How I organise my stash

So I have quite a few bottles of polish.  I actually consider myself a bit of a collector. I have never really felt the urge to want to have a blog sale or sell any of my polishes, as I still want every single polish that is here in my collection.  But with any collection comes the need to organise it well.  

This is my set up, and it works really well for me.  Don't get me wrong, it not always a neatly packed up collection.  My husband will attest to the fact that I usually have a lot of polish crap all over the dining table, but at least it can easily be cleaned up and put away.

The clear drawers here on the left contain all my bits.  Top left drawer has my go to polishes that I need everyday, top coats, base coats, thinner, remover etc.  Second top drawer on the left is my untried drawer - oh dear!  I have a couple of drawers dedicated to glitters and pigments for frankening, another for stamping stuff, another with decals, stickers and tattoos and one with all the spectraflair packaged up ready to sell.

The two IKEA Helmers contain all my polishes.  I still have two empty drawers, but think I will need another Helmer soon.  I sort my polishes in the drawers by brand and each drawer is labelled with what brand is inside.  On top of my drawers I have my stamping plate folder and swatch sticks box.

Here is my folder for stamping plates.  I actually have my mum to thank for this, she saw it on a blog and did it all for me.  The sleeves are collector card sleeves and each one has a piece of non-slip drawer liner cut and inserted so that the plates don't fall out.  It's so easy to flip through and browse plates to choose what to stamp.

Here is my plastic box that contains my swatch sticks. When I get a new polish, I swatch it on the stick immediately, together with writing the brand, polish name, how many coats and a number the corresponds to that polish in my spreadsheet.

I group all my sticks into colour groups and have the looped onto rings.  Then the whole group looped onto a single ring.  Here is the collection of my yellow and gold polishes.

And here is the same pile splayed out.

Silvers, includes foils, chromes, magnetics, holos and glitters.

Reds and maroons.

Oranges

Pinks

Duo and multi chromes.

With the duo and multi chromes I actually paint half the swatch stick black first.  This splay shows the side with the polish over the black half.

This is the same group of polishes, showing the clear side.

Purples.

Blues

Blacks, charcoals and greys.

Greens.

Layering glitters - those that will never achieve opacity on their own.  All colours.

The only special grouping that remains by brand.  My Lynnderella swatch sticks.

I love these swatch sticks, especially because as soon as I get a new polish I can open it up and paint the stick to see what it looks like, without the need to remove the polish I am wearing.  They are also fantastic for comparing colours and trying laying combos.

These sticks are easily found on eBay, and the rings are just document rings we purchased for$1 from the local discount dollar shop.  

I also love the fact that I have all my polishes sorted by colour on the sticks, which are clearly labelled by brand and name.  Which then makes it really easy to find the polish in the labelled drawers.

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Write by: Unknown - Sunday, May 6, 2012