Need help organzing my stamps!
 

I finally got a book shelf to store just my stamp sets but I'm having a hard time trying to organzie them. I tried by the catagories in the catty but that just didn't work very well. How do all of you do it?

Shannon - I do it by the size of the stamp set........ it may sound strange - but they stack and look nice that way. The only exception is the Christmas stamps - I stack them all together on a high shelf since I only use those stamps a couple months out of the year!

- April

Uhm...you wanna know my way? You probably will find a better way (I wish I would anyway)...

I only have one shelf too. So I mark the retired sets with a red 'R' and they go together on the far side. Then I sort the rest by the size of the box. Very ineffective, but at least I have a shelf, right? And the retired stamps are seperate.

Catie

I stack mine by set size as well. I have 40 sets and have them all on one shelf with room for more.

I used to sort mine by size, but now I have room to sort them by catagories.

I found some Rubbermaid boxed that they fit into. I have 2 boxes of floras, one for Christmas, Fall and Birthday, one for Kids, animals, one for backgrounds and borders, one for words and one for all season (like Nice and Easy notes)

I usually take the words our of a set like All Natural, I just find I use the words more that way.

Anyway, that works for me, and when my friends come over to stamp they seem to be able to find what they are looking for and put it away when they are done.

I decided I'd go with the same system as my upline. I figure if she's got a good business head then her systems are certainly worth a try! All of the sets are in alphabetical order in stacks on a shelf. She has many more shelves than I do, :D , but hey, I'm just starting out here!

Hugs,
Betsy

I have 2 long shelves along a pegboard. One stack is bg stamps. One is alphabet, the next one is big ones just by name. Then on this same shelf are small sets (like Itty Bitty BG) also sorted by name. Then a few stacks of the smaller boxes, but not the smallest ones (if that makes sense).
The second shelf is the typical SU box size for a 6-8 piece set, and then sorted alphabetically. Any purely seasonal ones go in an iris cart drawer until they are back in season.REtired sets go in another iris drawer. There is one stack with just word stamps that I keep closest to me (like Wonderful words, Vogue Verses). Even that stack is alphabetical! :D (maybe it is teh teacher in me-I like things in alphabetical order-that's how the inspiration sheets are stored and that's how each color family is lined up in the file folder :P )

Thanks for all the ideas. I guess I'm not the only one who does it by size. That is how I used to store them before I got these shelves. I see all these great stamping areas on here with soooooo many sets and wonder "how do they know where everything is?"

I have mine by categories but with the changes in the catalogue I am going to change by stamp set name as I think they will be easier to find, although I will keep my Christmas separate as they are only used a couple of months in the year.

I have my sets on shelves in a bookcase. I group mine by categories.

I used a label maker to label each one with its name. It's so much easier to see than using the sticker strip that comes with the sets. I don't have any trouble finding the set I'm looking for anymore.

Good luck! I hope you find something that works for you.

Karen

Purplewinkle
 

I have mine all in a bookcase sitting to the left of my work area. The names are along the bottom of the set cover so I can read it. They are categorized by shelf. The important thing was to be able to glance over and read them.

Verses and Large background stamps on the bottom row.

Christmas on the next shelf up.

Then Florals and one stack of Showers, Hearts and Birthdays. The next shelf up is Florals, and mixed sets.

Next is Fall, Leaves, Asian, Bugs, Butterflies.

All of the short Sayings and Small bacground stamps are in a short 4 drawer stand next to my stamp area.

HTH,
Shirley

And yes I am going to sell some retired ones soon. LOL

I sort by size also after I have put all the Large Background stamps together and all the Alphabets together and all verse stamp sets together. Being a demo I have created a ring binder where I have stamped each set onto a piece of paper and put a code next to it and put the same code on the box. ie: small boxes are A1-100, next size box is B1 to whatever and the next size box is C and so on. If is discontinued I just mark thru the picture in the ring binder so I know not to use that for a Workshop or stamp camp but I can still use it for my own personal use. Now once I look in my binder and see what set I want to use I just look at the code and then find it in the order I have them on the shelf or drawer.

HTH :lol:

i do mine by size of the box, that way i don't waste any unused space.

Wow Roxane. You sound like a very organzied person. I would have never come up with anything that included a 3-ring binder.

