I Organized My Beads… and Somehow Needed a Snackle Box

There are moments in every craft room when you stand back, admire what you’ve accomplished and think:

Wow. I really got organized today.

And then there are moments approximately ten minutes later when you realize you have simply relocated the chaos.

Welcome back to my craft room.

Yesterday, I decided it was finally time to tackle my growing collection of heishi beads. They arrive on long strands, which looks lovely enough, but isn't terribly useful when I'm trying to put together colour combinations for friendship bracelets.

So I started taking them off the strands and sorting them by colour into individual little containers.

And honestly?

It was glorious.

Rows and rows of colour. Pinks with pinks. Blues with blues. Greens with greens. Everything neatly tucked into its own little home.

For a brief, shining moment, I was an organized person.

There Was Just One Tiny Problem...

I didn't actually have enough empty containers for all those heishi beads.

But this is a craft room. We improvise.

I looked around and spotted several containers currently occupied by alphabet beads, spacer beads, findings and all sorts of other little bits and pieces.

And apparently my solution was:

Evict them.

So out they came.

The heishi beads moved into their beautiful new accommodations while their former residents were tossed into whatever jars, bags and random containers I could find.

One storage problem had officially been solved.

By creating an entirely new storage problem.

Excellent work.

For approximately 24 hours, my craft desk looked like a tiny bead community had been displaced by an aggressive real-estate development project.

Enter the Snackle Box

Now, somewhere during this organizational spiral, I discovered the Snackle Box.

Yes. A Snackle Box.

Technically, these things are designed for snacks. You fill the individual compartments with fruit, cheese, crackers, candy and other civilized little treats and carry them around looking like someone who has their life together. Like my daughter.

Naturally, I looked at it and thought:

BEADS.

I ordered one.

And waited.

Meanwhile, my homeless beads remained scattered across my desk in their temporary housing, silently judging me.

Then today, salvation arrived.

My Snackle Box was here.

Unfortunately, it arrived with no snacks whatsoever.

Not one M&M.

Frankly, I feel the name sets certain expectations.

This Thing Was Made for a Craft Room

Once I opened it, though, I knew immediately this was going to work.

Inside are individual removable compartments, and that may be my favorite feature.

I can keep my [Letter Beads], [colorful alphabet beads], [ball spacer beads], [Gummy Bear Beads] and all the other tiny things that have a tendency to wander around the craft room neatly separated.

But when I'm working on a project, I don't have to drag the entire organizer onto my desk.

I can simply lift out the compartment containing the beads or findings I need, set it beside me while I'm working and pop it back into the box when I'm finished.

Look at me behaving like an organized adult again.

And the compartments aren't tiny, either. There's plenty of room for a good supply of beads, spacers and findings — while still leaving enough space to add more.

Which is obviously terrible news.

Amazon, here I come.

And Then I Realized We'd Made a Terrible Mistake

I had everything arranged.

The homeless beads had been rehoused.

The craft room universe was once again in balance.

And then I looked at my Snackle Box.

Something was wrong.

It was full of craft supplies.

Where were the snacks?

This is a Snackle Box, people.

So some minor restructuring took place.

One compartment was cleared.

And into it went the M&M's Minis.

There.

Much better.

We now have alphabet beads, spacers, findings, colorful little bits of crafty goodness...

and emergency chocolate.

I feel strongly that this is the configuration the manufacturer intended.

Secure, Portable... and Unfortunately Stackable

The whole organizer closes with a great snap-style lid that keeps everything securely contained. It also has a handle, which makes it easy to move around the craft room or carry wherever I'm working.

And then I discovered something potentially dangerous.

They're stackable.

Oh dear.

Because if one Snackle Box cleaned up this much of my organizational chaos, imagine what TWO could do.

One could hold beads and findings.

One could hold more beads and findings.

And — stay with me here — if there were two boxes, perhaps we wouldn't have to sacrifice valuable bead real estate to accommodate the M&M's.

This is simply good planning.

I see absolutely no flaws in this logic.

Another Day in the Bead Dynasty

So yesterday I started with a box full of heishi bead strands.

I sorted those strands into containers.

To get those containers, I threw out the beads already living in them.

Those beads became homeless.

I bought a Snackle Box to house the homeless beads.

Then I removed some of the beads from the Snackle Box so there would be room for snacks.

And now I need another Snackle Box because I put snacks in the first Snackle Box.

This, friends, is how a craft room economy works.

Money. Power. Pony Beads.

And M&M's.

The Bead Dynasty continues.

Now if you'll excuse me, apparently I have another [Snackle Box – limited time save 15%] to order.

For organizational purposes, obviously.

Affiliate note: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links, which means if you click through and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps fund important research here at The Paper Artist — mostly determining exactly how many beads one person can reasonably own before someone stages an intervention. And possibly M&M's. ☕️😂