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FlyTieDad

How do you keep track of your material?

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So the other day I was listing out what I thought I'd like to keep my eyes open for at the fly fishing expo this weekend but I always seem to buy the same things because I forget what I have.

 

I even pulled out my fur drawer and was surprised to find mink in it, as well as many others.

 

I keep my materials in a large old card catalog from a library.

 

So, how do you store your materials and how do you keep track of what you have?

 

FlyTieDad

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I brought some stackable 5drawer boxes. I have capes and saddles split into cock/hen in one. I have furs in another. Dubbing goes in the third with packets of hackles, biots, herl, etc. Then my hooks go in stackable round pots in descending size. Threads live in a wooden box from craft shop. Tinsels and wires and flosses live on wooden stems set into the desk. Natural feathers from game birds go in another box. Then there are loose bags of dog furs, turkeys, deer hides lying all over LOL. kinda avoid too much organisation, find that becomes more time consuming than the fishing and tying.

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I keep my materials in Sterilite drawer units and boxes. I have 20 different drawer units in different sizes, with a total of 60 different drawers. These stack under and to the sides of my desk area withing reach. Materials that are little used, or are excess stock, I keep in the boxes. The boxes go on a closet shelf, or under a bed.

 

Keeping track is a whole different problem. I built a database using Open office to enter my materials into. Once you set it up, then its easy to enter each material on a form. The initial load of all the items was very time consuming. I keep forgetting to go back into and up date the materials used or add new purchases. So its now quite out of date.

 

I would rather tie than manage my inventory.

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Sadly, I do not really....this has caused me to end up with a few extras (like 6 spools of olive thread). The problem is that at this point, it would take me a good 25-30 hours of cataloging to list everything I have.

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Keeping track is a whole different problem. I built a database using Open office to enter my materials into. Once you set it up, then its easy to enter each material on a form. The initial load of all the items was very time consuming. I keep forgetting to go back into and up date the materials used or add new purchases. So its now quite out of date.

 

I would rather tie than manage my inventory.

 

I'd love a blank copy of your database so I could start mine own.

What were your fields that you set up?

I'm pretty new and my materials haven't grown too much so I still have hope of keeping them organized.

 

FlyTieDad

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I feel your pain and must admit I end up with duplicates of a few things here and there. Just my two cents on the matter....I work with inventory management systems for a living, so the last thing I want to do is subject myself to a rigorous tracking method. One thing that's kept my sanity with respect to tracking material is to just note down (I use Evernote) the materials I see I'll need. This works great on things that have high turnover. Things like Mink and other rarely used materials, I just plan in advance and when I'm going to a shop or a show etc, I'll glance over the bins and drawers and see if there are any materials I could use that I don't have or need more of.

 

In other words, I think it's a better plan to note what you need and not what you have. Also, buying a bigger variety of colors and sizes of one material at once, although more expensive, might cut down on trips to the shop and helps me remember what I have.

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I keep a lot of my stuff in readily-accessible containers or drawers, so I have a fair idea of what I have on hand at any given time. When I was frequently browsing fly shops, I'd sometimes buy on impulse and wind up with duplicates, but now that I buy everything online, I rarely order anything that I don't need. I tried keeping lists, etc., but I found myself either ignoring them or forgetting to use them, so I gave up. Besides, FOR ME, expending energy on creativity is a lot more important than expending it on organization. Life is regimented enough as it is.

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I dont, and often purchase duplicates, or purchase the wrong thing. It would be nice to have a data base where I could input items by scanning the bar code. I have a library program that allows me to scan the code and it puts the book into my library. I agree that making note of what to purchase is smart, it would be good to know what I have so I could either trade items or plan to tie different flies.

 

Best,

 

Phil

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I also use plastic boxes. I have one that I love - and wish target still carried the style. It's a stackable set of boxes probably 12X18 or so and about 4" deep. You can stack as many as you want, and the top one you put a "lid" on which has a handle so you can carry it easily. I bought one initially to go to club meetings and added many tiers. Now I use a system like that for my most frequently used stuff:

 

level one - tools/threads/wire/glues etc

Level two foams, markers, tinsels etc

Level three dubbing

You get the idea from there.

 

Wish I had more of those becuase that's as organized as I've ever been. The other stuff is just in various sized plastic boxes (bins I guess is a better term).

 

As others have said, I do buy stuff accidentally that I already have despite being slightly organized... Oh well - Ill have plenty of that stuff then :)

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Every hobbyist seems to go through this these days. I had about 600 orchids at one time. I had a nice database system, but quickly realized that updating was time consuming and turned my hobby into a chore. I played around with a few of the freeware fly tying databases and quickly realized I didn't want to start that again.

 

I keep my materials in plastic boxes. A large sweater box for capes and saddles (stacked on their sides to avoid compression), one for maribou, one for strung hackles, one large box for bucktail and animal skins, one for large feathers, etc.

 

I've often bought things I had too much of already. Normally, I make a note of what I want to buy (it's an hour drive to the fly shop). I've recently started keeping a small list of what I definitely do not need to help reduce the overkill.

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Here is a link to the excel (now google drive) spread sheet that I used to use to track materials and even has a few pages for hook conversions.

 

I updated it twice since then, added a page to track swaps i was in, and added a page with a "too tie " list.

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AquQ95ipAgR2dEFrSkJSbDBMNHRSZkRJTU1BQjBSaXc&usp=sharing

 

 

 

I dont use it anymore, now I just keep a running note in my iPhone, if i am sitting tying and realize I need something i just add it to the list.

 

 

As for storage, lets not go there, I have completely revamped my tying room TWICE in 2013 so far.

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I think the best way for keeping track of what you have is to write it down. I haven't done it yet but I think it would be a good idea to do it.

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I have a computer

I have a list of materials in the computer in excel

 

each material is in a bag

each bag has a number

I have bins

each bin has a number

all materials in bags with the same number go in the bin with that number.

 

When I need to find a material I look at the list in the computer or the printout and go to the bin to find it.

 

It works great. I only need to put a material back in the bin so I can find it next time. Occasionally I buy new materials. I put it in a bag, put a number on it put it in the computer and throw it in the bin.

 

I do try to keep it simple in the categories so ultimately I really don't spend more than a few minutes updating the list per year. I guess I don't end up buying too much. What fun is that? Forget what I just wrote.

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