When I first got into bullet journaling and planning, I used stickers for everything. Because of this, I ended up with a lot of stickers and needed to come up with some sticker storage ideas quick!.
Over time I gathered tons of planner stickers to decorate with and it got to the point where I felt like I was drowning in planner stickers.
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How do you locate the stickers you wish to use when there are so many? Having so many sheets of stickers to go through made it hard for me to use any of my stickers. I had to find some way to tackle sticker organization.
Having everything in a big pile was not the answer.
With all of the different sizes and styles of sticker sheets, your sticker collection can soon get out of hand!
I’ve gathered some sticker storage ideas to help you to find the perfect solution for you.
I’ll start at the beginning of my sticker journey and then at the end of the post you’ll see what I use to store my stickers (when I’m not using my digital planner).
Sticker Storage Book
When I was a kid, I used to collect stickers and would keep my own sticker storage book where I would keep all of my stickers. I remember this was a photo album with sticky pages covered with a clear photo protector film.
I took all of my stickers and put them on the photo pages so that I could look through them in the future.
I don’t remember if there was any rhyme or reason to the way I organized these and I don’t recall if I was able to then use my stickers in other ways. I don’t think I did. I think. I only used the book to look at my stickers.
This is actually still a good idea if you want to keep a reference of your sticker collection. This would be awesome for keeping track of your favorite stickers if you have full sheets of those stickers.
Photo Albums
Today’s photo albums have pages where you can slip your sticker sheet into a plastic sheet that is protective of the stickers.
I’ve used these photo albums for this purpose. It has the perfect sized slots for most planner sticker sheets.
This is a great idea for you if you have some extra bookshelf space since you could probably use several different photo albums and label them with what is in each.
These albums hold 300 stickers sheets, so you can hold a pretty large collection this way.
Although I started out holding my sticker collection in photo albums, I quickly found this unwieldy. If you have a ton of stickers and use this method, I think you’d want to have a pretty good organization system.
I’m not super organized and found it tedious to put all of my sticker sheets into the little slots and then to page through all the books to find what I was looking for.
At first I liked having the stickers organized by size and subject but overtime I was getting more and more lazy about putting my stickers in the book and then about grabbing the book since it is kind of large and feels unwieldy.
Over time when I purchased new stickers I found that I just had a big pile of stickers again.
Sticker Binder with Sheet Protectors
Similar to using a photo album, you could use a regular three ring binder with sheet protectors. This is a great option if you’re using page size sticker sheets, like those you might find if you purchase some printable stickers on Etsy. I have a few sticker printables in my shop.
You can also find a cute mini binder that you could keep some of your favorite stickers in. For those of us who purchase a bunch of different leather ring binders, this could give you something to use them for so they don’t just sit on the shelf!
Sticker Books Made With Empty Sticker Paper
One clever way I’ve seen people create sticker books is by making books out of empty sticker paper.
When you pull stickers off of sticker paper, there’s a smooth backing that the stickers adhere to. Once you use up your sheets of stickers, you could save your sticker paper to create your own little books for your stickers.
I think this would be great with letter sized sticker paper, like this.
This would help you to consolidate some of your stickers from the sticker sheets that have only a few stickers left on them. You could move your stickers into these sticker books and then save the empty sticker paper to make more pages!
Storage For Small Stickers or Loose Stickers
Sometimes stickers you purchase come as sticker flakes. You could move those over onto empty sticker paper as above, or you could find a storage solution just for those.
Since moving them all over would be tedious to me, I purchased a set of cute drawers that hold small items. Depending on how many you have, you could use:
Colored drawers – these are all little separate colored boxes and are super cute. In addition to stickers, I keep things like paperclips and magnets in these.
I also use these super cute clear drawer organizer on my desk. It fits right in the corner and is where I keep things like bows and other planner decorations as well.
Accordion Folders
One kind of easy way to store your stickers is to use accordian file folders. This is an excellent way to store them before putting them into a more elaborate storage system. Instead of leaving a pile of stickers on your desk to organize them later, stick them in the appropriate accordion folder!
You could buy multiple colored ones or ones with separate sections that you can label for different types of stickers.
Disc Bound Notebook
For my full page printable sticker sheets, I use a disc bound notebook. This method requires a disc hole punch and some discs. (EXAMPLES). I use these giant discs since I have a lot of stickers. For punching the holes in my sheets I use this heavy duty hole puncher.
I’ve tried a bunch of different ones and that is my top recommendation. The reason is that you can do multiple sheets at a time and since sticker paper is usually pretty thick the handle makes it easier. I think this also gives off a satisfying noise when it cuts haha.
