Storage - Part 2 - A Work in Progress

Okay... I'm not sure how I got started on this. I think it started with a blog about crystals and the joy of storing them. (she said sarcastically)

At the end of that post, I asked (begged is more like it) for storage suggestions and "the creative ones" came up with several great ideas! The next day I posted some of the suggestions that people gave me and some things I dug up at an Etsy forum, one of which was about these great plastic tubes! (Isn't EVERYTHING in an Etsy forum???)

SO anyway... We got the tubes and posted a sample of what we got and how we were going to use them.

Okay... so now we're a little farther down the road, but still not "there" yet! We are a work in progress! (and progress can be painful - very very painful)

Cleaning off my work area was a nightmare. I'm one of those people who grabs some of this and some of that and off I go and before I know it... "this and that" has taken over my work space. Then I have to take a day and clear it all out because it's driving me nuts! Not so, Michael. Michael is a tidy worker. His workspace is always orderly - neat - with just what he wants to use and nothing more. I'm not sure how he does that. I have NO idea what I'm going to use until I'm into it.

ANYWAY... I didn't have time for the usual all-day cleanup. Michael was in motion so I just dumped everything from my work area into a bowl (or 2... or 3). (This picture shows my bowl status after an hour or so of "cleaning out the bowl" and putting things "away".)

That left my work table pretty clean
(hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah clean... riiiiiight!)
Please remember that "clean" is relative.


Michael started putting up the pegboard to hold the tubes. He found great little plastic hooks that only take up the width of one hole. He ordered them one day and they arrived the next. Pretty sweet!


Next, he put up some of the tubes with gemstone and glass beads - and a section for pearls. It looks great but we already see what we'd like to change. We treated each board separately - from top to bottom. Wrong-o!

I think what I'd like to do is just start from the left corner and go across - and then down to the next row when we run out of room. I'd like to see all the reds side by side - all the blues - all the greens, etc.


I think we'll probably still keep all the pearls in one area.

What do you think? Any suggestions?

How about silver? I'm still not sure how to store all of the silver.

And lighting? How do I light this so that there isn't a huge glare????

Part 3 will be coming soon, hopefully! Stay tuned and thanks for your help!

(for all of the posts about storage, click on the "storage" label in the list of labels - or follow this link: http://thunder-moon.blogspot.com/search/label/Storage)

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????

Here a bead - there a bead...

...EVERYWHERE a bead!

It seems like storage is a subject close to the hearts of many of us!

Thanks so much to Sharon and Love2BInspired for their comments yesterday. Sharon has SO many great ideas for storage. She's right! It IS about being able to see what you have - to visualize what you want to put together. Hard to do that going from the cardboard box on the dining room chair to the piles of clear boxes in the basement.

SO... I went on a search for MORE ideas. It seems some people have turned this into an art! I found a blog all about storage. Check this one out: Cut The Clutter. The post on April 23rd is about beads.

Truly, I could make storage a full-time job. In fact, some days - I seem to do just that!

In an Etsy forum about storage I found these plastic tubes.

And, of course an article on eHow about bead storage.

If you haven't read Sharon's comments on my last post, please do. There are MANY great ideas!

People are sooooo creative!

More ideas? Keep 'em coming!

Pick a color - ANY color!

Michael was 'hanging out' in one of the forums last week where they were talking about their favorite colors of Swarovski crystals. He mentioned that I LOVE crystals and have quite a few colors.

He's right. I do!

We found these great boxes at Nile to house our crystals (and some other things). Each large box holds 72 of the little plastic boxes.


I'd like to tell you that this is our entire crystal stock, but it's not - not even close, but this is MOST of our 4mm bicones. Cool box, eh? It has a lid that flips over and closes with snaps for security.

I use my trusty label maker to label the bottom of each of the little boxes with the name of the color. When I'm out of a color, I turn the box upside down, so that I know at a glance what colors I'm out of when I order crystals again.

I'm glad Michael took this picture! Looks like I'm running low on a few things. It must be time to call Rahul with another crystal order.

When it comes to ordering supplies by mail (the things we don't get at bead shows), I'm like a kid - waiting for the package to come - and then when it finally arrives, I love spreading all of the new, pretty things all over the dining room table. Now... getting all of the goodies from the dining room table to some kind of storage - that's where I fall down. I think we need a shop! Or I need to hang pegs on my dining room walls. Hmmmmmm A new kind of artwork. Could work!

Does anyone have any great storage ideas???