How do you store & organize STAMPS?

Wooden stamps are in an Alex drawer - holiday ones are on the bottom layer and I have a clear tray on top of them with the sentiment and more everyday stamps

Clear stamps - if they have matching dies, then they are in an open plastic box/basket with the dies sorted by theme. If not they are in another box/basket sorted by theme again. I cut down 8.5x11 page protectors (basically in half) and slip the stamps into those. I made dividers from cardstock - nothing fancy

Um, shoved here, there, and anywhere I can stash them. It’s not a very effective system….

I started card making more than 3 decades ago, when I was a young mom, and I have been collecting stamps ever since. I now have an enormous stamp and die collection. Bins would take up far too much room. So would every other typical storage system. I used to keep my stamps (wood mounted back then) in stacked clear plastic drawers with labels that listed holidays/seasons, etc. The stamps were stored in layers in the drawers, and it was a pain to find what I wanted. When we got ready to move halfway across the country, I unmounted all my wood stamps and turned them into peel and stick. I put all my stamps, both rubber and clear stamps, in binders. This system has worked very well for me. I have category tags on each binder. Most binders are 12x12, the old Crop In Style binders, no longer available. I use zippered school binders for My Favorite Things and stamps from a few other manufacturers. All my stamps are in pockets with their stamped image. I keep the dies separate in die storage Art Bins, again, labeled so I can find what I want fast. The ArtBins are getting hard to find and are more expensive, so I moved some of my cheaper Tuesday Morning dies onto magnetic sheets in envelopes.

Despite my huge collection, I can find whatever I want extremely fast. My binders are on shelves, with their tags plainly showing. I can remove a binder, flip through the pocket pages, and find the perfect stamp to use very quickly. There is no other system that would work well for such a huge collection. At least not for me.

I organize my stamps the same way (plastic envelopes with cardstock & matching dies if I have them). I do use the fridge bins and mine are all arranged by category except Lawn Fawn & Pinkfresh - they have their own section. I do keep Christmas stamps in a separate bin with all Christmas dies, embossing folders, etc. I started this last year & love it!

Shakti - I also have a separate bin for new things now too so it will remind me to use them!!

i have a few wood mounted stamps that i keep in a multi-tier fishing tackle box.  that's how few of those i have.

the rest of my stamps are cling stamps and they are mounted on 7x8 placards. each placard is in a clear sleeve.  i have those standing upright in a basket that allows me to easily leaf through them. 

the remainder of stamps are my old Technique Tuesday clear alphabet stamps set.  most are new.  they are in binders that i haven't touched in years.  those are the next things to be purged. i can't believe  i paid that much for those things at the height of TT's popularity.  

I would sort under sentiments but my stamp collection is small enough to just flip through. If it were larger? I would probably stamp the flowers and streetlamp, file the stamped images in the floral and ?whatever a streetlamp would be? sections with a note that the stamps are in the sentiments section

I REALLY need to make a new post of this, but up until recently when my 2nd only 'reel' got caught in the algorithm a few times, it was my highest liked post. I love these storage units from the container store. I highly recommend them. They work great for 4x6 (in the 'double' drawers) and 6x8 (in the 'triple' drawers) stamps. I use smaller fridge bins for my 3x4 stamps and store them in large postcard sleeves from bags unlimited (though they do fit 4x6 stamps quite snug if you don't like the extra wiggle room in the standard pocket sizes) and store them on a small Kallax unit from Ikea (I use the H shelves and can fit 4 bins in each one that way). The 3x4 stamps aren't as pretty to look at as the Elfa units from the container store, though.

http://instagr.am/p/BnZK7fpHU0A

Yes- I have a small magnetic bowl on my desk to help me not loose small dies

Would you mind telling me the dimensions and what the name is of the Elfa storage? I have a spot I think that would work in but it might be too wide for the spot and I couldn't find this during a quick container store internet search. Thanks!

I splurged on the glossy file cards and plastic pockets (Stick N Store) sold by The Stamp Market. SB.com has a version as well now. I use the front and back of the card, whether that is to group similar stamp sets or to fit a large set (I'll cut 6x8s down in half). I keep metal dies on 5x7 magnetic sheets from Amazon put into plastic sleeves from Avery Elle. Both the stamps and the dies are stored upright in two clear refrigerator bins, divided by manufacturer--because that is how my brain works. If any dies pair with the stamps, I just file them together. It's easy to flip through and see what I have. I do kind of wish I had a way to organize by sentiment, too. That could be a long project where I make reference pages in a little booklet or something. Hmmmmmm.

I do that too.  I mostly have them organized by theme -- winter holidays, fall, birthday, hobbies, etc.  I do have a couple of catch-all bins for the generic sets/sentiments that I can't otherwise figure out how to categorize.

I have one of those carts from Michael's. DH is building me a custom unit for the top basket that will be split into two sides. 

Right now my stamp and die sets and just stamps are in Avery Elle Extra Large Pockets (6 3/4 x 9 3/8) and the dies are on Lawn Fawn magnetic storage cards. I bought the 8x11 and cut it down in half but then ordered the 5x7 cards as well. I like how thick they are and how secure the dies are on the magnetic board.

The pockets are standing upright on the top shelf of the cart where the insert DH is making will go. 

Shakti - I organise loosely by theme (flowers, garden (which includes bugs), birds, animals, birthday, sentiments...) I also have seasonal categories (Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall), Alphas, and two extra categories - Basics(the generic stamps that can work on any theme really) and Misc which is where everything else goes, lol

My collection isn't huge so I don't stress overly about which category to put something. I try and put it in the category that I would probably look at first for that type of image...so butterflies and flowers I would put in garden if the main stamps were butterflies and in flowers if they were flowers. I did stamp ALL the sentiments and file the stamped cards in with the sentiments (and labelled with where the stamp is)

Totally get that...maybe put it at the front and make a point of flipping through it when you're looking for stamps?