My Sort of Stamp-Sorting Box

 

There are certain things that are fun do do on a windy day. Like flying a kite. Stamp sorting is not one of them. A gust of wind and - poof! now everything is worldwide! When outside on patio or sunroom, using a plastic storage box can stop the wind from making a ticker-tape parade of your special stamps.

If you search online for "plastic storage boxes", you'll be there for a week. Some are large enough to store bedding, others tiny enough to store minuscule beads. I just happened to happen into our nearby Dollarama store and found one of these little beauties (top photo) made by Casper. I removed the sticky label and started using the box right away, but a screenshot from this YouTube video shows the box, though the video was posted two years ago and I think the box now sells for $4. Inflation. (Also, why are there YouTube videos being made by social media influencers like 'Dollarama Mama' about individual products at Dollarama? Is it any wonder why 720,000 hours are uploaded to YouTube every day? There is NO WAY that I can ever watch them all.) But I digress...

Advantages of this box:

• 12 nicely-sized compartments that can contain 'most' stamps
• lift-out divider strips
• good depth to hold a deep stack of stamps
• two sturdy clasps that work well even if you're a 'stuffer'
• shallow lift-out four-compartment tray with one large and three small compartments that are handy for tools, longer strips of stamps like se-tenant or unsoaked, hinges or other bits and pieces
• the price is right
• good overall size which keeps sorting focussed 

Druthers:

• divider strips lift out but are not individual, therefore a whole row of dividers comes out at once, potentially mixing three or four compartments with their neighbours.

Closed (above), open with lift-out tray containing magnifier, tongs, pencil, Sharpie and miscellaneous stamps (below):

Tray lifted out onto lid, showing 12 compartments with removable dividers (above)

There is always a temptation to put stamps in all compartments and never take them out. I intend this to be a 'working' box and not a 'storage for someday' box. Glassines in a larger photo-storage cardboard box are a better way to do that if desired.

I have two larger, shallower sorting boxes. One has removable dividers between the compartments in each row. Both are larger overall. Neither has a lift-out tray.