Scenery Materials Organization

It won't be long before I'm going to be starting on the scenery for my layout. Likewise my friend Glue Bob is going to need help on his scenery as well. Right now my scenery materials are scattered all over the basement. I can't find anything, have tons of duplicates because I can't find anything and have things I don't need. Time to clean up the mess. It's 96 degrees outside so let's go play in the cool basement.

Lot's of Swamp Scenery To Make!

MAKE A PLAN: Before you get started survey your materials and make a plan.

My plan:

1. Storage should fit under the layout where I have wasted space
2. Anything under the layout must be able to roll out of the way for wiring purposes
3. Drawers/containers should be large enough to hold most items
4. Drawers/containers should be transparent so that I can see what is in them
5. Storage must be portable enough to be taken to a friend's house

Before you go to the store, measure the height, width and depth of your benchwork so you will know how much room you have to work with. I recently went to the Container Store (name of a retail company) and got some ideas, but couldn't afford anything they had.

I polled the members of the SCENERY Yahoo group for their ideas as well as several other groups. Frankly I was surprised that there was absolutely nothing innovative at all. So, I'll follow the pack...for now! My day started with a little jaunt over to Wally-Mart for some storage. The purchase of two Sterilite three drawer, large, mobile storage drawers was my final decision. There are many different makes and models of these drawer sets. Some taller, some thinner, some that don't roll. The wide and deep drawers with casters seemed to be the perfect thing to slide under the benchwork. I couldn't see me using the really tiny drawers and I wanted something that could hold a bottle. These were about $15 each. The dimensions were 15 1/4" x 21 3/4" x 25 5/8", model number 73149 29308. Be sure to check each unit thoroughly for damage before you buy them as they have a tendency to be broken in shipping.
The first job when I got them back home was to pull the stickers and tape off. If you don't remove the residue from the stickers you'll have green ground foam dust stuck all over the sticker spot. So I cleaned the cabinets thoroughly with GreenWorks all purpose cleaner and a lint free surgical rag. The clean fragrance of the GreenWorks doesn't overpower you in the less than ventilated basement.
The casters are very small. Too small. But they will do for now.
Here are the two cabinets fully assembled and cleaned.
They both fit nicely underneath the layout benchwork. Both roll quite easily on the carpet.

I then took all of the drawers out and lined them up on the unfinished benchwork.
One problem with scenery materials is that they are very messy. I decided that it would be prudent to take a minute and make some coverings for the bottom of the drawers.
Using my ever present stash of cardboard, I cut out some 13 1/2" x 18 3/4" carboard sheets and trimmed the corners so they fit in the bottom of each drawer.
I did not want them snug. They are just there to soak up glue and spilled materials.
I like to use these little kitchen shakers for dispensing scenery materials that are very fine. On the tops I write with a Sharpie marker the type of material in the container and it's stock part number.
So this one is Woodland Scenic's Number T46 Green Weeds. Really, I need to glue a little bit of the material to the top so that I can see it. I'll dedicate a drawer to these containers.
There is quite a collection of scenery tools so they will get their own drawer as well.
Many of the materials will be removed from their original container and put into Glad zipper bags with a large white label panel on them. That way I can write on the bag what the contents are. I'm not sure that Woodland Scenics is every going to get the idea that their bagged scenery needs to be resealable. They just don't get it. I like bags better than bottles because it gives you more storage room.
Before I got started I fired up a scrap scenery bag. Anything that is too small to store or had fallen out in the box was dumped in here to be used on the layout.
I keep this or a wide mouth jar in the front of the drawer to collect materials that are swept up or vacuumed up.
I also like bags better than jars because I can get my hand in a bag more easily. On think I don't like about bags is that when they are in a drawer you can't see what's in them without moving them around.
Dyes are the single most damaging material you can have in your scenery arsenol. They leak, spill dry up and get moldy. They ruin EVERYTHING! So double bag every bottle and keep it as separate as possible. I usually store it in the bottom-most drawer.
Here I have a collection of dry and wet dyes of various kinds, all bagged and double bagged in a larger zipper bag. The jury is still out for storing chemicals. I generally keep all chemical items in a special storage area in my shop, but did relent and am keeping a bottle of alcohol in the scenery storage cabinets.
I then started dragging out every possible scenery material I could find in my house and brought it to the basement.
A few years ago I bought a fancy digital label maker. This is really nice if you want to drop about $60 for the labeler and a supply of tape. A Sharpie will do the same job, just not as neatly.
I use the white background label stock. I've tried the clear and it not only doesn't stick very well, but is hard to see on transparent surfaces. The label was placed dead center of the drawer.
The first cabinet is finished. The shakers are on top for easy access. Next is the living ground cover drawer with grasses and clump foliage. The last is the drawer for scenery tools. These, I figure, will be the most popular.

The next drawer has the trees & stumps drawer, the non-living ground cover which is rocks, ballast and stone. The last drawer are river rocks, dyes and stains, long grass weeds and misc items.
They are light weight and can be moved easy. I put the heaviest drawer on the bottom to give the units some ballast. Both are light enough to pick up and move to a friend's house for a work session. Now, to go clean up all the rest of the stuff. Really, I need one more rolling set of drawers.

Got more scenery storage and organization ideas? Post them in the comments section below.