Stamp Purging and Reorganization for 2013

It has to be done, it has to be done, it has to be done… Perhaps if I keep telling myself this it will be a little less painful (lol). Seriously though, my stamp collection has grown so much that there was no way I’d EVER use them all and besides, since I started stamping I’ve learned a lot about the quality and types of stamps so it’s time to do a little, okay a lot of purging!

The Plan

If I haven’t used it in the last year or don’t see myself using it this year, it has to go.  Additionally,  if it doesn’t stamp well or isn’t a high quality stamp, off it goes.  When I say “it has to go” or “off it goes”, what I really mean  is “pass down to my nieces” so it’s not like I’m giving my beloved collection of stamps away to strangers or anything.  (lol)  I know my stamps will be well loved when my nieces visit and when I go and visit them.   And, I’m sure my BFF will manage to sneak one or two sets away to her house as well 🙂

My Current Stamp Storage Solution

At the moment, I store all of my rubber stamps unmounted and on cling foam (EZ Mount Foam) to save space and make storage easier.  I have both my unmounted rubber stamps and my clear stamps stored in cd cases; with a few borders and larger sets in dvd “like” cases from Stampin’ Up.

My New Stamp Storage Solution(s)

I will leave my larger stamps that don’t fit into cd cases in the Stampin’ Up stamp storage cases (I prefer them but because of the cost, I had to make the choice to use cd cases for the majority of my stamps).

I’ve decided to keep my stamps in cd cases, however, I will store them safely on these stamp storage panels that fit inside the cd cases.  They are called:  EZ Mount Stamp Storage Panels and I got them from Kat Scrappiness.  If you’d like to see a video showing how these storage panels work, let me know and I’ll make one for you.

And lastly, for my unmounted rubber stamps, I’ve decided to give the EZ Mount 3 ring storage binders a go!  I bought three so far and I can fit about three storage sheets filled with stamps on both the front and back in each one.  I just realized that I need more so I’ll order them next time I get paid and that should finish up my rubber stamps.

So with six cubes consisting of 4 drawers each, full of stamps in cd cases, where does one begin?  With organization of course!  (photo below)

How I Organize My Stamps

I organize my stamps by theme…sort of.  (lol).  I have single sentiments stored by theme “Happy Birthday, Sympathy, Thank You”, etc.  Then I have sets stored together.  Many times one stamp set will have multiple themes included so the decision whether to break them up or keep them together was a difficult one.  In the end, I decided to keep them together.  I just couldn’t tear them apart!  It felt too permanent!  My image stamps are organized in the same way, only there are a LOT more of them!

My Stamp Inventory Binders

All of my stamps are inventoried so that I can find them easily without searching through all of the cases. Images are in the “Images” binder and Sentiments are in the “Sentiments” binder.  I published a video showing how I did this last year which you can see here if you’d like.

Step One

The very first step was to go through my binder and be absolutely ruthless (okay maybe not ruthless but pretty firm) about which stamps to keep and which ones to “pass down”.  I went through it page by page and circled all the stamps and sets that I was not going to keep.  I did this for my “Images” stamp binder as well as my “Sentiments” stamp binder.  (to be honest, I’m not really getting rid of many of my sentiments because you can never have too many of those!).

Step Two

Pull the stamps I’ve decided to purge and put them away for their new homes.  I need to re-use my cd cases and because there won’t be as many to store, I’ve decided to put the old stamps in a binder for my nieces.

Step Three

I needed to catch up on all of my new stamp purchases that I made last year by stamping them in the inventory binder and putting them onto storage panels and into cd cases.  This is the most tedious and lengthy step of the entire process and has taken me several days to complete.  (I acquired a LOT of new stamps last year).

Step Four

Move all existing stamps I’ve decided to keep from their current cd cases and place them on their new stamp storage panels and reorganize.

Step Five

Move existing, unmounted rubber stamps into new EZ Mount Stamp Storage Binders like so:

Voila!

Now my stamps have been purged, reorganized, put away and stored in a safer, more manageable way!

My Stamp Storage Cubes

Here’s a look at the cubes I store my stamps in.  They are from Michaels and are the four drawer cubes by Recollections.

How do you store your stamps?  Do you have a question or comment to share regarding stamp storage and organization?  I’d love to hear from you!