Organizing Cookie Cutters???
Baking By anothrcookiejar Updated 2 Apr 2007 , 1:28am by ValMommytoDanny
How do you all organize/store your cutters?
My collection is rapidly growing and I'm wondering the best way to keep them so I can find what I want, when I need it.
Any tips or suggestions?
If you have enough wall space, peg board that is usually used for hanging tools is very effective.
any other suggestions. As this interests me as well. Right now, I'm using plastic containers sorted into seasons, etc. But I'm still having to go through and look.. would love it if I could just grab it and off to baking I go.
Peg board is a great idea, but wondering if anyone else does something different.
I probably have over 300 cutters, I'm not in the business, so I don't have them on a peg board. I sort them into quart and gallon sized ziploc bags and write on the outside with a sharpie. Then I sort the gallon sized bags into the larger zipper bags and write on the outside what "catagories" are in there. Then just store them in a big steralite tub.
This is what works for me, because I have so many...it only takes a minute or two to find what I need, since they're so organized. And, all of the ziplocs(actually Hefty brand zipper bags) provide cushion for them, so the more fragile ones don't get bent.
Oh, I also separate plastic from metal so the plastic ones don't get cut.
Here's a bump for more ideas!
I would love tips on this as well. I have tons of cutters just from buying here and there over the years, and now that I'm buying purposefully for baking and selling, my collections is just getting HUGE!.
The peg board idea is awesome, but I have so little space in my kitchen as it is.
Other similar ideas for ease of locating, but without taking up TOO much space?
Thanks!
I have all of mine in shoe box totes (clear plastic)...broken down in catergories w/ labels on the boxes, and stacked alphabetically. I started out with a couple of boxes, but like everyone else here...I just keep buying. Very organized and looks nice and need on the shelves! I also have an inventory list on my computer of what I have by catergory too...helpful when talking to a customer. One day I would like to do a digital picture inventory of everything for kind of the same purpose.
Here's what I did....
I seperated all of my cutters by groups. I put small nails in the wall in the garage, and hung twine between two. I looped the ends of the twine so it was easy to take one side loose, and I hang them in groups on seperate pieces of twine. Hope that makes sense. I basically have small rows of cutters hanging on the wall by groups.
I have mine in gallon sized ziplocs and labeled by season or theme. It works well for me.
I use the plastic shoe boxes, as well. I have my metal cutters seperate from my plastic. The plastic cutters are in a drawer on my 6-tiered rolling/drawer cart. With the metal cutters, I have them broken down into categories. For example, in my "Baby" box, I have my cookie cutters; baby themed cupcake liners; pale pink, light blue, light green, etc. curling ribbon; baby themed sprinkles, etc. I try to group everything that goes together in the same box. For some categories, I have two shoe boxes. It just depends. It's more efficient for ME to group multiple, coordinating items together. Less searching...
Mine are kept in those big plastic drawer units. Separated by various catergories(animal,baby,clothes,etc). The drawers are labeled. I also have a small list of each one tape to the front to keep track of them.
I have all of mine in shoe box totes (clear plastic)...broken down in catergories w/ labels on the boxes, and stacked alphabetically. I started out with a couple of boxes, but like everyone else here...I just keep buying. Very organized and looks nice and need on the shelves! I also have an inventory list on my computer of what I have by catergory too...helpful when talking to a customer. One day I would like to do a digital picture inventory of everything for kind of the same purpose.
I LOVE the idea of an inventory list! And the digi pics are a great idea, too.
Yeah, but finding the time to do it sometime will be the challenge. However, my thinking is to group the ones that I have multiple sizes of, and take one picture of those...that way the customer can do a comparison on size.
I organize with zip lock bags too. I have the numbers in one alphabet in another and so on. Then I store these in a tote. It is easy to get a bunch of them since they are inexpensive!
I have an old card catalog chest from a library (for those of you not old enough to remember those, it is a tall chest with lots of small, deep drawers) that I keep all my cutters in. Each drawer is a different holiday or theme. It is technically an antique, but was very inexpensive since it needed a little work. It looks great in the kitchen and I can store my large mixer on top of it.
I also do the ziploc/plastic tote thing, have a list of all my cutters and candy molds in my palm pilot so that when I am out I don't duplicate what I already have.
I have a decent size kitch & some wall space. I'm considering the peg board but how can i put it up on the wall with the cutters & still make it look good??? I'm afraid of what it will make the kitchen look like?
