Organization within organization

Hello Everyone, 

Today, I wanted to share with all of you how I organized my stamps.  I shared a little bit of it in the post about my new studio.  Now that I've had the opportunity to work within my studio for a little while, somethings need a little more organization.

I have chosen to organize my stamps by theme or category.  The majority of the stamps I own are by Close To My Heart or Stampin' Up.  Each company packages their stamp sets for easy organization on a shelf or in a bin.  So I chose not to separate any of the sets.  I have 10 large organizers by Close To My Heart.  I use 9 to categorize my stamps and the 10th one is for stamps in use.  Each of the 9 organizers holds 1 to 3 categories.  I love having my stamps cataloged this way.  When I am searching for a particular set, I go to the category I believe it should be in and start looking for it there first.  I've tried to make a catalog book of the stamps I own, but I found it looked messy after I decide to part with some of my stamps.  I like going through my boxes and flipping through the stamps.  This way I might find another stamp that will also work for what I am doing.  I would of never thought of that set had I not thumbed through all my stamps.

However, I found it time consuming when it came to putting the sets away.  In my 10th organizer I hold all the sets I am working with divided up by the projects I'm working on.  Sometimes it takes me a while to put the sets away and I tend to second guess myself as to what category I originally had the set in.  So to solve my dilemma without spending hours on a catalog book, I decided to color code each category.  

Close To My Heart used to put their stamp sets in categories too.  They assigned colors to each category as well.  As you can see in the photo above, these were some of their colors and categories.  I chose categories by the way I think.  What would I call it?  What best describes this group of sets?  So after I had divided up my sets into categories, I had various colors throughout the category from CTMH's previous categorizing.  That is what was making me second guess myself.  So to put an end to this madness, I discarded CTMH's colored category card and put plain colored cardstock in it's place.  I used shades of one color per container.

Here is what the end result looks like.  Now I can put my stamps away easily and not second guess myself.  It also makes it easy if I do decide to put a set in another category.  This arrangement is also pleasing to my eyes and draws me more toward my stamps.

Thank you for stopping by and please check back with more hints, tips and tricks for the scrapbooker.