The Method to the Madness

So I'm sure this comes up often for many nail polish fanatics. How can I store my polish. I have a pretty decent system that I've been using for almost two years. I'm going to give everyone a look into how I store my polish. At current count my collection amounts to be 270 but that doesn't include a container full of really old off brand stuff that I just can't toss.

Here are all 270 polishes lined up on my coffee table. They are grouped by color as I was reorganizing my whole collection.

Right now I'm just using different types of plastic bins. Eventually when I have a more stable life I plan to get a Ikea Helmer but right now I love what I have.

This picture is the bin that holds the bulk of my polish. I can get about 70 bottles on each tier. It's from Snapware and I purchased it from Target it's 13 x 10 inches and the tiers are about 4 inches each.

The rest of my collection I use shoe box sized Sterlite bins. I have two for nail polish and another for nail accessories.

The left bin would usually be full but while organizing my collection I was also pulling out polishes I wanted to take with me for my 6 month stay in Switzerland. I think I pulled out a lot but once I'm at the end of packing I will probably not take about a third of what is shown.

This cute little box is where I keep most of my everyday manicure supplies (Top coats, base coats, drip drops, cuticle pusher, cotton balls, q tips) and I will also leave in a few colors that I plan to use during the week.

How do I keep track of everything? I sort my collection by color and have them all placed into a spread sheet.

Every polish has a corresponding number that I write on the cap and back of the bottle. I also have 21 nail wheels in which I have swatched each polish. Here are a few...

If you want to see the rest of my nail wheels you can check out my Flickr set it's about a month out of date already though. http://www.flickr.com/photos/allisonlich/sets/72157623871740863/

Hopefully someone finds this a bit interesting and it helps you create your own system.