Pattern filing system?

[cpowell]

How do you guys keep track of your paper patterns? I know that some of you more experienced folks have a better system than mine, which is to have a pile of papers in an unsorted stack. The wife is on me to find a system.

I call them "my future works in progress" she calls them "clutter". ha ha ha

Surely, I'm not the only one who has faced this problem.

[woodsman]

I am one of those ultra organized people, so I can probably help you out. I have 4 small file boxes, that are perfect for patterns. Each box is organized by the type of pattern, intarsia, or fretwork etc. When I order patterns I save the envelope and write on the front what patterns are in that envelope. For the various patterns I have I put them in a manilla folder and write on the top tab what is in there. All I have to do is grab the correct box and flip through. I can find any pattern in less than 2 minutes. I do a lot of intarsia and the past few years JGR has been sending the patterns in a mailing tube. On the side of those I write the pattern and pattern number so I know what is in each one. I have 1 entire shelf dedicated to all those tubes.
I am organized because I hate wasting time looking for things.

[stephenD]

I have a plastic filing box with dividers and folders. I have a folder for ornaments, puzzles, key chain stuff and some others I can't remember now. OH and some for "other stuff"
I still keep most of my patterns on the puter so I can just print em out if I need em.

[wood-n-things]

System? There is a system?

[Jan]

My system is much the same as Mike's. I have a filing cabinet that I put all the magazines in. JGR patterns stay in the tubes. I did get around to writing the names of the patterns on the tubes one day when I didn't have anything else to do. Half the fun is digging around looking for the stuff I can't find because I forgot where the safe place was that I chose to put it.

Jan

[Kepy]

I have a bookcase with 3-ring binders labelled with the topic of the patterns. So far I have 14 binders but a couple of them are full so I need to split them out.

[Dan A]

All of mine are kept in folders and these are placed alphabetically in a metal filing cabinet.

Dan