Inside the Floss Boxes

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There was a comment and a couple of emails of readers wanting to know more about the boxes I use for floss storage. I’ll try to explain it a bit better here. I didn’t buy mine at Michael’s but these are similar and are currently on sale. They are 4 x 6 photo storage boxes. They are not deep and you can see that they don’t hold 100 skeins of floss. Example: One box has 801 – 839, meaning I could only get 38 skeins in there. Others have a larger range but that’s because DMC doesn’t have floss for EVERY number. I have the entire DMC collection of cotton floss and it all fits in this one tub.

This box is my “master box” and I will only use floss out of here if I’m desperate and I will make a note and replace it as soon as I make a trip to Hobby Lobby.

The skeins fit nicely in these little boxes and since I don’t use them for all my floss needs, I don’t have to dig in them often. With the DMC book, I’ll look up the number . . say I’m looking for a color and I’m not sure what color I’m looking for. I’ll look at the DMC book and see that whatever number I’m looking for is lime green, then it’s easy to find it in there.

The boxes with the aqua tabs are the boxes where I keep all the DMC floss that’s waiting to be used. I don’t have nearly all the DMC colors but I almost always what I need. If there’s a color I need and don’t have, I’ll make a note and get it next time I’m at Hobby Lobby. I’ll usually buy extras of whatever I’ve taken out of those boxes. Kinda like having a stash to backup the master box. If I want to get started on something immediately, I’ll grab that color out of the master box and then replace it.

These boxes are a good bit larger than the 4 x 6 boxes in the master box. They’re available here at Amazon for less than they are at Wayfair, where I bought mine a year ago. They are 11″ long x 6-5/8″ wide and 2-3/4″ deep. They’re made by Sterilite and I love them! They don’t feel cheap at all. I ordered 2 sets of them, liked them so much I ordered 3 more sets so I have 30 of them now. Not one of them was damaged in shipping.

These little Sterilite boxes hold way more floss than do the photo storage boxes but I may have 5 or 6 skeins of several colors that I use often in these boxes, where the photo boxes will never have more than one skein of each color.

The purple and pink boxes are where I keep the packets of Victoria Clayton’s silks that I have for projects. Her silk packets come with the conversion chart. I make two copies of this, then stick one inside the box. I add an extra copy to the project bag and I have a file for all of these sheets. There’s a little dog around here who loves running off with things like this.

Before I start stitching, I tape that conversion list down to the inside of the box lid.

Some of the boxes I use are pink, some are purple, some are clear. The clear ones are the largest, the purple ones a

The pink ones are $1.64 on sale at JoAnn right now, regular price is $3.29. They will hold 30 of Victoria Clayton’s small bobbins. These are 5.75″ x 3.75″ x 1.25″. These are a hard plastic and will crack if dropped on a hard floor (or chewed on by a puppy).

The purple ones are $5.99 at JoAnn right now. I think they hold 30 bobbins also. The description says these are 3.5″ x 11.29″ x 9.3″ but here’s a picture of the three I use and you can see they are the same size as the pink ones. The description also says it holds 30 bobbins, as does the pink one. It also says they’re acid free . . who knows?

The larger clear ones are for when I have more than 30 bobbins. They are 8.25″ x 4.375″ x 1.25″ and will 42 of Victoria Clayton’s bobbins. Right now, they seem to be on sale for $5.49.

For reference, here are the three sizes together.

The boxes shown above are the boxes shown above are where I keep bobbins for specific projects. The boxes shown below are where I keep Victoria Clayton bobbins that I collect – stash building. Also, once I finish a project, I switch the bobbins from the boxes shown above to the boxes shown below. I try to keep these extra bobbins together by color.

You may me able to see that there are some large bobbins and some small bobbins.

The large bobbins are 25 yards. The smaller bobbins are 8.7 yards.

I think that’s all the boxes I use for floss storage. One last thing – all the overdyed cottons are on rings, by dyer (Weeks, Gentle Arts, Classic Cottons, Colour & Cotton, Victorian Motto, etc.) in alphabetical order.

The Au Vera Soie – Soie 100/3 silks are stored in this little acrylic jewely boxes. I don’t have many of those and I think they’re very similar to Victoria Clayton’s Silks so, the 100/3 silks I have are only ones that came with kits. Once I’ve stitched the projects, the silks will go into this box.

Brenda, from Brenda & The Serial Starter, showed these on their flosstube a while back and I promptly ordered one.

I think each drawer is supposed to hold 22 spools.

That’s it . . the end . . Judy’s Floss Obsession! 🙂