Organizing your stock of seeds

Organizing your stock of seeds makes finding your seeds much easier at planting time.  Having a good container with a lid will also help them last longer!

The longer I garden the bigger my collection of seeds has become.  Especially since I have been raising my own seedlings the seeds seem to pile up.  Organizing your stock of seeds has become important for me!  I used to keep them all stuffed in a little Rubbermaid container but as my collection has grown I needed more space and an easy way to find them. Most seeds will stay viable for several years, many for 5 years or beyond if kept under the right conditions. Organizing your stock of seeds is super easy with an old wine box.

I found this little wooden box in the closet of an apartment I lived in years ago in Northern California.  I think it was originally meant as a fancy box to hold a bottle of wine.  (My friends and family always giggle at my seed box because we don’t drink at all).

Whatever it was in its last life, it works perfectly now to hold our supply of seeds.  It’s just wide enough to fit even the larger seed packets and just the right height.

Believe it or not, I actually found empty wooden wine boxes for sale on Amazon. This is proof that you can buy anything online!!  Here’s a link if you would like to by one.  (Affiliate Link)

I added some simple tabs made out of card stock to keep things organized.  It has a nice lid that slides in place.  Seeds like dark and cool.  I keep our seed box in a cool corner of our basement.  Just out of curiosity, I counted up how many seed packets it holds.  It currently has 75 seed packets in it with quite a bit of space in the back.  Wow, what am I going to do with 75 seed packets??

It’s also a good idea to mark your seed packets with the year you got them.  Most seed packets are marked on the tab with the year they were sold.  But I have found that those tabs tend to be the first thing to fall off the seed packet.  So write the date on the packet with a pen.

Like I said earlier most seeds can last around 5 years (don’t count on this for all seeds) if kept somewhere dark and cool.  If you have room in your fridge that would be the most ideal place, but most of us don’t have room for that.  Just find a nice cool dark spot in your basement and they should be good.