Thursday, February 23, 2012

I'm A Bad Blogger...But Good At Organizing!!

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days. I really have been busy....ORGANIZING! *okie hears the shocked gasps of her readers*. Yeah, I know, it's hard to believe isn't it?!

I went to the Stampin Up Stamp Cases for my storage of stamps because it took up less room and my unmounted stamps fit in them nicely. If you haven't seen how I unmount stamps you can check out that post at UNMOUNTING STAMPS. I started unmounting stamps almost 3 years ago to save space.

I started working on reorganizing my stamps on Sunday. I actually broke up sets of stamps and re-organized by category, something I have wanted to do for a long time but had to build up the courage.

Just to prove what a mess this task was I took a picture so people would believe it. It all started out because I needed to put a baby stamp away. Who knew one little stamp could lead to such a time consuming, sweat and tears task? Okay, to be honest I think I did know and that is why I have been putting it off for quite some time, like YEARS!



Deciding on categories and which stamps went in each one was easy for some and difficult for others and I still might have to move a few around...but not today!


After getting home from work yesterday I decided I didn't like the ugly mix matched labels I had on the case spines and went to work on figuring out a way to make a nice label for the cases. I made a table in Microsoft Word and set the row height at .43" and it worked perfectly on the spine. I also made two columns, the first for the category and the second for stamp descriptions that are included in the case. This way I can easily tell what I have in there without having to pull out every case.

The stamps you see in the bottom left hand corner are background stamps, which I am thinking about unmounting, and some others stamps that I need to unmount once I get some more foam.

Here is a close up of the cases so you can see the categories and descriptions a little better. I did put them in alphabetical order after getting them all done. Now I can easily just go look for what I need and then slip out the case or cases I am wanting to use.

Even though this was time consuming I know it will save me tons of time in the long run since I won't have to be pulling out ones I don't even need to look at. I did think about color coding the categories but then I decided I needed to stop the madness somewhere!


I know someone is going to ask so I might as well tell you now...the "shelves" the cases are in are DVD crates I got at Walmart a few years back. I think they were like $1 each. They fit nicely in my built in shelves and they are interlocking so I don't have to worry about them falling over with them stacked.

I feel so much better having my stamps all organized and it will make it easier to add to the collection as new stamps are purchased. *okie hears the whispers of "does okie really think she needs any more stamps?" and glares* OF COURSE I WILL NEED MORE STAMPS!! I can't believe you would even question this *okie sighs deeply and shakes her head and just really wonders about the sanity of some of her readers*.

12 comments:

  1. Wow! Will you come help me unmount all my stamps? It all looks so nice, neat and organized! Great job!
    Barb

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  2. Feels good to have that all done doesn't it? I bit the bullet and unmounted all mine and did cd cases by category 2 years ago. Did it every night for a month, I even had blisters on my thumbs from peeling!! Best thing I ever did, super organized now! (I have thousands of stamps...at least it seems that way, maybe just several hundred, high hundreds...)

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  3. Would you like to come do mine? *hehe*.... Looks awesome. And yes you ALWAYS need a new stamp set or sets. Have a good one. Missed you this week, but do understand. That is a difficult and time consuming job. Have a good weekend. :)

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  4. Labels? Really? I'm happy that I just have mine in the stamp cases. Our mounting foam should be here in a couple of days and then the fun will begin up here again!

    I'm so cheap...I can't decide if I want to toss out the CD cases and buy more stamp cases though!

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  5. Boy, you are good at organizing! I put my stuff into CD cases now, but only used very basic labels like birthday, love, sentiment, wedding, etc. May steal your idea to clarify better!

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  6. I also love to organize and store my stamps in CD cases. But, wow, the spine labels are a lot of work! :-) I just do a simple label with my label maker and then have a reference binder of all the stamps I own that points me to the right case. You are very ambitious. And no...you can never have too many stamps!!!

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  7. I did that 2 years ago. It wears you out!!! But it is so easy to keep up with now and so much easier to find what you need. I also did a stamp catalog to put on my desk just a month ago as I sometimes get in a rut and keep using the same stamps over and over. Now I am making much better use of my stamps. AND NO YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TO MANY STAMPS!!!!
    Glad you are back :)
    Sandy R. MN

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  8. SUPER DUPER IDEA!!! Okie is QUEEN of ORGANIZING!!! I use the SU cases also but I have a basic label on my spines I'm gonna have to go back and do as you did. Makes it a lot easier. TFS!!

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  9. Ok now I'm going to have to follow suit! I swear Okie if you jumped off a bridge I would follow!

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  10. I love this idea Shirley!! Looks so nice in your crates too. I have many of those crates and have been picking up the SU cases as I'm not liking the old CD cases as well now. But like Linda, I'm not sure if I can bring myself to throw them out either. lol I will probably will eventually but until then I think I will do this with the SU cases that I already have. Thanks for all the tips and tricks!! As always you Rock!

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  11. Good Job!!!!!!!!
    mhalford6 @aol. com

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