The Very Best Way to Organize Seed Packets

I have approximately 208 packages of seeds. I counted up to 117, then realized nobody has time for that, and made an estimated guess for the remainder. I don’t tell you this to brag about my wonderful collection, or to boast about how many varieties I grow, or to proclaim how amazing I am at saving seeds. I tell you this because if I didn’t have a good way to organize my seed packets, my seed collection would be a complete cluster fuck.

It’s so easy, unbelievably easy, to have a mess of a seed collection. They add up fast. Packages are different sizes. They are small and slip away easily and are easy to scatter around the house. Even if you have them all in a box, it’s a disaster and you can’t find anything. Don’t deny it, if you own any seed packets, you know EXACTLY what I’m talking about.

There are two main goals in keeping your seed stash organized: keeping them all in one place and being able to find what you need with ease. I have tried several ways to organize my seed. If you have been following my writing for a long time, you might recall that I wrote on my old blog about a brilliant idea I had: using a CD case to keep all the packages organized. You can read that here. Except that didn’t work. Neither has any other way I had tried. All I wanted was a decent way to keep all my seeds neatly together, and in a way where I could easily pull out the radish seeds from the calendula from tomatoes! Is it really that hard? It doesn’t have to be.

I have come up with the easiest, most efficient way to organize seeds.

Use expandable accordion plastic file folders. Like the cheap ones you’d find at the office store or dollar store to organize bills or paperwork.

I have several of them, each holding a different genre of seeds: summer veggies, leaves and roots, flowers, brassicas and peas, and herbs. I wrote the genre on the top corner of each file folder.

In each folder, there are a bunch of different pockets. Each one is labeled and holds one type of seed. For example, the summer veggie folder has: bean, cucumber, melon,pepper, summer squash, winter squash, tomato, gourd, edamame, corn, and miscellaneous (right now, holding quinoa). Each type of seeds live in each pocket.

The flower folder was a bit harder to organize. I could have broken it apart by spring and fall sowing, or annual and perennial, but instead decided to group similar flower types together. I have: poppy, alyssum, nasturtium, calendula & marigold, bachelor button & nigella, phacelia & chrysanthemum, sweet pea, milkweed, flowering herbs, morning glory & vines, sunflower, wildflower blend, and cosmos, zinnia & annual coreopsis.

My collection of folders then live in a plastic tub that either hangs out in the pantry, the garage, or (who am I to pretend) usually in the living room. It keeps all my seeds together, and when I’m planting I can simply grab the folder I need, go to the individual category, and pull out the packet I need with minimum searching. There is also space in the bin for my larger bags of cover crop seeds.

I’m not supportive of buying new plastic, but this system has made life so much easier. I give you permission to do the same. Go out today and get your own batch of accordion file folders and organize your seed packets!

If your wondering why the hell I have so many seeds, it’s because I save a lot. I recently wrote a guest post on Sweet Domesticity, where I talk about how to saving flower seeds. Go check it out! And don’t miss how to save tomato seeds. I also live close to the Baker Creek Seed Bank. And I’m a seed hoarder.

I’d love to hear from you! How do you organize your seeds? If you try this method, please come back and let me know how it has helped you!

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