Organizing FOs?

[Mountain_Annie]

How do most of you organize your FOs? By scent type, by supplier, alphabetically or other? What have most of you found to be the BEST way to organize them? (on paper AND when storing)

Also, is there a good form of some sort...(or spreadsheet) available for organizing the fragrances on the computer and/or for printing hard copies?

I have sooo many...but I'm stumped as to where to even begin!

It seems too overwhelming....

Thanks for any help!

[evesorto]

I use to do it by supplier, but then I found that this wasn't that helpful. Now, I do it by type. For instance, I have a box for "fruity" scents, "fresh" scents, florals, foods, etc. I tend to make them this way. One day I will work on florals, another day fresh, etc.

that's me,

Eve

[Scented]

By supplier and then alphabetically.

[RetroMetroChic]

I installed shelves on the wall and then got those spice holders that go up in steps..(This way I can see all of the bottles) Then I put them in scent types .. like vanilla's.. and foody, then straight fruits, foody fruits, designer dupes, and Exotic - Exotic being all ambers, dragonsblood, patchouli etc..

Oh and then I have the Citrus section.

Works really good for me... I always know what shelf to go to..

[jade]

I organize bottles by type(food, floral,etc.). I put each type in priority mail boxes that I cut down so they're just tall enough to hold the bottles. I put a sticker with the scent name on the top of the bottle cap. I keep an alphabetical list in a Word document of each scent I buy & notes about the scent. I have a second much shorter list by supplier. In the second list I put my most favorite scents by that supplier and scents from that supplier that I want to try. Sometimes I get a 1 ounce sample, tried it in tarts & liked it but didn't soap it so I put it on the supplier list so I'll remember to order it the next time I place an order with that supplier.

[islandgirl]

Alphabetically..

[nursenancy]

I separate by supplier and then arrange alphabetically on shelves. I have a corresponding excel spreadsheet on the wall. The spreadsheet has the FO, supplier and color

[Karen M]

I keep mine alphabettically. On shelves in the basement with removable labels on shelves that have A-D, E-J, ex.

Now my wicks are in those rollable plastic carts with drawers, and labeled too.

[earthfriendly]

Alphabetically, in a metal storage cabinet.

[Blossom]

Organize them? huh? you mean you don't have to root through 150 bottles to find the ONE you need? And then find out that it might have looked full but had less than 10 grams in it. For a product that requires 20?

Ummmm, LOL.

Actually I only have one shelf dedicated to fo at the moment. But it is so stuffed that I have three plastic totes also full. And the 2oz or less 'sniffer' bottles in even more. I seriously want one of those cabinets with doors so that I can keep them organized better and out of sunlight. They are in a cabinet, right now, that gets no direct sunlight.

[Candybee]

I used to keep my oils organized until my shelves got so full it is all I can do to find space for just one more!

I try to keep seperate my florals, spice, fruit, aromatic, bakery, etc. I also seperate out and pack up out of season scents.

I also keep my B&B scents seperate from my candle scents.

Mostly, I just try to keep it organized. I don't have time to do a spreadsheet on my oils.

[Blossom]

one thing that is working is that I no longer buy fragrances if they are also not skin/soap safe. Makes it much easier for me.

[cwayneu]

We have a couple of old three shelf (plus three door shelves) VCR tape storage cabinets. We had to do something with them anyway. We separate candle, B&B, and flavored lip balm FO's. Within those groups we sort of arrange by womens, mens, fruity, flowery, and other.

We also use spreadsheets. One is a check list of all scents sorted alphabetically, with a file number next to each, as to which label spreadsheet (file) they belong too.

To do this over, we should have just used one full label page (shreadsheet) for each FO, instead of bunching up four FO's per page. This is just too complicated to save a few label sheets.

We also started a master list with a description and indicator columns as to usage (candles, soap/lotion/spray, flavor). By making the column title row (row 1) all data filters we can select specific FO's like all sprays for example. You do this by selecting row 1, then select data, then filter, then automatic from the menus. Each column becomes a pull down list to filter rows in or out of view. I also suggested adding a notes column for things like "traces quickly", but Billie preferred to just write notes on the report for now. You could add supplier and some inventory columns like bottle-size and grams-remaining, but then you have to keep all this junk up to date all the time.

This would all have been better in a "real" database like Filemaker Pro or Microsoft Access, but they are just too pricey. I created these with the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. It works fine with the free OpenOffice suite from OpenOffice.Org as well.

The images are

1. The label list spreadsheet
   
2. Report from label list spreadsheet
   
3. A sample label sheet
   
4. The FO master spreadsheet
   
5. A sample master report

[Mountain_Annie]

Thanks to all who replied. Great ideas and the spreadsheet samples were a HUGE help Wayne!

My best!

[Jokerjen]

I have one shelf that holds everything that is gel safe...and then they are organized by supplier and type (food,floral etc...)