I love my new stencil organizer!

Hi, my name is Mary and I have a stencil addiction.

No, I don't want help with it.

I have been through at least 4 ways to store my stencils.  I have scoured Pinterest looking for ideas that would work for me.  I love to look at how some people keep there stencils in the original packaging and they are hanging pristinely in their studio.  That is not what I was looking for.  I am not neat.  I don't clean my stencils. And the chances of them making back into a plastic sleeve are zero. 

My first organizer was just a 12x12 scrapbook plastic storage box.  That lasted for quite awhile.  One day though I outgrew that box.  My choices were to buy another box or find a new way.  The box had been great, but I was tired of digging through looking for the stencil I wanted.

Organizer #2 was a set of large binder rings.  I hole punched each stencil and hung it on a binder ring.  I had 4 binder rings and I could hook them on the side of my art cart, so they were handy.  The binder rings started getting loose after a year or so.  I decided to buy just one big ring and I bought the Reset Girl's Again small washi tape ring (organizer #2.1).  This worked for awhile, but first the ring was heavy since I didn't stop buying stencils.  Also when I would take the stencils to my classes, it was time consuming to put all the stencils back on the rings.

So now we arrive at my new find.  I had a desk organizer similar to this one from IKEA for a few years.  

FJÄLLA Desk Organizer from IKEA

I had been using it to store my Project Life cards.  I don't know what happened, but one day I walked by and I wondered if my 12x12 stencils would fit in the back pocket.  They did!  And my 6-8 inch ones fit in the next pocket.  Another one fit 6x6's.  It was a miracle!!!  The only adjustment I had to made was cutting out one divider in the front section so the 6x6's fit perfectly.

Now I can flip through and look for the stencil I want.  The sections help it stay organized and I have no clean-up after classes.