Help! Need fragrance storage solutions

[mzimm]

My essential oil/ fragrance oil cup runneth over! What with free samples with every soaping supplies shipment, multiple sources for the same EO, my craving for experimenting with any blend suggested in recipes---I absolutely have to come up with a workable idea for storing all these oils in an easy-to-find way. My hundred or so bottles range from 1/2 oz to 8 oz. How have you organized your fragrance stock? If you can post pictures, that would be awesome!

 

[dixiedragon]

I'll post pics when I get home. I went to Dollar General and got a bunch of containers that stack, so I could organize my FOs by type. My categories - Food, Fruit, Floral, Green, Vanilla/Coffee/Chocolate, Woodsy, Masculine, Perfume, Bakery. The small boxes are for samples and I have larger boxes for larger bottles. I have many many many more tiny samples than I do larger bottles, b/c I am a total sucker for sample sales.

As far as EOs, I just keep them all together because I don't have that many. I do group together bottles of the same EO in sandwich baggies.

 

[mzimm]

Thanks dixiedragon! I'll look forward to your pics. Dollar General (i.e. cheap) I like! I'm shooting for alphabetical arrangement, and don't mind having the F/O's and E/O's intermixed. And over-the-door or pull-out drawers in a cabinet (like a spice rack) would be my preference because stackable storage areas are limited in my home, but I'm still open to the suggestion. Thanks again!

 

[Soapmaker145]

I also use cheap plastic containers that I found at the Home Goods store to organize FOs and EOs. I found numbering the bottles to be very helpful. It can be done sequentially, by supplier or by type of fragrance. You can even number the plastic bins. I put the numbers on the bottle lids and I have a print out of the corresponding FOs. It makes finding what I need very easy. Plus the bins contain any spills and they stack on top of each others for easy storage. I posted this picture before but I'm not sure how to find the old thread.

 

[shunt2011]

I too use plastic storage containers. I pack them alphabetically. I keep a list of all my FO's that I have in stock.

 

[PrairieLights]

I bought "spice" racks for the inside of my soaping closet door (wayfair and container store online). Now I can store all my e/o's inside without taking up any shelf space. F/O's - well they are still lined up on a shelf.

 

[snappyllama]

I love the idea of putting stickers with numbers on top. I have *too* many FOs and find it challenging to quickly locate the ones I'm looking for even though I keep them organized by supplier in separate plastic boxes.

 

[cmzaha]

Love how organized some people are. I have 2 home depot cabinets filled with eo's and fo's unfortunately they are not organized so I do spend a fair amount of time looking. This weekend I am picking up a couple hundred or so of fragrances from someone moving and wondering where I am going to store them. Maybe I shall try the numbering system since I will be taking them out of a box anyway. At least it sounds good....Funny thing is in my chaos I usually know where the item is I am looking for. Drives my retired manufacturer husband crazy. I just tell him it is organized chaos

 

[paillo]

I gave up on all but a dozen of the 1-oz sample sizes and chucked the rest (getting ready for a x-c move and paring down what I have to move). Minimum order for me is 4 oz, usually 16 oz or more so they're easier to find and cheaper to buy. I store in office boxes or plastic bins one layer deep in categories -- floral, fruit; chocolate, coffee, misc; favorites; meh; seasonal. I mostly have EOs and have it down to a couple dozen I use regularly. Done for now with experimenting and going crazy with wants, I'll do that after the move, heh heh

 

[dibbles]

Love how organized some people are. I have 2 home depot cabinets filled with eo's and fo's unfortunately they are not organized so I do spend a fair amount of time looking. This weekend I am picking up a couple hundred or so of fragrances from someone moving and wondering where I am going to store them. Maybe I shall try the numbering system since I will be taking them out of a box anyway. At least it sounds good....Funny thing is in my chaos I usually know where the item is I am looking for. Drives my retired manufacturer husband crazy. I just tell him it is organized chaos

A couple hundred? You will be in nose-drunk heaven by Sunday night!

 

[dibbles]

I gave up on all but a dozen of the 1-oz sample sizes and chucked the rest (getting ready for a x-c move and paring down what I have to move). Minimum order for me is 4 oz, usually 16 oz or more so they're easier to find and cheaper to buy. I store in office boxes or plastic bins one layer deep in categories -- floral, fruit; chocolate, coffee, misc; favorites; meh; seasonal. I mostly have EOs and have it down to a couple dozen I use regularly. Done for now with experimenting and going crazy with wants, I'll do that after the move, heh heh

I love that you have a box of 'meh'.

 

[Muskette]

I use a tall skinny 5-drawer dresser (the kind you'd put in the corner of a room) for my smaller (2 - 4 oz) fragrance oil bottles. They are in alphabetical order with pieces of cardboard in between each row. I like it because it protects the bottles from light and dust, and takes up very little floor space. Currently there are over 200 bottles in it. My larger bottles are on a storage rack.

 

[CaraBou]

Tall & skinny -- how appropriate!

I use plastic stackable bins like may of the others, but now I have ideas for how to organize them better. Thanks all!

 

[mzimm]

Well a great big THANK YOU to all who posted your ideas and experiences! And also those who had similar frustrations as mine! I do keep an updated list on an excel spreadsheet of everything I have, so I'm partway there. I just hate the way the bottles are all stuffed into those fabric cubes that fit into cubicle bin storage that Rubbermaid makes, and how they fall all over each other inside the box, and they're different heights, and it's hard to dig through to the bottom layer, and.....I really don't have much to complain about, do I? I like the one layer with tops numbered on the bottles idea, though. I wonder if I would actually keep up with that?
I'll let you know how things work out. Thanks again!