Organized Chaos... my ribbon storage

Ribbon might be one of the most difficult things to store for any crafter.  I have SO MUCH RIBBON it's bordering on hoarding, and I've never kept it on the spools because it's just too bulky.  Up until this past week, my ribbon has been in Ziploc bags, sorted by colour families; it was a disaster.  I couldn't see what was in there since they were so jammed full, and all of the strands were tangled and impossible to get out.  Often times I couldn't find an end, so I'd just cut a piece out of the middle.  What a mess.

I saw this idea using clothespins on Pinterest and thought it might just work for me.  Santa took the hint and put 100 wooden clothespins in my christmas stocking this year; sadly enough, that STILL wasn't enough so I had to make an extra trip to the dollar store to finish up.

Here's what my ribbon storage looks like now:

The first drawer is SUPREME organization, especially for me... I'm not known for being an organized person.  The left column is mostly-full spools of Stampin' Up (at 10 yards per spool, they're too big to unwind!) and twine (hemp and linen thread from Stampin' Up and lots and lots of baker's twine from My Mind's Eye, The Twinery, and Martha Stewart.)  The two middle columns are unopened (oh, the shame!  I just bought MORE!) spools from American Crafts; regular grosgrain and polkadot grosgrain.)  The right column is mostly striped grosgrain from Stampin' Up and a few assorted wide ribbons at the back.  The cardboard tags are punched from a Sizzix die from scrap cardboard in our recycling bin.  Reusing at it's finest!  

The second drawer shows the clothespin method.  It's still a bit of a mess, admittedly; I'm at peace with that.  Each piece of ribbon is visible, though, and nothing gets tangled up.  Hopefully this will allow me to use things more effectively! 

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