PAINT
This photo shows my paint storage. I cut down laundry detergent boxes to fit the acrylic paint bottles I have. Then I covered them in contact paper to make them pretty and clean. I like to store things by color, so my paint is an excellant example of this. I have them grouped by similar colors so my reds, pinks and oranges are together, but I also group them as to what fits in the boxes. an example of that is having my yellow and greens together, because that is what fits. I also label the ends so I can quickly pull a box from the shelf to find the color family I am going to use. Note that I do store my paint upside down but also right side up. by that I mean that about every three to four months I flip them over. Before I had these shelves, these boxes were stacked two high on another shelf. Two high seemed to be a good idea because it wasn't so bad to grab both and put back the one I didn't need at the moment.
I do have some other paint that is stored in some drawer cart type drawers. I rarely use the other paint and it is larger bottles. My spray paint is also in a same cart laying on their side. Nothing special about being on their side, just how they fit into that particular drawer. Also they are the heavy stuff, so they go in the bottom drawer to not affect the cart. Secondly, I also don't use it that much so it goes in the furthest to reach spot.
Beads and Findings
This bead box shows my second stage storage solution for beads. I started with a drawer that had all these smaller boxes inside the drawer. In this early solution i was constantly finding that I was having to repack this drawer to get everything to fit. Well darn that isn't very efficient so I looked at what I else I could do.
I came up with a box (covered in contact paper) and trays. These trays are from the boxes that transparencies came in. I used both the top and bottom of these boxes. If you don't have these type boxes available, then make your own from cardboard to fit inside the larger box.
I also have tabs on each end to make it easy to lift a tray out. I really like being able to see everything in one tray instead of 'digging' through smaller boxes in the drawer.
This next photo shows my third stage storage solution. It is just a verision 2.2 if you will. I had been using these small square boxes that again I happen to get from work, but can be found on the web. They are a two piece hinged box. I had been saving them for something (don't really know what) but recently decided i would use as many as I had or needed to sort out my beads.
I previously had been using some daily/weekly pill containers. I got these at a thrift store and I was happy with them except I couldn't see through the lid. That is what I like about the square boxes is the clear lid. In this case their bottoms are black so I put a small square of white paper in the bottom to make it easier to see the beads and the bead colors.
I also did a complete overall organizing all the beads and findings by color. Again this goes back to a session of looking through boxes and trying to find all the red ones. By color and similar size, makes finding what I need more efficient.
I am left with one tray that does not have the small square boxes and that is slightly larger boxes that the beads don't fit the smaller ones. I also use the slightly larger together as they are thicker.
If I didn't have so many of these smaller boxes, then I would not have sorted by size and color more likely just color. In some cases, I do have several types of beads in the same box because I only have a few of each of the sizes but similar color and type.
If I didn't have these small boxes, then I would consider anything I had available. I also would suggest that preference is individual containers were possible or with individual lids. That is why I liked the pill containers. A box that is divided but one lid is more likely to get mixed up.
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