Storage

[NCVirginian]

I have been lucky enough to inherit a lot of fly tying materials. When I say a lot I mean A LOT. There is so much material in this box that I have yet to even lay eyes upon most of it.

So how would you store it all so that you could easily find it and use it when needed? I thought about looking for a small cabinet of sorts that had cubby holes or drawers, but after looking in a few places I've about given up on that idea.

How do you all think I should store it. The box it's in just isn't gonna cut it.

Thanks,
Mark

[Ray Kunz]

Most of us old geezers accumulate an unreasonable amount of stuff. It is an addiction you should enjoy. A solution has worked for he for over 60 (yes 60) years.
1. Most stuff I store in zip-lock bags with the ident, labels on each bags. There are 6" x 12" bags available for capes. I group and store these in covered plastic boxes from Walmart. These are kept in a closet.
2. Small quantities of the materials most frequently usedI keep in a multi-drawer plastic box that I keep on my desk top. One drawer is for tools. This box is small enough to take to club meetings that I attend.
Just have fun.

[Jayatwork]

If it fits in A box you need more materials

I have several plastic drawer carts. They are about 4 ft tall and have drawers of various sizes and have wheels so they can be moved around. They have worked well for most stuff. I found a similar thing that was meant for storing scap-books. It is similar but the "drawers" are plastic boxes with hinged lids. If you have a dedicated tying area, a peg board with hooks is handy for bagged materials. Good luck and have fun with all that stuff.

[Buddy Sanders]

Mark,

Really depends on where you are going to put it once you have it sorted out.

Are you going to keep it in some kind of bag or box or cabinet out of sight until you need it?

Do you have some kind of shelving system, or can you put one up, to spread it all out on?

How much space can you to allocate to storing your stuff?

How much do you wish to spend on storage systems?

The cheapest way to go is with those amazing material organizing systems sold by folks from Glad and their competitors. Sort the stuff into a system of categories and place each in a plastic zip lock bag. Write what is in the bag on the outside with a sharpie or similar permanent marker. You can use amaller bags for sub categories and then place a number of these into larger bags. Makes finding things faster. These can go into drawers or just into a duffle type bag if that's all you have room for.

You can buy those reuseable food containers at any grocery or WalMart. They are kind of like a use it a few times and pitch it version of tupperware type things. They come in several useful sizes and stack up nicely. They run a dollar or two for four or five of them, and I've bought twenty in a big bunch for five bucks. Lable the outside and stack them in a box, a duffle, or on a shelf and you can easily find your stuff.

Shoebox sized containers run about a dollar each. Stack nicley, and are a bit more durable than the less expensive containers.

You can shop the second hand stores for an old desk or dresser. A small chest of drawers will hold an amazing amount of materials.

If you have the room and are even a little handy, you can custom build a desk to fit your available space with shelving above it and drawers below.

You can find fly tying specific furniture online and in some fly tying supply catalogs. Most come with a certain amount of storage.

You can go into an unfinished furniture store and buy a roll top desk. Lots of storage and when you are done tying, you can cover the mess with the roll down cover.

I know one guy who had a cabinet maker come in and build his tying area. Works and looks really nice, but pricey.

Good Luck!

Buddy

[rainbowchaser]

I picked up a dented filing cabinet from a local office furniture manufacturer. It holds all of my materials but I can't seem to keep them organized. Dang gremlins jumble everything togather every few days.

[RGP759]

I spent a lot of time looking for an old wooden drawing file cabinet to store materials, but like the drafting boards, these are few and far between today. Finally, I ended up buying a mid-range roll around tool box from Sears to use. This works out well, as the drawer depth lets you spread the materials out without mixing them up too badly, and being on casters, it is easy to move over to the side of my tying desk when I need it. You get a lot of storage area this way in a fairly compact space for a couple hundred dollars.

Bob

[scubatim]

OK OK the suggestions so far are pretty good but I have a better idea. Put them all in a overnight box from the post office and ship them to me, let me worry about it.

Oh by the way why would you want to organize the stuff? It takes all the fun out of tying.

[narcodog]

If it fits in A box you need more materials

I have several plastic drawer carts. They are about 4 ft tall and have drawers of various sizes and have wheels so they can be moved around. They have worked well for most stuff. I found a similar thing that was meant for storing scap-books. It is similar but the "drawers" are plastic boxes with hinged lids. If you have a dedicated tying area, a peg board with hooks is handy for bagged materials. Good luck and have fun with all that stuff.

I have been searching for a drawer with lids. Can you tell me where you got them.
Thanks

[Al Beatty]

Hi Mark,

Two things that have worked well for us could be helpful to you as well. The first is the stackable Rubber Maid boxes with pull out drawers. They come in various sizes and are usually configured with three, stacked drawers per unit. We find 4 of them stacked with 2 side-by-side and the other 2 on top of the first two works well for us.

The other item is available at many display stores where retail store owners go to get their store fixtures. We use several free-standing, rotating peg-board units to hang our hackle, dubbing, etc on. We can just rotate it to find the peg-board, mounted item we need. TIP: Many communitees have stores that sell used displays; you can save a lot of money by shopping in such a place. We learned about our local, used-display store by asking the manager at one of the in-town fly shops. Take care & ...

Tight Lines - Gretchen & Al Beatty
www.btsflyfishing.com

[narcodog]

For my small stuff like biots, leg material, packaged dubbing I use a small file hanger box with dividers and pockets. For my hair feathers and necks, etc I use the 40L sterlite boxes from Walmart. I have had bugs in the past so I keep all of my stuff in closed containers with with moth crystals or whole cloves.