About a year and a half ago I wrote a post about how I was using some super cute trays from Target's summer dishware collection to keep my current kits corralled. A couple of months ago I started to realize that being able to quickly and easily put something away was just as important to my organization as being able to quickly get it out and work with it. The trays were wonderful to use with my kits while they were out, but putting them away when I needed to work on a different project? Not so much. There were just too many loose pieces that needed to be stacked and balanced.
Enter this Iris Organizer Tray, which fits neatly into any one of the many 12x12 Iris cases I already own. You can find them here on Amazon, though they are ridiculously priced through that link. I bought mine at Michaels when their storage items were 40% off, and they were offering a coupon for 25% off on top of that. I bought two for less than $9.00 total- one for my current Citrus Twist kit, and one for either a project kit or for a past kit that I've pulled out to scraplift my way through (long story short- I've decided to kill old kits by scraplifting anything from the design team gallery for that kit that I like).
The trays are already molded with the vertical (top to bottom) dividers in place, and they come with quite a few of the smaller horizontal pieces that you can use to make your own compartments in the tray. In the photos above you can see mine configured to work with the smaller pieces of the Citrus Twist March Kits, right before I started working with them. I loved having the kit in this box- it was so easy to pull out the tray and set it to the site, revealing the paper underneath...
...and also the alphabets, paper pad, and larger sticker sheets that didn't fit into the smaller spaces above.
The only warning I have about this tray is that unless you have the area in the box under it completely stuffed with paper, the tray doesn't make contact with the lid. It's not a huge deal, but it does mean that you need to store the box flat to keep the small items from shifting to other compartments or even slipping out of the tray entirely.
Wondering what will become of those lovely Target trays? They're actually already being repurposed, which is what happens with most of the organize-y things that I buy that turn out to not be as awesome for their intended use as I thought they would be. I have a little spot in the attic, right at the top of the pull-down staircase, where I stack all of these items, and it's the first place I check when I need a container or bin. Items shuffle in and out of the area constantly, and almost everything finds a new home eventually. These trays didn't even make it to the storage area, though- they're already destined for use in our camper this summer!