Advice on organizing embellishments

I have become a complete organize by color person!!! and I am lovinggggg it!!! I have the multi color cart that has 5 big drawers and then 10 smaller drawers...

I keep all my "everything" color coded in the smaller drawers in rainbow plus brown plus white and black... i have a photo iris box and a mini binder\compostion book that has all die cuts, stickers and chipboard... minus flowers those are in their own little envelope.. i have a bigger jot box from dollar tree that has other lumpy bumpy stuff like enamel dots, gems, brads, flair, acrylics, bows and other bigger pieces... i have a pencil box that has markers and felt pens and wink of stella\nuvo\stickles... I also have a baggie that has all the scraps... every color drawer has each of those things and they are in my multi color cart...

I am not a monochromatic scrapper but i can easily dig thru each drawer to find things in each colorway I am working with for a spread...

I dont have washi and ink pads in them yet... trying to figure our how to corral them in the drawer.. or letter stickers like thickers or the flat stickers that come in books or 12x12 sheets..

My only things that are themed are Christmas and Halloween... I used to have so many categories.. now it is all dumped in the drawers..

I sort of organize by color. What I do is organize each item by theme or type, then those things I organize by color. For example, washi tape I have altogether but they are organized by color. I organize all my project life journal cards together, but they are either by theme or by color, if by theme, I organize the theme into color as well. Mixing all the same colored items together would not work for how my brain works. When I'm looking for embellishments, I usually look by type and not necessarily color. It really depends on how you scrapbook, if putting all the same colored items together works for your brain then you should do it.

I'm an organizer by color for individual embellishments for the most part. The only thing I don't include are what I consider the "sprinkly bits" for the very end of the project - things like sequins, enamel dots or color spritzes. Any kind of ephemera, die cut, tag, label, twine, brad, etc. are all found in a single drawer for the main color it is. I tend to look for something "blue" or "red" rather than "sticker" or "tag". I think finding a system that works for how you look for things in your supplies is a smart way to organize things.

I sort by category, and then by colour. So all my brads are in one place, but sorted by colour so I can grab just the yellow ones if that's what I want. I cut my sticker sheets apart once I've used them a few times and am not reaching for them on every page, and then store them along with die cuts, puffy stickers, and anything else that is mostly flat and likely to be interchangeable in my mind, by colour.

As others have said, the key is knowing how you think. I tried sorting everything by colour first, but I found I would go looking for a brad or a die cut or a border strip, and then have to go through all my colour drawers to find one that worked. That made the process of creating frustrating and inefficient for me. I'm much happier with my current set up, and have been using this method for several years now.

I tried color bins but it didn't work for me...

Now I have things organized mostly by type, shape, or theme, except purple for some reason.

annaintx I think you should sort them based on how you scrap.
Is your first thought “I need something yellow for this space” or is it “I need something heart shaped for this space.”
If it is yellow - sort by colour
If it is heart - sort by shape

I have at least 4 sorts for embellishment storage:
First, if the embellishments go with a collection, they usually get stored with the collection (the papers) until it's down to scraps.
Second, if the embellishments are themed, they get stored in a case (Iris or Sterlite) with other embellishments with that theme.
Third, if the embellishments are all one type (ex. Brads, diecuts) but mixed colors in original packaging, they get stored by type. So all enamel dots go in a bin, all packaged flowers go in another bin, all alphabet sheets in a bin but sorted by color, all buttons on cards in a bin, etc.
Last, loose embellishments (no packaging), they get sorted by color. I have jars for buttons and ribbon and trays for everything else. Trays may hold two similar colors, like pink + red, and orange + yellow.
I can't tell you if this works or not, it's just how I store my embellishments.

I tried sorting by color and hated it but it was years ago when I had tons more in my stash than I do now. I found it annoying to go looking for what I wanted.

Now I mostly shop by collection so I keep it all together. When I am ready split up left over pieces from a collection they get put away by size or type (all my enamel dots are in one bin, my 12x12 sticker sheets are in a paper holder, 6x12 sticker sheets are kept together in a drawer, washi tape is in a wire little basket, etc). It's probably the least efficient way to store things but I am able to keep most of my stash within easy reach when I am sitting at my desk which increases the chance of using them on a project.

annaintx - good luck!!! It's kind of fun going through everything - remembering what you have and thinking of newer ways to use it.

Just curious what you use to store the collection in? I started storing collections in Iris boxes (12x12) but then the stacks of them got to high and I had to shuffle them around which was annoying. Then I switched to 13x13 envelopes that I found on Amazon someone here recommended and those were okay, but I really struggled with the ephemera packs with a collection, the washi, 6x6 pads, etc that I got with it, because the envelopes were really lumpy and sometimes it ruined corners ect (especially with Prima because I always got both sizes of the journaling cards) so the bulk was hard to manage. So then I got the Sterilite 3 drawer stackable cubes (13x13 or so) and those are okay...I have 7 of those, so 21 drawers...but I don't love having to dig through each drawer and because the drawers are good sized, sometimes there are 2-4 collections in one drawer, so again trying to keep them separated. Maybe there is something amazing I am missing lol...thanks for any thoughts!

This is how my brain works too. I do need to consolidate some of my items though, like getting all my enamel dots together instead of some here and some there. But otherwise this system works for me so far.

Everyone has probably said it already but it really comes down to how you think and look for specific items while you're scrapping, which handily comes back to my favorite organizing mantra from Dana K White - where would I look for this first?

I look for enamel dots in the enamel dot container behind me, Christmas bits and bobs in my little Christmas bins, but I look for die cuts with the matching 6x6 paper pads in my drawer or in a 12x12 envelope on my craft cart on the rare occasion I buy 12x12 paper. If I put all my yellow die cuts together I would go crazy because that's not how I think when I'm reaching for a die cut. But if you look at a page and more often think "this needs something yellow" it might work for you.

Your tolerance for micro vs macro sorting is a big factor too. Do you love digging through this and that, not knowing quite what you need and finding things by serendipity? Or are you someone who always finds themselves dividing a messy pile into dozens of little categories?