Organizing Tying Supplies

[tracker12]

I have to admit that my tie stuff is very unorganized and I am always hunting for stuff and often just buy the item again just to find it later. So how do you keep your fly tying supplies organized. Pics appreciated.

 

[mote1977]

I keep all of my supplies in small Rubbermaid totes inside a large wheeled tote. I organize everything in labeled ziploc bags. I take my supplies with me a lot of times when I travel. This makes it easy to load up and go.

 

[shakey]

i have two mini ikea filing cabinets.

 

[Steeltrap]

I have two wooden boxes. One I keep all feathers in the front and all fur in the back.

In the second box I keep my supplies in separate plastic bags. I have 'em organized by beads, egg tying, hooks in size\type order, dubbing (outside of my dubbing boxes) by kind. ie: synthetic, ice, natural, etc. Long items like Krystal Flash and the like are kept to one side. My threads are in one bag and my tying tools in another.

It's not the best......but much better than helter-skelter.

FWIW

 

[redietz]

Organizing? Hahahaha.

 

[fishbaithohaha]

Doubles of supplies is God instructing you to tie and fish more often.

 

[drakeking412]

https://imgur.com/a/HCw7XEK

I'm not a very organized guy by any means but I think I have a good system for my mats.

I was lucky enough to be given my grandmothers old sowing box. She bought it as a gift for her mother back in the 60's so its well traveled and living it's third life. I have it organized into steelhead stuff, dubbings, furs and tailing, oddities, and general space for hook bags, hare's mask, and chunks of fur in bags for homemade dubbing. I love that thing.

I also use Plano trays a lot, they make organizing easy. They're organized into tinsels, wires, threads, and beads. As you can see I even went so far to label the beads because I have a problem.

 

[poopdeck]

I use a portable tying station where I keep my threads, lead and wire on dowel rods and bobbins within easy reach. My materials are kept in a plastic organizing tower that one can find in any college dorm room. It has three bigger drawers in the bottom and four skinnier drawers up top. I have pegboard where my most used materials hang in their original packaging. Hooks and beads and such are stored in their original packaging in an open box on my tying station. I keep misc. stuff like uv resin, eyes, bucktail, foam, paint and whatnot in plastic shoe boxes stacked on my bench.

My best organizational tool is I don't go nuts buying every type of thread, material, hook, bead or whatever out there. I Rarely follow any recipe exactly and use them more as a guide. Even with this philosophy I have a lot of stuff and my area is generally in some level of acceptable chaos.

 

[nfrechet]

 

[tracker12]

Some great ideas thanks. I ordered some Plano boxes for my threads ands started separating my dubbing, feathers eat. In separate tubs. I like those portable stations and might make one.

 

[Rolf]

Let's just say Sterilite is your friend.

 

[RLeep2]

I use a combination of stackable plastic towers/drawers and an old 2 row oak chest of drawers which is probably about 60" long by 36" high. Six big drawers anyway. I subdivide these further with still cardboard inserts I cut to size and duct tape in place. These days, I tie probably 75% bass/pike flies to 25% trout flies, so I further segregate materials along these lines so I'm not throwing chukar and starling skins in the air while I'm trying to find my sky blue bucktail.

It's all organized to the point that I can usually find just about anything within a half hour or so...

It's over 55 years of crap, so I have a pile of stuff I'll never need or use again. I'll probably have a major (free!!) clearance of trout stuff to celebrate my 70th birthday (in 2022). Dinky hooks, HQ necks and saddles and bags of feathers and hair from just about every bird and critter to ever appear in the annual hunting license digest. So, stay tuned for that....

 

[CRB]

RLeep2 wrote:
I use a combination of stackable plastic towers/drawers and an old 2 row oak chest of drawers which is probably about 60" long by 36" high. Six big drawers anyway. I subdivide these further with still cardboard inserts I cut to size and duct tape in place. These days, I tie probably 75% bass/pike flies to 25% trout flies, so I further segregate materials along these lines so I'm not throwing chukar and starling skins in the air while I'm trying to find my sky blue bucktail.

It's all organized to the point that I can usually find just about anything within a half hour or so...

It's over 55 years of crap, so I have a pile of stuff I'll never need or use again. I'll probably have a major (free!!) clearance of trout stuff to celebrate my 70th birthday (in 2022). Dinky hooks, HQ necks and saddles and bags of feathers and hair from just about every bird and critter to ever appear in the annual hunting license digest. So, stay tuned for that....

;-)
I will look forward to that keep me posted.

 

[CRB]

Sterilite shoe box size and file size for my necks stored vertically.
Plano trays for hooks ect.

 

[linwood]

Excellent six part series on this subject at flyanglersonline.com.

Select 'Fly Tying' along the left edge of the home page. Then select 'Getting Organized'in the drop down list of Fly Tying. Artical was written by George Emanuel.

 

[semperfish]

Nicely organized nfrechet....but, I had to smile at the one box labeled "misc".....There's ALWAYS a "misc"....you've succeeded in limiting it to one....for now

 

[TrtnBux]

The lab