Need help organizing my stamps
 

Hi, I collected many stamps before I learned about Stampin Up. The non SU stamps are in medium sized pizza boxes (never used). I have them labeled by category: birthday, Christmas, Baby, Wedding, Fall, Spring, etc. I have about 20 of these stacked on shelves in a closet. It is inexpensive , 40 cents a box, and I can find them all.

The SU sets are in our spare room. On a shelf in a cabinet. I have them labeled on the ends, and stacked like books. All sets are stamped in a binder, also. I recently learned on this site to copy the labels for the stamps twice before mounting :) . One for the binder, and the other to put in the bottom of the individual plastic containers the sets come in. That way, you know what is missing. Good when stamping with groups, and also when you get several sets out. Wish I'd thought of that great idea, I don't remember the name of the person who posted it. Thank you to her. :)

I can't help you, I am just jealous that you have a bookshelf! I have 2 or 3 rubbermaid containers....I know when my dh gets back we'll get our own place for me to store it all. It's kinda funny....when he left I had like 2 containers for all my stuff. Now I have 3 just for stamps....2 for other...one for scrapbooking...and another for paper! Wow has it grown!

You're supposed to organize them? :shock: I thought they were meant to be left all over your workspace in mixed-up piles! :wink: Maybe one day I'll try that....Ahhh, who am I kidding! I'm sure that'll never happen... :D
Ronda

Need help organizing my stamps
 

Ronda, if I had a workspace, mine would be organized exactly as yours. I have to stamp in the kitchen, therefore must put everything away to have dinner. :( Unless, of course, my husband is away. He is in NC, fishing, therefore, I have to push stuff aside to have my cheerios. I love spreading out and being surrounded by the clutter of my craft stuff. :lol:

I have mine on a shelf in my closet. The shelf clearance is high but there isn't much width. So I have to stack my stamps upwards -- is this an okay way to store them or is vertical better? I'm just wondering if I'll damage anything long term by having the plastic SU cases sitting on top of each other???

Everyone has great ideas -- I just don't have the space!!!

what fabulous ideas! I never thought of photocopying the stamp labels! And putting the stamps into a binder is such a timesaver! Much easier than sorting through the boxes looking for something.

Currently I have a 5 drawer cabinet (I'm new...my collection is still small). Each drawer is labeled with the contents (Seasonal, Year Round, Alpha & Phrases, Ink, etc) and they contain SU and Non SU stamps. And the big or rarely used ones are in a box on my shelf.

thanks for sharing these great tips!

I have 2 plastic containers now...i only have about 8 sets of SU..the rest of the stamps are "loose" single ones bought here there and everywhere!!

I'm not a demonstrator but I have 188 plastic cases filled with wood mounted stamps. I have mostly CTMH and SU sets. I have all of these stamps plus one shelf full of 8 1/2 x 11 card stock all stored on one book shelf I bought at Target.

The bookshelf is 6 feet tall and it came with 5 shelves (including the bottom one) . The shelves are 27 x 11 3/4" x 5/8". I added 3 shelves I cut myself from a 1 x 12 and covered those two shelves with a wood grain contact paper to match. I had to drill my own holes for shelf placement so that O could store my plastic stamp cases stacked 6 and 7 cases high. 2 of my shelves hold a stacks of boxes stacked 6 high in 4 rows and then the other 5 shelves hold a stack of boxes stacked 7 high in 4 rows. I purchased the small pegs at the hardware store that you just push into the holes you drilled to hold the added shelves. So now it is an 8 shelf bookcase.

The top shelf has my card stock sorted by color standing on it's side for easy removal. I have been unable to recycle the SU plastic wrap that comes with their cardstock so I bought gallon size plastic bags and folded and taped them to the size needed to store each color in.

I bought a whole case of 90 boxes from www.placon.com that fit perfectly on my 12 inch deep bookshelves. The boxes that I chose are called "this box"item # TX 5931 ZZ (NO LOGO). They are identical to the ones Stampin Up uses except they have no logo (of course) and come in several sizes. They only sell their items by the case and it came out to about $60 with shipping. That's only 67 cents a box though and each box holds lots of stamps. The box I bought is about 10 3/4 x 5 x 1 1/8. and the dept is the perfect size for my shelves. No wasted space with these stacked 4 rows to a shelf.

