Helmer Adventure Part 2: Construction and Storage

Did you miss Part 1, aka "Helmer and the Water Taxi"? No worries, click here!

Over the past few years, my nail polish collection has grown significantly from a small stock of whatever my mom didn't want and some Wet & Wilds (re: OLD Wet & Wilds). Back when I started reading your lovely blogs and was inspired to take care of my nails and cuticles, I remember seeing the Helmer and thinking how lovely it would be to organize polishes... but I would never have so many to need it!

March 2009 collection photo - the OPI and China Glaze were my first big purchases!

September 2010 collection photo (I should do this again sometime!)

Well... two years later, four shoe boxes and two plastic drawers were overflowing with polish. I looked at what Bed Bath & Beyond and The Container Store had to offer for a new polish home... but then decided to go with the unit nail polish collectors around the world adore: the Ikea Helmer!

I am amazed that the Helmer came out of such a small cardboard box. Gotta love Ikea's packaging design engineers. This meant, of course, maximum do-it-yourself-age! I followed the directions closely and kept Rescue Beauty Ji's guide close by (THANK YOU, JI!) and two hours later, the pile of metal was a Helmer. The only set back I had is that the holes made for the screws to attach the wheels were way too small. My boyfriend had a tool to make the holes bigger, but one hole is still being stubborn and another I accidentally made too large... but at this point, it's up and standing and I can always fix the wheels later :)

Right now, I have four of the drawers dedicated to polish (organized by grouping brands) and two drawers for "stuff".

From top to bottom:

• Nail wheels aka the "room to grow" drawer!
• Top coats, base coats, loose glitter, nail polish remover pads, random nail art
• Older and less commonly used drug store polishes
• Newer and favorite drug store polishes, Mattese Elite, Finger Paints
• China Glaze, Color Club, American Apparel and minis in boxes - this is a very colorful drawer :)
• Special boxes/"high ends", OPI, Essie, and Zoya

I preferred grouping polishes by brand instead of by color because I love seeing the neat rows - especially the square bottles :) And now that my nail wheels are safely stored, I can reference them if I want to search within a color family. The next step is to find drawer liner to keep the polishes from sliding around!

My polishes and I are both so happy that I no longer need to shuffle shoeboxes around and there's a place for everything. The Helmer is large enough for my collection that there is room to grow into it. I also feel proud that I conquered the Helmer instructions and made it myself!

What do you keep your polishes in? How to you organize them?