organizing?

Someone asked about organizing a couple of days ago and it got me to thinking. Especially now that Santa left me a computer desk to use for my fly tying desk.:slight_smile: How do you store and organize your materials? I’m not tying for resale or anything like that, if you could see my flies you’d know why. :stuck_out_tongue: I’m thinking zip loc bags hanging on a peg board may be the best for me, but what do you use?

thanks in advance,
hNt

PS I don’t have much room, so that is a big issue.

VEE and I have two 8 drawer units (from Fred Meyer) under each tying desk (total 32 drawers) plus a wall of drawers 5 feet high an 12 feet long. We also have some full pheasant skins, a full jungle cock skin and some full chicken skins in a large tote under the bed in the bedroom.

Oh yeah, forgot about the skins (mammal and bird) that are in the chest freezer in the garage.

Before you ask, no, we don’t tie commercially either.

REE

That kind of puts my smallish cardboard warehouse bins to shame. :slight_smile:

I use to keep my stuff in drawers. zip locks and hung stuff on a peg board but I got bugs and they will eat through Ziplocks. One other thing some colors will detiate in sun light. Anyway now I keep my stuff in six Sterilite 41L plastic tubs with lock down lids and two file cases for my dubbing and smaller items. I can put moth balls or whole cloves in the boxes with the worry of more bugs.

rubbermaid or similar brand plastic shoe boxes

I use plastic storage boxes.

Lowes and Home Depot have the plastic shoe boxes for .99 a piece for the after christmas sale.

Jason,

Take a look at the link at the bottom that I think will give you some ideas on how to get more organized. Make sure to look their whole site over at the many different items they have, especially their ā€œDeluxe Bead Carousel 60 Cup Organizerā€. I have it and love it. I have my many different dubbings, hooks and beads stored in it. I just remove dubbing, hooks and beads from their packaging and put them into the furnished cups and label the cups as to the contents so that I can replenish the supply when needed. This carousel sets on my fly tying table and all I have to do is turn it around to find what hooks, dubbing, beads I need and remove the cups. When I am finished with a particular pattern, I return the cups to the carousel and remove what I need for the next pattern. This carousel is about 10" in diameter and takes up very little space on the tying table but holds a lot of dubbing, hooks and beads.

Make sure to check out their site for the new upcoming items they have. They will be selling fly boxes and their prices are fair.

http://www.tidycrafts.com/cart/

Go to the fly tying section of FAOL and hit the ā€œGETTING ORGAINIZEDā€ Sub Menu, you may get an idea or two there

These are what I use for my materials… all labeled, ziploc bags or original bags, containers…

Flyfishfairwx - You have my dream fly fishing room :o:o Very nice!

i dont have near as many materials as VEE and related, but i store mine in a mr. cart with a chunk of ceder in the back of the drawer. no bugs yet and while u might have to dig a little bit, everything is fairly easy to find.

Jordan

I like the ceder idea, I do not have bugs, but like the idea, anything that helps is good right!

Does the smell of the ceder in the material put off the fish? Just wondering…

I don’t know if the smell will put off fish or not, but I do use cedar shavings in our dog house. Dog smells good. :slight_smile:

I do know you can use permethrin or pyrethrin strips. They smell awful, but I don’t think it’ll hurt the fishing. You use to could buy them at any farm supply store, which is my line of work. Now though, you’ll have to ask for a flea collar at a pet store. Same thing, except for the buckle. :rolleyes:

hNt

Ps thanks for all the help guys.

VEE and I put pieces of ā€œNo-Pest Stripsā€ in all of our material drawers and totes. Never had a sign of a bug (knocking on wood before hitting the submit button).

REE

ive kept all of my materials in the original zip lock bag they came in, sealed up after every use and have never had a bug problem yet. no chemicals needed.

Flyfishfairwx,

I’ve been looking for storage drawers like those behind your desk. Care to share your source?

Greybeard

Thanks for the link. I haven’t heard of them before, and now have them bookmarked.

Hi Flyfish,

That is certainly a very nice set up. Color me slightly green with envy. I get the feeling that you have been tying flies and collecting materials for more than a year or two. Do any of your materals date all the way back to Herter’s? 8T :slight_smile:

Go on amazon.com and type in (876W) 7 Drawer Cart in the search section. Thats where I got mine. They were almost double at the other store I found them in, and they still had to be ordered.

http://www.thegrovefurniture.com/kitchendining-storage.html

This place Is where I was going to order them from. I use them to get the numbers and type them into amazon. Look at the price difference.

Hope this helps.

TB

We have a hardware store called Totem, here in Canada, but you should be able to get them at any HW store, they are a DYI but easy to do…