For labeling the boxes, I buy colored dot stickers. These are sold in office supply stores and in the office supply dept of stores. I stick a colored dot on 5 inch side of the boxes in the left hand corner of each of my boxes that are sorted by category.
I use
Red dots for Christmas stamps,
blue =backgrounds and borders,
yellow=summer,
green =flowers and garden,
orange= messages and alphabets, I also draw happy and sad faces for sympathy/get well on the orange circles
pink=baby and children.
For other categories I use my punches to punch out shapes that can easily recognize at a glance.
A yellow dot sticker with a orange balloon punch out on top=birthday,
A yellow dot sticker with a orange leaf punch out on top=Fall,
A yellow dot sticker with a blue fleur punch out on top=vintage stamps,
A yellow dot sticker with a pink oval punch out on top=Easter,
A red dot sticker with a white heart punch out on top=love (Valentine,anniversary,wedding),
A red dot sticker with a white school house or apple punch out on top=school/graduation/sports,
A yellow dot sticker with a orange bear punch out on top=animals,
A blue dot sticker with a yellow cake punch out on top=food,
A cut sticker that has been pieced together in red white and blue= 4th of July/patriotic,
A yellow dot sticker with a red music note punch out on top=music.

I then use the regular white labels and write the names of the stamps that are stored inside. I underline the title in red if it's SU and underline in blue if it's CTMH and stick the label on next to the dot stickers.

Hope this is helpful, Nan

I used to keep my stamps in a huge Tupperware box but as I got more, I needed somewhere else to keep them so I got a big 3-drawer plastic storage cart from Office Depot (see picture & link below). It's 27" high by 21.5" wide by 15.5" deep, and it's not only perfect for storing stamp sets by size, but my Fiskars rotary cutter fits on top too.

I put stamp cases in drawers with the "hinge" of the case facing downwards and the "opening" side with label facing up. (I have the SU labels on most but am replacing them with labels from my labelmaker because they're so much easier to see.)

Each drawer can fit either two or three front-to-back rows of stamps. There are basically 3 sizes of stamp cases, so you can fit a row of large cases beside a row of medium cases, or two rows of medium + a row of small, etc. All Year Cheer is really big so I put it in between two rows. If anybody's interested I can take a picture.

When I get a new stamp set, I copy the sticker page twice: once for the bottom of my stamp case, and once for my 3-ring binder. I use my printer to print the name of the stamp set on the bottom of the page that's going in my binder. The binder is arranged by topics. I may eventually add info like when I bought the set, which drawer it's in, etc. but so far I haven't needed to. I don't know how many stamp sets I have offhand, but I've completely filled two drawers & am about 1/4 of the way through the third.

You know, only a fellow stamper would understand why we do all this!!!

http://www.officedepot.com/ddSKU.do?level=SK&id=551016

Organizing Stamps
 

I found two "plastic towers" on wheels with 4 deep drawers each. They are wonderful. I got them at "Sam's Wholesale Club" for $19.99 each. I have a drawer with Christmas, one with mostly verses and words, one for flowers, one for small stamps including sets of little ones. I have a drawer for other holidays and invitations. I keep all stamp pads in one drawer (dye ink) and all pigment ink in another drawer. Top drawer has adhesive, scissors, eyelets, etc. It's just so nice to be able to roll the cabinets to my table where I stamp! Kay-Kay

Ugh, I am so ashamed! :oops: I am usually the most organized person on the face of the planet... but with my stampin' stuff (and since the birth of my now 18-month old son), I am just awful. I've had the notion to take a picture and post it as sort of a joke compared to all of the WONDERFUL stampin' spaces I see here.

At one time I was organized (and I'm still pretty good about the cardstock), but as my collection has grown, I am running out of space! :roll: I have to store all of my things inside our guest bedroom/computer/study room (ha - as if a guest would find a space to put things, my poor parents when they come to visit...!) I filled a three-drawer iris cart with stamp-sets, but I found that it got to be a pain taking some of the sets out (the ones in the back), but anyway, I've long since outgrown the cart. So now they are all jumbled all over the place. :( Sigh. Not sure what to do.

