Organizing with Style: Tips with Nadine and Susan Tidwell

Nadine's Organize with Style Tip

 

Once upon a time I had a major addiction to ribbon.
I just couldn't get enough of it and every time I would get another 1 yard of ribbon (1 yard since that is how my local scrapbook store sold it) I would just throw it into my ribbon basket with all the other yards of ribbons. Looking for the perfect ribbon to match the project I was working on was such a chore digging through the basket. Eventually I ended up with one big ball of ribbon and was nearly impossible to see what I actually had.

Then I discovered this amazing system online called the Ribbon Ring to organize it all. It took quite a bit of time to organize it all by colors, but once I did.... I LOVED IT!! I like being able to see exactly what I have without having to dig forever through a basket and also that it hangs up on the wall instead of taking up space on my scrappy desk.

The only negatives I have about my ribbon organization is
1. I really need to start using my ribbon again and 2. Sometime my cats think the ribbons are a fun toy hanging on the wall for them to play with. 

 

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Susan Tidwell's Organizing with Style

Hi Everyone,

This is Susan with a storage idea for small wood-mounted alphabet stamp sets, the kind that come mounted on small wooden “pegs.” The original box these come in usually don’t have a cover and they get all jumbled up if you put them in other boxes. I like having the alphabets in order.

My solution? Ammunition boxes! These boxes are small square boxes with individual dividers sized for different calibers of bullets. The ones I bought are for .44 or .45 (whatever that means!), are about 5-6’ square and have 100 sections, enough for 3 complete alphabets plus extra punctuation. My box is named p-100 Series and the website listed is: http://www.mtmcase-gard.com/.
I purchased mine at a sporting goods store in the hunting department several years ago… lol at the time, I couldn’t find them at Walmart. Just be prepared for some strange looks if you go shopping for these with your kids in tow!

 -Small Wood- Mounted Alpha Stamp Storage-

Here are photos of the box closed and open. These are perfect for the little $1/$1.50 sets of alphabet stamps from the craft stores. I also have set from PSX, Image Tree and Hero Arts that fit. And, as I said, there are different sizes so the larger boxes might also fit larger stamps. Just take your stamps with you when you are shopping for the boxes.

 -Wood Stamp Storage Solution-  

And here is my storage system for wood stamps.
I think I have tried just about every system for storing stamps- each time I am satisfied with a storage system, I buy more stamps and outgrow it or a new comes along. I have been most happy with storing my wood stamps in 11 x 14" acrylic box frames.  When you take out the cardboard box inside the frame you are left with a great tray the perfect depth for one layer of stamps.  Here you can see part of the tray of my greetings stamps.

And here you can see how nicely they fit inside the tray.  I've never gotten around to doing this, but once the tray is filled, you could stamp each image on the paper below so you would always know exactly where the stamp should be replaced after using!

The one problem with this system is having them stacked several trays high. When I wanted stamps from the lower trays it was inconvenient to have to remove the upper trays.

When we moved and downsized about eight years ago and I was dismantling an old bookcase to throw away, I had an AHA moment!  The upright sides of the bookcase were already drilled with holes approximately two inches apart from top to bottom.  Since this was a 12-inch deep bookcase, I figured it would be the right depth for the trays.  There was only one stationary shelf, along with the top and bottom, so I had a friend cut them down to a little over 14” wide.  Once I reassembled the bookcase, I had a cabinet with an interior width of about 14.25", just enough to slide in the trays over shelf pegs inserted in the pre-drilled holes.  Not only is the bookcase much sturdier, it is perfect for 25 stamp trays!

Here is a photo of the inside without the trays.  You can see that I used every other hole so there would be space for the trays to slide in.  There's also some clearance above the trays so I can slip in clear stamp sets or the occasional extra stamps.

I hope you find this tip useful. I love having my stamps stored this way!

 

I hope you enjoyed our Organizing with Style Tips this Week!

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