This book does become pretty heavy when it’s full, so you may wish to make them a little smaller. You could try these medium sized rings instead.
For your cover you could choose to purchase one that is already premade, or you could make one yourself our of some cardstock. You could even decorate it yourself with some scrapbook paper or with your stickers. It might be fun to create a mixed media art cover for your notebook.
Index Card Holder
Since sticker sheets often come in a small size, you can use index card holders to store your stickers. You can create your own little dividers to divide up the different types of stickers you have.
I also found these cute little index card size file folders if you don’t want to make your own.
Coupon Organizer
Similar to an index card holder, you could store your stickers in a coupon organizer.
Receipt Organizer
And there are also receipt organizers that could serve this purpose.
A Craft Storage Cart
I think these carts are so cute so I have a bunch of them. Using each of the drawers for a different kind of sticker could be a fun way of storing your favorite stickers.
OMG there is one in mint. I do not need another cart….I do not need another cart….
Decorative Photo Storage Boxes
Decorative photo boxes are cute and about the right size for a sticker sheet so I can line them up on their sides and sort of flip through them.
This was my favorite but I still felt like it was hard to go through all the stickers to find what I wanted so I decided to create some folders with my Silhouette machine. I measured and created a cut file which allows me to cut out small sticker sheet size file folders for my stickers that I am arranging by shop and/or category.
You can download these cut files here (no opt in required).
I make the folders out of this cardstock which comes in a large variety of colors and is perfect for making these files. I really like having multicolor folders because I think they are pretty cute. I think it would also be really cute to decorate the folders with scrapbook paper.
Here are the cute decorative boxes I am using for sticker storage.
I love being able to pull out the folder for the stickers I am looking for when doing my planning instead of wasting time flipping through a bunch of stickers! Talk about rabbit hole.
The only negative right now is having to take the time to organize them all and to figure out how best to do so. Read on for some ideas for how to categorize your stickers for storage.
But before we get there, I should mention how I store all of my photo boxes:
A Clear Bin
The perfect storage solution for me is to use a clear bin with some decorative photo boxes in it.
Next I used a clear bin with all of my stickers. Make sure you check to make sure that whatever else you are using will fit in the dimensions of the box you select.
While it was nice having all of my stickers in one place, it felt a bit messy to go through them all. It also felt like a bit of a pain to pick it up bring it to my desk (where it took up a lot of room) and then sort through all the stickers. So next I chose decorative photo boxes.
The key is to make sure that whatever storage method you use allows you to have easy access to your stickers. I tend to put things on top of my bin sometimes, which makes it hard for me to get to my stickers.
File Cabinet
If you have a file cabinet at home, this could be use for storing your stickers as well. I’ve found that as more and more of my papers get stored digitally, I’ve had less use for file cabinets. Take your old file cabinet and convert it into a giant sticker storage wonderland.
There are a ton of different ways to store stickers. Here are some that I use:
How to Categorize Your Stickers for Storage
You can organize them by shop. Here are some of my favorites:
You can also categorize your stickers by type:
- Dogs
- Unicorns
- Cats
- Cute animal stickers
- Period
- Words
- Functional stickers
- Cancelled/rescheduled
- Larger stickers
- Little stickers
- Happy planner stickers (which usually include quotes)
- Holidays *such as if i want to use stickers for New Years
- I tend to use an undated planner so I like to keep some numbers
- Scrapbook stickers
- Fun stickers
- Days of the week or other header stickers
- Stickers related to work
- Sticker related to planning
- Stickers related to blogging
- Stickers related to budgeting…I could go on and on
- Stickers I made (like these in my shop)
When I was creating my different categories for my file folders, the way I thought of this was: how would I typically look up the stickers I need when working in my planner? I found it important to be thoughtful so that I didn’t go overboard and create too many categories, but I also wanted the different folders to be useful.
Washi Tape
In addition to stickers, I also use washi tape. I thought I’d add that here too because I have an awesome solution for washi tape (and it is pretty, so it looks nice in my craft room). These are the perfect organizers for washi tape.
Did you know you can create your own stickers?
Sometimes you just need the perfect sticker for your journal. Create your own using Procreate! In this Skillshare class I’ll teach you how to create digital stickers using Procreate. Although the class focuses on creating stickers for your digital planner, you can also create stickers to use with your Silhouette or Cricut (export as PNG).
In a future post, I’ll go over how to create your own planner stickers.
Best ideas ever! Thanks for sharing.