The frugal (cheapskate) way to craft storage

Hi there!
Whether you`re crafting on a budget or would simply sooner spend your hard earned cash on crafty goodies rather than somewhere to keep it all, we all need affordable storage. These are my very cheap, sometimes free options.

These drawers are ace. Even better, they were free. Alan scrounged them for me when a local office was having a refurb. They are perfect for all my A4 card, photo copy paper and coloured paper..
The liitle stacking drawers on top were £1 from Poundland DIY dept, great for buttons and brads.

These clear plastic boxes are also from Poundland and are ideal for keeping my flowers in. I have 4 and because they`re clear I can see at a glance which colour is in which box.

These A4 boxes from `Really Useful Box` are a bit more expensive, 4 for £10 from Doncaster market but they are very strong. I keep all my card and patterned paper snippets in them, again one colour, one box ( more or less)

Ok, so this isn`t pretty but who really cares? There`s only me to look at them. Empty icecream tubs for ribbon and twine. And you get to eat the ice cream first. They are all stacked  in an old vegetable rack that slots neatly away when not in use.

Empty biscuit and sweet tins are a great way to store small items like tubs of embossing powders and glitter.

Last but not least...markers. I used to keep these in old biscuit tins but I got sick of having to rake about to find a particular colour. I toyed with the idea of buying custom made storage but it aint cheap, then I saw someone who used a wooden wine rack. Great idea but they are quite expensive too so I was stumped.
Then the other day whilst rearranging the craft room I hit upon this idea, tried it and it works a treat.
Two old CD racks with compartments made by using thin cd jewel cases. The more of one colour pen you have the bigger the compartment you can make. They sit, singly, on my desk and I go straight to a colour without having to rake about.

I still have to find a better way to store my inks. At the moment they are sitting in a cardboard candle box with compartments but, being cardboard its sagging dangerously now. If anyone can think of a better, very cheap way please let me know.

It would be interesting to hear of your frugal storage tips, the cheaper the better. I`m sure we`d all prefer spending on stamps than boxes.

Thanks for popping in...Lynne xxx