So many good ideas. I also am trying to get my sewing area in order. It is large so it should be easy, right? wrong! Disorder is disorder and I am ususally in that state.
One caution.... I put similar colored scraps into into two drawers of those stacking drawer units with the clear fronts (from just about any store). One drawer is "squares and rectangles" and the other is just plain scraps that can be pretty small!
I've thought about cutting the small scraps into strips or squares, but can't get myself to do it. This summer I found out why! While 10 year old gd was busy making her first quilt I had 7 and 8 year old gs and gd making "quilt pictures". They each chose a picture (one from a children's picture book about Raven in the Haida culture, and the other from a Dover flower coloring book) and went through my "just plain scraps" drawer and chose colors for each seperate element in their picture. I helped a bit if I thought they'd fallen into a rut, but even then I gave them a choice of several different colors, or followed their idea and gave them a choice of several different shades, prints, batiks or not, of the color they wanted.
When they had their colors chosen we put bonding on the back and they cut out the pieces (I helped on a center cut-out complicated piece) and placed them where they belong and I pressed them down onto a backing (NOT scrap) and they had their picture. A very good prequilting exercise and actually very suiltable for framing!!!!.
So, don't be too quick to cut everything into strips or squares... What if you end up wanting a circle? Or what if your grandkids (or kids) want to..........?
The results were outstanding. The mommies were thrilled. Oh no, I forget to take pictures :-(