Organizing All my Crap?
- This topic has 46 replies, 23 voices, and was last updated Jan 30, 2009 at 5:05 am by
.
-
Posts
-
I need suggestions on how all of you organize your fly tying crap as my wife puts it? If you have a plan.
go through everything..
what you dont use or what the impluse buy made you buy.. Put in a box and this winter do a BOX SWAP..
send it around to a few people let them pick and choose and add a little to it.. Most of the time they are not greedy but you do have that 1 every now and then that trys to..
As far as organizing….. GOOD LUCK!!
Good compartmented hook boxes help a lot. You don’t need expensive ones. Craft bead boxes from Walmart work great. You can print out clear labels for the lids showing each hook type and size.
On the flashy side, Gerstner boxes look nice and are great for storing tools and small items.
Plastic storage bins from target are great for storing capes and skins. I bought the thread racks at Walmart in the sewing section for $8.99 each.
I bought the desk at an unfinished furniture store called The Mill Store. I’m still working on getting it finished. I drilled the hole over the center drawer and have a container in the drawer that catches the left over material. I don’t think I paid over $150 for the desk.
The rod tube holder was an end table/magazine rack (can be great for blanks too if you’re a rod builder).
Hopefully Neal will chime in here, he has some great ideas too.
Organize alll your crap?
Oh my, I do believe the dear boy has gone daft.
This is a straight and narrow road to never being able to find anything ever again.
It all starts with organizing your crap, then the next thing you know, your mother-in-law is going to be living with you and your wife’s sister’s lazy bum of a husband is going to be sleeping on your couch.
Whew, I’m glad that crisis was avoided.
Rich,
I really like the machinist box and the card cabinet, do you know where the cabinet came from.
MSFWIW – A friend of mine is a carpenter and was doing a job for some folks who had a bunch of reasonably nice furniture in their basement they were getting rid of and offered it to him. He called me and asked me if I had a use for an armoire, to which I replied “Hell, yeah!”.
Four big drawers on the bottom half for bird skins, large bags of bulk feathers, long dry fly saddles, large streamer saddles and necks, yarns, cements, paints, hook boxes, extra fly boxes, full peacock eye sticks, arctic fox tails, etc. Top section is open shelves with a dozen or so 1.5 gal plastic storage bins (each labeled) for bucktails, strung saddle hackle, marabou, dry fly necks, assorted tails, etc.
When closed, it provides a wife-pleasing appearance….save the moth crystal scent leaking out of it…. 😎
Rich,
I really like the machinist box and the card cabinet, do you know where the cabinet came from.
MSMy wife got it for my birthday last year.
The Container Store is a great place to get all sort of boxes for organizing tying debris. In fact they carry divided boxes almost identical to those at fly shops, for much less. I use plastic shoe boxes, and similar containers to stack stuff in my limited space. Smaller ones also work well in the pockets of my float tube to contain small items I don’t want wet or rattling around.
Also, recycling plastic food containers, like dips or sauces might come in, is environmentally beneficial.
BTW, having seen the picture of the desk above in a previous post, I found a desk on Craig’s list that is very similar for $20 and turned it into my tying desk.
I am not the most organized guy in the world but here is what I do, since my desk for tying is also the office/computer desk.
I first bought a little plastic thing from Home Depot, the 12 drawer thing for nuts and bolts, and I put hooks, beads, lead eyes, extra bobbins, glue, etc in this.
I recently bought a plastic rolling 5 drawer thing from an office supply store, and I have my stuff separated like, chenille, and maribou in one drawer, fur in one, feathers in one, etc.
That stays under the desk out of the way.
I bought a thread holder from the sewing shop, got strange looks from the ladies when I bought that. It sits on the desk with the vise.
It is pretty organized for a novice tier that does not tie often.One day I hope to have a room for my fishing stuff ::)
Keith
i’ve got 2 sets of 4′ white plastic storage bins
i separate drawers based on material:
hooks
tools (that are not in my foam holder)
flash
hackle
egg/yarn material
dubbing
marabou/tail feathers/herl
foam
natural hair- buck, elk, calf
estaz /chenile -separated in drawer by zip lock bags
zonker/x cut
rubber legs and terrestrial body partsthreads are on a spool holder from craft shop
rods are in wooden holder like above but much crapier looking, reels are stored in boxes (pepsi plastic shipping container from behind gas station) belowi pull out the ingredients for each pattern from the various boxes and place them back when i’m done.
have to tie on a folding table in guest room, has to be put away when done tying
additionally, there are wheels on the bottom of my bins
i’m teaching a guy to tie tonight and all i had to do was roll the bins from the closet to the kitchen table quite convienient
The Gerstner box is very nice, but I found one just as nice and at a much better price from Grizzly Tools. click on link below
http://www.grizzlytools.com/products/26-Oak-10-Drawer-Chest/H7716
The best scheme for me is to batch like things together. Dry fly feathers together, beads together, rubber legs together, chenille together, streamer feathers together, tubing together, etc.
Like Dave said above, snap boxes are perfect. The best boxes IMHO are the Snapware boxes http://www.snapware.com/maindept.asp?dept_id=10000. I get them at OfficeMax for $4.99 small and $8.99 large. They are perfect for fly tying because they have a latch on the sides that not only secures your stuff inside but also act like a compression bag. For example you can put a bunch of hair or craft fur in a box and cram it in then the lid snaps shut. The other boxes I’ve tried don’t work because the lids just pop open (especially when traveling).
I also have a few junk boxes around for bigger stuff like wig hair and buck tail
Then there are the bastard step-children! The stuff that doesn’t really fit in a specific category. I just put em in bags but I make sure each bag has a theme (angel hair in one bag, toys from the Dollar Store in another, etc.).
Hooks – I have two simple work boxes and I put my hooks in smaller containers within the boxes. A while ago I gave up the product packaging and simply made my own system. After a while I just learned what hooks I use and can recognize them by site.
I now throw away the packaging on chenile and Estaz and ribbing, etc. I got this little jewelry container for $1 and it works great. I can see everything at once!
Beads and eyes all go in one box – you can get these tic-tac boxes at Hobby Lobby for $3.99.
Rubber legs and rubber materials – Plano boxes, enough said. Get em at Walmart for $2.99 a piece.
DUSTBUSTER – THE MOST IMPORTANT gadget I own. It took me a long time to figure out the necessity of this one but since I got it my wife has been very pleased. I just do my tying thing and make a big old mess to my heart’s content and then suck it all up and go to bed. Easy. I no longer have glitter and chenille on my clothes (or in the bed, or on the dog, or in my coffee).
Disclaimer
My tying kit is relatively compact; it actually used to fit in a medium size tool box, vice and all. Here’s why:
1.I like what you’ve done with that desk. Good vision dude.
If I’d seen that in that desk – man I could kick myself.For those who don’t know, Daryl packed for Perth, and ended up in Wellington, I was the luck recipient of that desk when he left SA…
Hey BH,
I read this a while back:
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/organize/index.php
And the author does a nice job addressing the inventory issues.
See what you think.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.