Organizing Ribbons

Storing ribbon has been a challenge for me.  The rolls take up too much room and the ribbons tend to unroll and make a tangled mess.

Last year I made a cut. file and spent some time winding ribbon around the cardboard shapes I cut out.  Over time, the cardboard shapes have become bent and have lost their shape.

Shirley and I just did a large order with Ribbons and Bows Oh My and there was just no room left in my ribbon drawer to store the new ones.  So, I spent most of Saturday and Sunday afternoons getting my ribbons organized and all into one container.  This way I can see at a glance which color ribbon I have when assembling cards.

I cut 3" x 4" rectangles from the heavy plastic divider sheets that come with Cropper Hopper paper storage systems.  The plastic was too heavy to cut with my Expression, but my guillotine cutter handled it quite well.   I wrote the color of the ribbon on the end of the rectangle so I'll know what to order again.

You can't tell from the picture, but the empty spools filled up over 1/2 of a tall kitchen trash can!  I compressed all the ribbon from these spools as well as from the cardboard shapes into a single 12 x 12 x 3 box that fits perfectly in a drawer.

I was surprised to find that I had multiple rolls of identical ribbon and didn't even realize it because I had spools stored in three different places. 

No more looking in several places to find the right color, width, pattern or texture ribbon I'm needing.  It's grouped by color, which seems most logical for me.   The ribbons are all in a drawer just to the right of where I do all my cards and I can see them all. Now I just have to clean up the huge mess I made while doing my re-organization!