I would be more concerned about having to clean them occasionally. I used to have baskets all over the kitchen and cleaning the kitchen grime on them became too much. I store my cookie cutter in plastic totes.
One is for holidays, one for shapes, number and letters and one
for all others. Grammytofive
I do the same as charman. I bought plastic shoeboxes at the $1 store. I label them Halloween, Christamas, Easter, Sports, Wedding .......
They stack so nice
Pamelan - I am totally jealous of you and your card catalog!! I have looked and looked for one of those now I want one even more so that I can use it for my cookie cutters!!!! Great Idea!
me too i wish i had a card catalog i loved those things when i was younger (btw im only 23 so they were around not too long ago-either that or my town is just old)
I never thought of the grime issue... I think I will also stick with the plastic totes
I would put them into plastic containers that are labeled and I would take a pic of them and write down important information about them. Then I would make a binder sorted by season with a picture of each cookie cutter and the size in inches and what container number it is stored in.
Yeah, but finding the time to do it sometime will be the challenge. However, my thinking is to group the ones that I have multiple sizes of, and take one picture of those...that way the customer can do a comparison on size.
I also have mine in the plastic shoe boxes seperated into categories. I have done this type of picture inventory on mine and it really didn't take that long. I put it on a CD that I carry in my purse so I always have my "electronic list" with me. Now when I add to my collection if I am ordering online I just copy and paste the picture from their website to my inventory and I don't have to keep taking the pictures myself. It works great. For any that were the same shape just different sizes I put them all in the same picture (i.e. stars, hearts, circles, squares, etc.) And if they were the same thing but different I put them together too (i.e. two different elephants etc.) This helps me not duplicate when I am on a cutter buying frenzy. I have over 3,000 so it used to be hard to keep track of!
I have limited storage..would love to do the peg board...but I have mine in zip lock bags by themes and I write down on a card what is in each bag..place the card in the bag where I can read it. I store the bags in a cedar chest in the garage. I also keep an inventory list and update it as I buy more cutters..
what about something like this?
http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?topcategoryId=15567&catalogId=10103&storeId=3&productId=81028&langId=-15&categoryId=16260&chosenPartNumber=00107826
http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?topcategoryId=15567&catalogId=10103&storeId=3&productId=60948&langId=-15&categoryId=16260&chosenPartNumber=70115578
there's tons of storage items at ikea for cheap that would be good for organizing cookie cutters. hth
I have all of mine in shoe box totes (clear plastic)...broken down in catergories w/ labels on the boxes, and stacked alphabetically. I started out with a couple of boxes, but like everyone else here...I just keep buying. Very organized and looks nice and need on the shelves! I also have an inventory list on my computer of what I have by catergory too...helpful when talking to a customer. One day I would like to do a digital picture inventory of everything for kind of the same purpose.
Same for me minus the inventory list or photos.........although it's a great idea!
I would love to have a place for the peg board though- that's what I really want to do with them.
Thanks for all the great ideas! I think I'm going to do either the plastic shoe boxes or the ziplock baggies and put in to larger bins.
auntiemcakes...I couldn't believe over 3,000 cookie cutters!!! But...I used to be in to rubber stamping and have well over 3,000 stamps...so I guess I can relate. I'm planning on selling almost all of them. I have 12 plastic rolling carts that have 6 drawers each in them. Maybe I should sell the stamps and fill the drawers with cookie cutters instead!!!
Again, thanks for all the good ideas you all have.
edited to say I forgot to mention I don't have room anywhere for the pegboard idea. It's a good idea if you have the room for it. But then the idea of having to "dust" cookie cutters all the time does not appeal to me at all!!! LOL
I think a great way would be to use one of those plastic shoe holders. You know- the kind that has like 24 pockets and is designed to hang on the inside of a closet door. It hangs vertically and I've seen them that are clear. You could probably fit about 6 in each one. You could organize them by theme and the fact that it's clear helps you see what's in there. It can maybe be hung on the iside of the pantry door, if you have one!
Hello. If you guys are looking for the old card catalog for storage, ebay has a few really nice ones. Call up the local libaries or schools. My mom works at a high school and you would be suprised at the stuff that is just collecting dust in storage.
I have mine in plastic boxes, diferent sizes, I label the box with the name and the picture of the category, but my categories are like this:
101 cookies cutters (from wilton)
50 animal pals (wilton)
Alphabet
Flowers
Metal cutters
I guess a little odd... , but that way I can have larger boxes. I like the idea of doing it alphabetically, ut I guess I need more space.
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