I Just Ran Out of Room!

My cartridge storage shelves were full before I picked up the five cartridges today that Okie had ordered for me.   She's found a good way to organize and store her cartridges, handbooks and overlays that saves so much room that I picked up the containers and file tabs I'd have to have to do mine the same way.

After getting home from stamp club this evening, I started getting organized and compacted this:

into

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this!

I only own 44 Cricut cartridges, and some of those are Solutions that didn't come with a box.  Up until today they were all stored on two shelves above my work table.  Now, I have all the cartridges in three slim fishing tackle boxes called "Flip Sider" made by Plano and the handbooks and overlays in two 9 Liter Really Useful Boxes from Staples. 

Since I use Design Studio all the time, the overlays are never used and I seldom look at the handbooks either.  I didn't want to take them out of my craft room where I'd have to go searching for them.  Putting them in the two Really Useful Boxes means I can store them in my JetMax cubes within reach.  The boxes have snap on lids to protect the handbooks from dust and moisture too!

Inside the tackle box are 6 rows of little cubbies that the cartridges fit perfectly into!  I used my label maker and put a label on each cubbie so I'd know where to put the cartridge after using it.

This is a side view showing how the rows of cubbies flip up   (I'm sure that's why it's called a Flip Sider! LOL!)

Okie had made dividers for her handbooks/overlay storage so I totally copied hers.  She found some file tabs at Wal Mart that are shiny white paper.  You can write on them with a permanent pen and if you need to change the tab, you can wipe the writing off with alcohol.  I cut cardstock 4 3/4" x 8 1/2" for the dividers and just hand lettered them with the cartridge name.

The tackle boxes are another one of Okie's bargains she found at a local store that sells insurance salvage, returned items from big retailers, etc.  You never know what you'll find when you go there!  I spent $4.88 for each of the tackle boxes,  $9.00 each for the handbook storage boxes, about $2 each for the file tab packages and used 20 sheets of cardstock to make the dividers.  So, for around $40.00 I got all my things stored and best of all,  I got back two shelves in my wall cabinets to use!

Now all I have left to do is to decide whether I want to keep the empty boxes or decorate them for my grandkids to use for treasure/jewelry boxes.  I love the magnetic closure on them and think they'd make really cute boxes to keep on the dressers in their rooms.