Storage - moving forward...

Okay.. so we've talked about all kinds of storage solutions. We decided to buy some tubes from SKS for gemstones and glass. WELL! I LOVE them!!!!!

The small ones are 4" tall and the large ones are 6" tall. The ones in the picture are the 6" tubes. We intend to use the hanging tabs at the top to... well... hang them. The plan is to get a piece (or 2 or 3 or... ) of pegboard and hang them on the pegboard.


Michael says we should probably paint the pegboard white so that the colors of the beads are clear. The picture below is of some 10mm Czech crystals. Michael's first picture was on a white background, but you couldn't see the tabs, so this one is on a pale blue background.

I got out my new tubes and my trusty label maker and had a great time! When I get new beads, I'm going to label each tube with the name of the gemstone, glass, or crystal- the size - where we got it - and how much they cost.

I can't tell you how many times I come home from a bead show and I know what the beads are when I get home and how much I paid, but 3 months later? Good luck! I have an idea, but I'm sure that sometimes I'm WAY off!

Using beads BT (before tubes) led to beads EVERYWHERE. I'd take what beads I thought I needed and go "play". I'd have 3 or 4 beads left when I was finished and I'd put those beads in a small plastic box or in a small bag. Before I knew it, I had bags and boxes of small amounts of beads EVERYWHERE. They never seemed to get back into the original storage container (that often held 24 different types of beads - each container containing a different color group.

Now, I can take the whole tube, use what I want and hopefully put the tube back on the pegboard, but even if the tube doesn't make it back to the pegboard right way, at least all of the beads of that type are together.

Talk to me in 3 months (make that 2 months) and I'll let you know how it's working. I know that there is no such thing as perfection when it comes to beads, but this one seems to make sense to me.

Any comments or suggestions????