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4 Easy Steps to Organize Punches

Do you have a collection of punches for scrapbooking and crafting? If your collection has grown, it may be time to find a way to get them under control!

I’ve seen several other great ways to organize punches, I’ll share a few of them with you too!

You can organize your punches in 4 easy steps.

 

Step 1.

Gather all of your punches. Dig through the piles, the bottom of the bag you take to crops, and the junk drawer to get your punches in one place.

Step 2:

Designate a space for your punches. I wanted my punches on trays that slide onto shelves. This way I can easily move a tray of punches to my craft table, or just pull out the punch I would like to use.

*Note: I purchased the trays from Walmart. I love how sturdy they are, and that they have handles on the sides so they are easy to carry. You don’t need new trays, of course, use seldom used bakeware, or cookie sheets, serving trays, or baskets. Decorate them to match your space!

Step 3.

Sort the punches into categories. Have a look at what kinds of punches you collect. I wanted my categories to be broad enough that it was easy to return punches to the right place, but specific enough that I wouldn’t have to search through each tray to find a certain punch. I split the punches into 3 categories: Circles, Shapes and Borders/Corners.

Circles

I love to use circle punches to cut photos or to embellish layouts!

Borders & Corners

My favourite punch in this tray is the EK Success corner rounder. (That’s why I have 2!)

Shapes

I don’t have many shapes … I might want to see if this tray would like a couple additions!

Step 4.

Add a label to the trays and put them on the shelves. You might want to label the shelves too.

Happily organized punches. Yay!

Beautiful!

4 Bonus Organizing Ideas

If you don’t have shelves that would be handy for storing your punches I’ve found a couple of other punch storage ideas that you might be interested in!

For easy accessibility place punches on a lazy susan shelf.

Source: scrapbook.com

These slide out shelves from Ikea look perfect for punches!

Source: craftystorage.blogspot.ca

If I had the wall space I would love to use rails like these!

Source: kewl-beans.blogspot.ca

Looking for a budget and eco-friendly solution? I love this custom, re-purposed, and redesigned shelving!

Source: randomonpurpose.typepad.com

Ready to organize your stamps too?

 

In this post I share my best tips for stamp organization. You spend a lot of money on stamps… wouldn’t it be nice to find the ones you need when you are ready to use them?

CLICK HERE.

How to Organize Stamps and actually find them when you need them!

I hope you are inspired to get your punches in order today! If you’ve seen another great punch storage idea please share a link in the comments!

Let your creativity shine!

Alice.

 

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • Beth 25 February, 2013, 9:42 am

    What great ideas you gave for punch storage Alice. I love that custom one with the shelving and the dowels to hang the punches on. I don’t have a ton of punches so right now I have them all sitting in a basket which works for me 🙂

    • Alice. 25 February, 2013, 9:44 am

      Thanks Beth. A basket is definitely an organized system. I’ve had over 14 years to collect punches, so I have a few! I tend to go through phases where I use them a lot, and that’ when I pick up more. I love my corner rounder, but my very favourite punch is the giant circle. I use it to crop the occasional photo, which is super handy!

  • Carol 25 February, 2013, 5:47 pm

    Great ideas!!!!

    • Alice. 25 February, 2013, 5:48 pm

      Thanks Carol!

  • Artful Adventures - Kristie 27 February, 2013, 11:38 pm

    Alice, these are great ideas for organizing. Seems like we can always use ideas to wrangle in our supplies! Thanks for sharing!

    • Alice. 28 February, 2013, 12:27 am

      For sure! I love to see how other people organize their supplies. Sometimes I can’t use the same storage, but their classification system might work for me. Thanks for visiting!

  • Dawn Stegall 2 March, 2013, 2:17 pm

    I use a similar system and categories to organize my punches. I added a jumbo punch category in a deeper drawer though. 🙂 I, too, go in spurts using my punches. I love them though!

  • Debbie ONeal 30 March, 2013, 11:28 pm

    Thanks for all the inspiration for storing punches. I do have mine sorted by category like you suggested. It sure helps when I need to grab a punch fast ! I think I need to check out Ikea and look for that sliding tray shelf…that looks soo cool !

  • Patricia Vickers 24 April, 2013, 8:53 am

    I love the different ideas you have for storing and organizing punches. I especially like the Lazy Susan idea. Thanks

  • Pam 18 July, 2014, 5:05 pm

    I have an over the door canvas shoe holder that I use for my larger punches. The smaller ones are in Iris cart drawers by circles, squares and shapes. I like your idea, but don’t have enough shelf space.

  • Robin Earp 12 February, 2016, 1:52 am

    These pants are so helpful especially to beginners when they start collecting our 30 year veteran of stamping and it’s really good ideas thank you for what you do!

  • Marchelle 12 February, 2016, 4:34 pm

    Thank you for sharing your ideas. I also have mine in categorized drawers in my Workbox (I call my toybox LOL) But mine are also broken down as to what and how I use my punches. I have my circles/ovals together, squares, then I love to make flowers so I have a separate drawer/shelf for all my flower punches. I love Butterflies and have several different styles, so they are a group by themselves either. All my creative memories are kept together. my mini Stamping up punches are all together etc. Then I have ones I call fun shapes that are just random type. I know I have a lot of catagories, but it works best for me.

    • Alice. 12 February, 2016, 4:47 pm

      That sounds wonderful! Any organization is good if it works. You have a Workbox… I’ve seen them and they look amazing! Thanks for sharing your system.

  • Karla 13 February, 2016, 11:16 am

    This is how I organize my punches…

    http://stampinwithk.blogspot.com/2012/01/punch-storage.html

    Karla c(:

    • Alice. 13 February, 2016, 11:48 am

      I love your system Karla! The punches on the outside of the gutter make it so easy to find the right punch… and to put them back!

  • Anne Ondrovcik 6 May, 2016, 4:57 pm

    I used an old shoe organizer for my punches. It hangs on the back of a door, and they are all within easy reach. Love your ides too.

    • Alice. 6 May, 2016, 9:16 pm

      That sounds like a perfect solution Anne!