Most of the beads I bought originally were in bags of assortments (seriously, I started with acrylic bicones that I bought at Michael's). I had to sort all the colors, because I wanted only the reds, so I used the ubiquitious plastic container boxes with adjustable inserts (to change the size of the sections). Well, those little inserts don't stay in place very well do they and my colors would get mixed up anyway.
When I started purchasing Crystallized Swarovski Elements they came in little plastic bags, and I stuck with those for organization. I put the bags in plastic container boxes (upgraded to better quality from the original ones) sorted by color. Because I only used 3 and 4 mm bicones, I was in pretty good shape for a long time.
Then...I branched out into other elements (as I'm sure we all do) so now I have separate containers for the non-bicone pieces. All these containers are stored in an Elpha system of wire drawers that I have covered with a wooden table top and tablecloth. Because my house is so small, my main storage area is in my living room. As long as the table cloth is in place no one would know that my Swarovski hoard is under it!
I am getting ready to upgrade my storage system soon, though. Been saving up my $$$ for a new Craft Kit that I saw in Tucson last year. I'm planning on buying 2 of these boxes that have 100+ containers
Then I can put each color/size in an individual container, and have the flexibility of adding new sizes, colors, and of course, all the new Innovations as they are released!
I'm really looking forward to using this new organization tool.
How bout everyone else?
Sparkles and smiles, Diane
