Need Ideas Organizing "Shoebox" Colection

I have a collection that was a cluttered mess of stamps. It came to me in 3 shoe boxes, 2 large cardboard boxes and 2 partially filled albums. Someone had made a poor attempt to separate them by country by putting them in Ziploc bags. Approx. 3000 stamps are new and still in shipping packages. There are approx. 3000 more old stamps in the shoe boxes.
I have separated the new from the old. I've begun to separate all the old ones by country, but this doesn't seem like the best idea to me. I don't mind doing the work, I just don't want to go back and redo a lot of stuff later.
I would like to hear some ideas. I know I'm not the only one who has had to deal with a collection like this.

Hi,
There is no right or wrong way to organise YOUR collection.
Just have an idea what you want to achieve. You can organise by country or theme, colour or whatever takes you fancy.

unless you know of a certain topic you would like to collect it is probably best to stay by country, if you have any desire to catalog or check on pricing or put in an album. Just my thoughts.

Welcome, theres no getting around it brother...its countless hours of WORK..if you consider it fun it can be hours of relaxation..i have my covers mixed in different plastic shoeboxes you would think it would be easier and more efficient if I had them by area..British Commonwealth, Western Europe,Latin America..but they never seem to get that way !!

Easy Peasy Brad,
your stamp collecting organisers desk
should have a footprint of about 1 shoebox.
This is from a world wide collector:

Simply go to the stationers and get
any amount of A5 2 ring binders with 200 sleeves
I work with 4

1. Countries A-L
2. Countries M-z
3. leaves dated by years you will need 1950-2010

When I break down someones album, the
stamps go in the sleeve of country, if it gets bulky
(as with machins) decant to an archival plastic bag.

When you decide to mount a country
slip the contents out of say "Hungary"
and slip the stamps in the year sleeves as appropriate
you probably won't have many under 1950

Your desk will never become cluttered.

Now that has to be the best organizing technique I have seen! Thanks rod222 for getting me thinking.

When I read the thread title, I thought to myself "who in their right mind collects shoeboxes??"



Balf

Good system Rod, thanks for the picture. What size in oentimetres or inches is A5? I know A4 because I get PayPal invoices from European sellers. Is A5 half of A4?

I am still on the half British, half American, half Metric and half Puzzled system.

hey, the shoe boxes could have been mailed / posted with stamps on them. People collect cigar boxes don't they? It's OK as long as it has a stamp on it.

A5 is about 2/3rds of an A4 Id suggest Puzz,
nice and light and easy to handle,
the sleeves have to have some rigigidity though.
I think good quality A5 binders are about $6 (bandex)

Takes a while to set up, putting stickers in top right corner
so you can thumb through the countries/ years
but once set up, it's a breeze and you are always in control.

I am a bit hesitant with mint, the stamps may adhere in humidity
when together.

Don't put binder upside down in bookshelf,
(yep, I've done that) the stamps fall out.

A5 is half A4 (148mmx210mm vs 210mmx297mm)
As A3 is twice A4.

True Anthony, but that can be deceiving,
the A5 binder stands 2/3rds tall as an A4

Good one. I'm surprised no one has replied, "my wife!"

KirkS

Those "A" paper sizes are so foreign (no pun intened) to us Americans, but it's all mathematics.

A0 paper is 1 square meter in the aspect ratio of 1 to the Square Root of 2. Each smaller size, A1, A2, A3, etc., is half the size of the previous.

Nice one Kirk!
I am informed. It's easy when someone explains it.

KirkS, thanks for posting this straight forward pictorial explanation of the A page sizes. I was always puzzled by the odd numbering system.