Organizing seed: How do you do it?

Every year I try to come up with some way to organize my many packets of seed so that I can find what I want when I want it. Also hoping to organize them in such a way that I don't lose track and forget to sow something- like things that need an early start in one section, things to direct sow after frost in another, etc. It always ends up being a hassle in spite of my efforts. Last year I divvied them up into baggies, 1 for direct sowing, 1 for wintersowing, and 1 for indoor sowing. That worked so so, but there were still too many in each to find one thing easily. This year I've got flower and ornamental seeds in a plastic tray with a long compartment that allowed me to file them, so I've got them alphabetized. Veggie and herb seeds are in another plastic box, tomatoes, peppers, and cucerbits separated, but thats as far as I've gotten with them. I think I need to employ both alphabetizing and separating by starting time/method, but I'm having trouble coming up with suitable containers.

Please share what method you've come up with.
Thanks!
Neal

I will try to explain how I do it.
Harvested seeds I put in envelops in a shoebox in alphabetical order. Later, when they are cleaned, I put them in the photoboxes (see below)
Seeds from trading I will put directly in photoboxes. I put a label with plant name and year of harvesting on it and on the lit I write the first letter + a code for perennial, biennual or annual.
I use a database program to have a good overview. I list all my seeds. I made columns for when to sow, color, height, sowing instructions and a lot more. You can choose yourselve which information is important for you.
Because it's a dbase program you can choose to make lists. I can easily make checklists in a few minutes to show what I must wintersow or which flowers are cuttingflowers, or a list sorted by color, etc.
I have also seperated veggies, herbs and veggies/tomatos for in the greenhouse.
But they are all in the same dbase.

photoboxes lits

Very clever! I've been thinking I need a data base for them.

When I found most of I want to know about the plants, I will make a A4 sheet (160 grams) and print it out. . On the backside I put a picture of the plant. After that I put them in an ordner in alphabetical. When I start sowing, like now I'm wintersowing, I have a list of all seeds I must wintersow. I take my boxes with the photoboxes and my ordners.
So I can see in the ordners how many seeds I will sow from a species and I make notes in it to see when and how much I sowed. In spring I make notes about germination and how they are growing.

Oh you're really good. I'm really bad at sowing time about forgetting to note things. I'm hoping some of your good practices will rub off on me :-)

It is not that I each time when I harvest or receive seeds, I will make notes of it. I wait untill I have time to do that. In the mean time I keep the seeds apart. Just after I made notes I will put them in the photoboxes. So I know that everything what is in the photoboxes is listed, everything that's not in the photoboxes must still be listed.

I thought rebecca30 had a great idea in this thread: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/796092/

Pam

Pam, rebecca30's idea works good if you only buy seeds once or twice a year. But if you are trading or collecting a lot of seeds, you must constantly replace the baggies to keep them in alphabetical order.

That's brilliant!

Jonna, true, I would have trouble with my large seeds and big packs. But it would work well for certain things, like Tomatoes.

I've also seen the the plastic notebook inserts larger for a CD. That would accomodate a larger envelope.

http://www.keysan.com/ksu8210a.htm#FEL9996310012060

This message was edited Dec 23, 2008 11:11 AM

One thing I have found that's good for remembering when to plant what is a reminder program on my computer. I have been using ReminderFox, which works with Firefox or SeaMonkey. Probably IE has something like it. You set the reminder and it will hold it for a year, if you want. Then it pops up with a list every once in a while when you log on. It's very handy.

Like the others I also keep files, but in table form as I haven't progressed to database programs yet, lol! I keep my seeds in open baggies grouped by genus, more or less. Then they all go into a large plastic storage box.

I didn't know about ReminderFox, thanks for the tip! That's the kind of thing I was thinking I need :-)

I use plastic prescription bottles to store seeds in. Easy to write on with a black marker with Latin name of the plant and year harvested. All goes into a plastic shoebox with lid and stored in the fridge. Easy and simple.