Probably the most boring blog post in the world . . . .

Stamp storage: it's a frequent discussion topic on Docrafts & everyone has their own method of organising their ever-growing stamp collection.  Or not;-)

This is what works for me but there isn't a right or wrong way, just different.  Almost all my stamps are stored in cheap plastic CD wallets like this:

The CD wallets are stored in cheap IKEA DVD boxes.  When I eventually get a craft room (sometime in the next century, probably!) I'll buy some prettier ones!  The boxes are marked A, B, C etc then the stamp wallets are numbered A1, A2, A3 etc like the one above.

Cue another boring picture - this is what the inside of one of the boxes looks like:

Each stamp was stamped onto sheets of A4 paper which are then stored in cheap (do you see a pattern here?) plastic wallets in a ring binder. This is what a couple of the sheets look like:

You can see that I've noted the wallet it's stored in, the stamp manufacturer & product code if I know them.  The sheets are filed in categories - the top one is filed in Floral Borders, the bottom one in Greetings.

Wooden stamps were unmounted to save on storage space.  The only stamps I haven't done this with are large background stamps, alphabet & number sets as that was just a step too far!  Organising this lot was undoubtedly one of the most boring craft jobs ever but it means that I waste a lot less time looking for what I want.  

An unexpected bonus is that it makes me see my stamp collection in a different way.  It's hard to explain, but although a set of stamps will be stored together in one or two CD wallets, I might split them into different categories.  For example, a set might contain floral border, foliage & bird stamps - each would therefore be categorised separately so when I come to use them I might end up choosing the floral border from one set & the birds from a different one.

If you're still awake at this point I hope you've found it useful!