Storage

All about flies Fly Tying
1

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

2

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.
3

If it fits in A box you need more materials :wink:

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.

4

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

5

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.

6

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

7

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.

8

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

9

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

10

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.

11

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/alcampbell/ac020204.php

You can get many ways to prevent bugs and most do not really work.
The late Al campbell wrote the above many years ago. I have tried all the methods and find only one better than the No Pest Strip. What is it?

It is a fumigation method and is the only way Australia will allow feathers into them. i am certified by the USDA to do the procedure and sign off on it.

It is dangerous and very pricey. Far easier and less expensive to use the No Pest Strips in Tuperware like boxes.

Denny

12

I was thinking the same thing. :stuck_out_tongue:

When I had a lot less stuff, I use to store it all in this Plano tool box and it worked OK to travel with. These days I travel with less stuff in a FishPond Coyote bag: http://fishpondusa.com/coyote.cfm

Now I have a room in the basement. Plano makes many plastic storage types of solutions. Wally World has plastic type cabinets with wheels for larger things and many smaller cost efficient boxes. I always thought of having a rather large roll top desk so when I was done I could just shut it up and it would look respectable. An armoire or enclosed compter desk might best a nice touch as well. This would be an very inexpensive way: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=6051640&sourceid=1500000000000003260370&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=6051640

But this is more along the lines of what my wife might permit in the living room: http://www.amazon.com/Chocolate-Patina-Computer-Armoire/dp/B001CC3F84/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=office-products&qid=1263314766&sr=1-3

So from specific furniture to inexpensive plastic boxes, we all come up with something that works for us.

Plano 826.jpg

13

Think outside the box…pun intended…

14

I got it a couple of years ago at Costco. As with a lot of Costco stuff, it’s here today gone tomorrow. It looks very similar to this: http://www.containerstore.com/shop/collections/scrapbookingStorage?productId=10012555

Except i didn’t pay that much and I think my drawers are bigger than 12x12.

15

Jo Ann’s…and use their 40% off coupon…note they have two different ones that are slightly different…

http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog/productdetail.jsp?pageName=search&flag=true&PRODID=xprd74098

16

Send some of it to me…

17

I was thinking along the lines of the plastic storage bins like the ones you can get at Walmart as well as putting up peg boards for things that can hung. I don’t have a designated place that I’m tying right now but I’m working on getting some renovations (i.e. clean up a corner of my basement/build a small table) done so that I’ll have a spot. I did see a nice little spool rack at Wally World that I’m going to pick up.

After I’m done going through it all, I’ll let you guys know if there are any materials I’m certain I won’t be using. If so, I’ll send them your way.

18

I recently cut up a few flea collars and put them in with my materials. Is there any negative side to doing this?

19

The only negative thoughts for dog flea collars (not familiar with those for cats) is if I remember correctly, one needs to stretch the collar to activate the chemical, before placing on a dog or cutting up to place in your material tubs.
I use the 31 qt Rubbermaid plastic tubs that are about 27" x 16" x 7".
I purchase them at Wally World.
They stack one on top of the other. Course with labels on the front of each one when searching for something it is always in the bottom one or I have forgotten to up date the label as to contents.
I find the No Pest Strips are most cost effective where the Dog flea collars are more costly.

Denny

20

I use “Art Bins” purchased with 50% off coupons at Joann Fabrics & the ZDO double end bags (as on Dot Man’s website) for those precious feathers, etc.
http://flyreeldots.com/ these bags are great to protect feathers, etc & Jerry is a sponsor here on FAOL.
Mike