But I do admire everyone else's set-ups! :)

Caroline

Stampinali, all I have to say is everytime I read one of your posts I get thirsty!!! :wink:

Since I only own 18 sets, organization is easy! LOL
I have them on 2 shelves in my scrapbook armoire. Just recently, I moved them to one side and have put them on end so they look like books now. I found when I stacked one on top of one another, it became difficult to keep the stacks straight. Now they are on end like books, I keep them by size of the box. As I get more stmap sets and a larger space to store them, I will keep them on end but sort them alphabetically. Alphabetical works for me because I can remember what stamps are in a box (probably because I have so few). :)

You only own 18 sets right now....just you wait...they creep in at night when no one is looking I think!!! LOL

I bought Elfa storage systems from the Container Store. I labeled the the drawers according to the catty categories. The drawers are nice and deep and they hold so many sets. This system has really worked for me! Good luck.
Cathy Marie
[email protected]

Organzing my stamp sets
 

I need some help and some suggestions. I am in the process of organizing my Stampin Up Stamp Sets.

How has everyone else done this?

I don't have too many sets and only about 15 retired sets.

I spent today online copying and pasting into an email copys of the sets from the Stampin Up website. I can only do the current sets and the ones that will retire next month.

I am planning on putting these images in a book. The thing I like about doing it this way, is that it has the name of the set, price, item number and lists how many pieces in each set, along with showing the image.

I probably can scan my retired sets from the older catalogs or scan the actual sets on my scanner.

Is there anything else that I should be doing?

Deb in Maine

Organizing my stamp sets
 

Well after organizing my stamp sets, I found I have more than 15 sets. This is what I did, I had two iris carts that were organizing my both my daughters accomplishments from 6-12th grade. I have labeled the drawers Holiday, Backgrounds & Borders, Nature, Flowers, Growing Up, Say it with Stamps is in 1 cart, and in the other cart is Sentiments, Alphabet, Hostess, Occasions, Celebration, Vintage.

My scrapbook area is coming along nicely. I am working on my youngest's daughters from birth to 18 album. She will be graduating in June 2007. I am up to 7th grade. I haven't done any permanent journalling yet

My oldest daughter graduated in 2005 and just finished her first year of college. I also completed her album as a graduation present. I also need to finish my youngest daughter's trip to Italy in May 2005.

Deb in Maine

I've outgrown my stamping set up.
 

My Iris Carts no longer hold my stamp set. They only hold the accessories now.

I really need to come up with a better set up.

Help please!

Debbie in Maine

mine are sorted on shelves by box size and then stacked in alphabetical order.

I have at least 200 sets, currently organized in boot boxes from the Container Store. I have a label on the outside of the box with the category. What I liked about the boot boxes is that they are only 4 sets deep, so I wouldn't have to dig for a set and they were all face up so I could see the images. I am now going UM so I am again sorting by category, this time in CD cases from the Container Store.

I'm scared to go un-mounted
 

I have mostly stampin up stamp sets. I still have them in the original containers. My stamp sets are mostly in mint condition because I am the only one that uses them.

I usually mount the stamps as soon as I get the set and label the plastic container with the item # and price.

Deb in Maine

I do it by the size of the stamp box, all the same size on the same shelf...I know, very technical, but Hey :) it works for me!!

It sounds like a great idea to me.
 

I just think I need 1 more set of shelves for my stampsets

Debbie in Maine

Most of my SU sets are now unmounted. They are stored in CD cases on three separate CD shelves and are in alphabetical order. This works very well for me. They don't take up a lot of room and it looks nice.
One of the shelves holds my other unmounted stamps.

I actually store my sets in big Sterlite baskets (the white ones with the holes that you can get in various sizes at places like Target and Walmart)

I have one big basket for my Current word and accessory stamps (like Label Classics, background basics, etc....)

I have one big basket for my Current Image stamp sets

I have one big basket for my retired stamp sets

I have a photo storage box for my background stamps (out of the plastic box - put the label on the side of the wooden block)

I have a big plastic under the bed container that I store my Holiday stamps in (since I don't need them year round)

I usually have anywhere from 5-8 sets out on my desk at any one time too

This way if I am loking for one stamp set I can just pull the basket out and look through - I set them on their side the label facing out so it is very easy to find what i am looking for

I just got a label maker and I LOVE IT!!! I used to have the label that came with the sets on the end of the plastic box, but it was so hard to read the tiny print. It is SO much easier for me to find what set I want now! I have mine organized by size, but soon need to do something better...alphabetical order may be a good way to go. I do have a notebook with all of the images I have stamped in it...that's a nice resource too.