Friday, February 19, 2010

Storage & Organization for Unmounted Stamps



Organizing my stamps has always been a dilemma for me. Recently, I decided to solve that problem! So, I started a huge project. Over the years I have stored my stamps in CD cases. Due to the lack of time most of my sets did not have a index card in the cover of the CD case. So while my son was in the hospital last summer, I spent my time with him stamping images onto cardstock to index each CD. My fingers hurt from stamping...I stamped so many index pages!! (I have over 600 CD cases of stamps!) I even got help from my son's girlfriend who colored some of the index pages for me while she spent time with Jonathan.

My next step was separate each set by subtitles. I scanned each index page into my computer and I placed a number on each index page (those are the hand written numbers you see on each picture). The next thing I did was to make a label for the side of the CD case with the subtitle and the number from the index page. Then I scanned the index card for each CD into my computer. Then using a photo program I created a slide show for each subtitle much like the one you see above. The example above is a very small sample of my TAC Christmas stamp collection.

On the desktop of my computer, I have a folder of all my different subtitles (birthdays, valentines, Easter-Spring, Halloween, etc..). This system allows anyone working in my studio to retrieve a specific stamp quickly. To find the stamp you want, view the slideshow and once you have located the stamp, take the number from the index card and go to the CD shelves and retrieve the corresponding CD case.

This project is getting close to being completed. I will save time by not aimlessly looking thru all my CD cases to find that one stamp I need and it will also help to keep my studio more organized!!

Please feel free to share your ideas on how to store your stamps and index them. It is always wonderful to get a new idea from others!