Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Tips & Tricks: Unusual storage options

I love organizing stuff.

Now, this doesn't mean my house is organized a la Martha Stewart Living. What it does mean is that I buy a lot of containers, boxes, shelves, and other crap. I'm constantly on the hunt for a "better" way, especially when it comes to my jewelry making.

Some of my Etsy items have been a challenge to store. I have a decent system going on with the jewelry boxes and mailing envelopes - both conveniently fit into a wide plastic storage drawer.



Other things have been more of a "that'll do" situation. For instance, the earring cards. I make them myself from cardstock so they fit into small boxes.



I have four different size and storing them has been really strange - they're too long for a lot of small storage. At first they were just in a pile. I bought one of those small metal divider racks from Walmart and put them in there, but they fell out the sides and it was generally Not A Good Idea.

Last year, I found these little flip-top boxes from Walmart that were just the right size, and cut the lids off. Shame that I could NEVER find those boxes again, because I needed more to store all the card sizes. Ah, Walmart. I was getting really frustrated trying to fit my square-peg earring cards into the round-hole plastic storage boxes that I found at Michael's, Walmart, ACMoore and everywhere else. Nothing was small enough, wide enough or compact enough to really work.

A few months ago, I stumbled on this really cute little box and had one of those "aha" moments. It had been misplaced in the jewelry section, and the label said it was for fishing lures. So I wandered over to the fishing gear section and lo and behold:


Under $3! I never in a million years would have guessed that a fishing lure box would be perfect for storing my earring cards.



Awesome! I snapped the lid off and now I have a perfect storage solution for my earring cards.

What kind of containers have you found work particularly well for storing your Etsy craft goods? Let us know in the comments!

— Jocelyn | paragraphloop.etsy.com

3 comments:

  1. I can't comment on storage solutions Jocelyn, but your post got me - hook, line and sinker :). Its funny how solutions will come to those that are looking for them. Why that lure box was misplaced there on that particular day is anyone's guess, but it fell into the right hands. Great article!!

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  2. I store everything in a plastic bag INSIDE of a reusable shipping bag (shipping materials that is) it fits everywhere. It is kind of a big jumble but I get my stuff ready to ship on my break at my full time job then ship it on my lunch break so I need a portable solution :) cute storage ideas!!!

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  3. I tend to use shoeboxes or photoboxes to store a lot of smaller items. Tupperware comes in handy, too!

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