readers “What gets in the way of your scrapbooking?” The post attracted 53 comments (as at the time of writing this post) and many of the reasons cited were similar to my own scrapbooking roadblocks. Things that stop me from scrapbooking.

Just for a bit of fun I thought I’d analyse the results a little further. (A quick disclaimer here, obviously we can’t draw too many widespread conclusions from such a small sample.)

Of the people who responded to the Write. Click. Scrapbook. post, only 9% of people indicated they had no trouble scrapbooking (the lucky ones). The remaining 91% indicated some sort of roadblock. Of that 91%, the top 6 reasons for not scrapbooking were:

• Overwhelmed By Choice (25%)
• Perfectionism (19%)
• Design (17%)
• Time Constraints (10%)
• Distraction – Internet (6%)
• Disorganisation (4%)

A further 19% of respondents indicated they had roadblocks but weren’t specific as to the nature of the roadblock.

Overwhelmed By Choice

It’s amazing that a quarter of the people indicated they where overwhelmed by sheer choice – choice of products, choice of photos and generally just not knowing where to start.

Perfectionism

Almost a fifth of people struggled with perfectionism. Wanting each and every project to be artistic masterpiece and as a result freezing up whilst battling the fear of making mistakes.

Design

A good number of people struggle with page design. Problem areas were often cited as putting elements together and coming up with page titles and journalling.

Time

Time constraints also featured prominently as a common roadblock. Reasons varied from finding time to actually sit down and scrap, time taken to execute individual pages, to time consumed in making choices between products, photos, colours etc.

Distraction

The main distraction from scrapbooking was cited as the internet – looking at layouts, searching for ideas, online shopping etc. I was pleasantly surprised that this roadblock didn’t figure quite as highly as I thought it might.

Disorganisation

Being disorganised did not figure very highly as a roadblock. A bit of a shock for me as I personally struggle with constant mess and disorganisation in my scrap space! Hmmm.

Conclusion

So there you have it – the top 6 reasons people don’t scrap (according to readers of Write. Click. Scrapbook.) I struggle with just about all of them which is probably the reason I scrap very little these days. What about you? Do you suffer from some or all of these roadblocks?

If you’d like to read the Write. Click. Scrapbook. post for yourself, you’ll find it here. Enjoy.

Related posts:

1. Tackling Scrapbooking Roadblocks
2. Scrap Space Envy
3. Write. Click. Scrapbook.

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