My Bead Cabinet

Way back in August I showed off some of my most recent Thrift store scores. Among them was this amazing cabinet.
Remember that beauty!?

While I've had it for about three months now, I just recently finished organizing and labeling it. There are 33 drawers in all and I've filled all but six of them. Deciding how to organize my beads was easy. . .ROYGBIV order, obviously! And filling them wasn't a problem either.
 

Most of my clear plastic containers fit in it, no problem.

I did get stumped when it came to labeling the thing. I started by just sticking on some post-its. Those stayed there for WAY too long.

As you can see, the cabinet has built in areas for labels, but I wasn't sure exactly how crafty I wanted to get to make the labels. In the end, I went simple and pulled out a multitude of colored cardstock.

The small rectangle was my template for all the other sheets. I matched up the color of cardstock to the color of beads inside. It got tricky when it came to the metal beads, multi-colored beads, clear beads, crystals, and miscellaneous bits, but I worked it out with some non-solid papers, vellum, and a trip to the craft store.

Before long, it was all labeled!

Upper drawers
You can see that I just used an old-school label-maker to write out the actual words.

Lower cabinets
I even used different colored labels to distinguish between beads and findings.

The mixed metal bead drawers are probably my favorite labels. The paper is an almost glitter, bumpy paper that shines some. It's perfect for metal.

I could keep showing you pictures of my awesome bead cabinet but that just wouldn't be right. I don't like to be a show-off. I just wanted to make sure I shared what became of my thrift store find.

How would you have made the labels for the cabinet and would you have organized it differently?

14 comments:

  1. d-r-o-o-l-i-n-g with envy over your YUMMY new storage system...... :-p

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  2. Love the cabinet! Using the colored paper is smart. I find myself digging through drawers. You have inspired me to get organized!

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  3. Gorgeous! The coloured labels are ingenious :-) fun, quirky and useful. <3

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    1. Ana- Thank you! The labels are really helping me get to my beads faster without all that bothersome reading ;) I'm really loving the organization. Now if I could just do something about the rest of the craft room!

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  4. I am not ashamed to say I'm jealous. I like how you organized your storage cabinet with the colored labels.

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  5. i would certainly pay you to organize my workshop! this is great!!!

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  6. Well, why don't you send it to me, and I'll come up with a couple of organization plans? ;)
    Love this cabinet!!!!

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  7. Shirley- Oh geez, I can only image the crazy shipping costs of this cabinet, especially now that it's filled with my beads. I think I'll keep it here. Thanks for the suggestion though. :P

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  8. Oh I am soooooooo jealous! I would love draws like these!

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    1. Cynthia- I've been looking for something like this for YEARS and when hubby spotted it, I was disappointed we didn't take it home right away. Fortunately, I couldn't get it off my mind so he took me back the next morning for it. I was ecstatic! Here's hoping you can find something for your stash too!

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  9. Awesome cabinet! Love the color coding. Great job .

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  10. woooooooow! i am so jealous but happy for you! it's awesome!

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  11. I have the same cabinet! I couldn’t figure out how to organize it until I saw your post. Thanks for a great idea!

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    1. I'm so glad I could help! Thanks for taking the time to stop by.

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