History of our Stash and Store Boxes

If there’s one thing that drives me crazy, it’s wasted space. With the cube style storage I had purchased from IKEA, I loved that it was big enough to handle 12×12 paper, I loved even more that our paper storages boxes fit easily into the cubes. What I didn’t love was all the wasted space around the other items I was trying to store.

In order to fill the cubes, I needed to put my things in boxes, put lids on the boxes and then stack the boxes on top of each other. While lids and stacking are sometimes necessary, I try to avoid it when I can.

Arghhhh…so annoying!

I’m the queen of the one-handed grab.  I want to be able to reach over and grab whatever I need with one hand without having to pile things on the floor, and then re-pile them in the cube.
Like most of you, my life is hectic and busy, so if crafting is frustrating or overwhelming, it can easily drop to the bottom of my list. That makes me sad, because I love crafting.
It’s this exact frustration that motivates me to constantly be looking for a better way of doing things – and looking for a better way to organize my cubes was no exception.
After spending a fair amount of time scouring the internet, the container store, and IKEA, I realized I was going to need to create a solution.
Step 1 – Get some measurements.

My goal – maximize the space in the cubes left-to-right, top-to-bottom, and back-to-front. I’ll admit this was one of the most fun product lines I’ve worked on.  For some reason, as an organization-obsessed neat freak, the idea of creating adorable little drawers that were also highly functional just made me HAPPY!
The Stash and Store Box line was born in 2015. It’s mutated a little, but basically stayed the same. 3 Stash and Store boxes will fill 1 cube – left-to-right, back-to-front, and top-to-bottom.

The drawers are more like trays, easy to pull out with just 1 hand and bring to your workspace.

There’s a little magnet at the back of each drawer. Give them a tiny “tug” to pull them out, you’ll hear a little “snap” noise when you slide them back into place.

Each drawer comes loaded with perforated cardboard dividers. These help keep things neat and tidy while you’re filling your drawers.

Dividers can be removed completely or torn on the perforation to customize the drawer for your supplies.

Stash and Store boxes were designed for home use. If you’re a crafter who regularly works at home, these boxes would be a functional addition to your craft space.
All 3 of the designs are available at Hobby Lobby. Larger JoAnn stores carry the 5-drawer design.

The image above shows all 3 Stash & Store boxes in packaging. Sometimes they get shelved at the stores “backwards” in which case they look like the picture above right.

The boxes are packaged with a couple of extra pieces of paper board on top of the drawers. These keep the drawers in place during shipping. You should remove them before use.

The original name for these was going to be “Bits and Bobs” Boxes – this is a term used over in the UK.  I thought it was adorable, but then reconsidered after thinking – “How many people have heard that term?”

Thanks so much for stopping by today to learn a little bit about our Stash and Store boxes.  If you’ve got questions about what to store in your Stash & Store boxes, read my next blog post – What can you stash in your Stash & Store Boxes?  Also, please feel free to leave a question or comment below and I’ll do my best to get back to you quickly.

Happy Crafting,