Card Catalog: The Ultimate in Craft & Art Room Organization

I want to introduce you to the love of my life. This is my card catalog.

Like any modern-day romance, I fostered a deep (deep) desire and took to the internet to hunt for love. If Facebook Marketplace is the eHarmony of antique romance, then Craigslist has got to be the Tinder. It’s kind of dangerous and you never quite know what you’re going to get.

Several years ago, before Facebook Marketplace existed, I scoured Craigslist for months looking for the perfect card catalog. And if you don’t know what a card catalog is (you young thing, you) it’s the way libraries used to organize the information of books before computers were a thing. A library’s card catalog would tell you where to find a certain book or genre of books. They were filled with thousands and thousands of paper “cards”, each one specifying the location details of a book, all organized numerically and aphetically. It was a very precise system, but it still had to allow for flexibility, as there would always be new books added weekly in any good library. Flexible organization–Be still my heart.

By the time I went to college, libraries used computers, but I still saw card catalogs out in the wild in my elementary & middle school days. Even as a kid, I was enamored with all the little drawers that make up a card catalog. Talk about the ultimate in “small” organization. Think of all the things you can hide! It dawned on me one day as an adult that it would be the perfect way to corral all my arts and crafts supplies.

It’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in terms of functional design. It’s the workhorse of our Art Room and because everything is labeled, it’s easy for everyone to stick to the system. Even little kids!

I just slipped in plain paper with my own handwriting for the category labels in front of each drawer, but you could certainly get fancy with a label maker if you wanted. I love the fact that, just like its original use with the Dewey Decimal system, there’s still flexibility in the system. You can always change the labels/categories based on hobbies, projects, and needs that naturally change over time. We house everything from pom poms to washi tape to cookie sprinkles in ours.

Another selling point of these magnificent creatures is the fact that they were built in a time when quality craftsmanship was standard. Solid and heavy are understatements. It’s an investment piece that will last you several lifetimes. Don’t you wish ALL furniture built these days was the same?

Like I said, I found mine on Craigslist and drove out to the boonies of Kentucky to pick it up for $200. I went alone because love makes you do crazy things. (Please don’t tell my mom). I remember feeling okay about it at the time because the little old man selling it didn’t want to text, only talk on the phone. He had a sweet voice and sounded like my great uncle, and that somehow convinced me he wasn’t an axe-murderer. Because to my knowledge, my great uncle wasn’t an axe-murderer. This is the reasoning of someone in their twenties.

What could have gone so, so wrong ended up being one of the lovliest afternoons. When I got to his property, he told me to drive around back to his airplane hanger. That’s right, an actual airplane hanger. It was like walking into a Santa’s workshop of antiques and treasures. I was simultaneously jealous and in awe. Farmer by day and collector/tinkerer by night, he used the airplane hanger to house everything from antique cars to toys from the 1940s. Those little fellas from “American Pickers” would have needed a fresh pair of pants after seeing this place.

He told me he bought the card catalog at auction decades ago and that it originally came from the University of Louisville’s library. He used it to organize and keep track of a million types of nuts, bolts, screws, and other miscellaneous hardware for all his mechanical projects. Which, of course, is genius. He also said, “Man, I can’t tell you how many people called me after you did. Everyone wants that thing. One guy even offered me a $1,000! Can you believe that?!”

Yes, I can totally believe that, sir. They’re awesome.

If you’re interested in owning one for yourself, there are several companies out there that have created reproductions, but I don’t recommend those. They lack the quality and charm of the old-school real card catalogs. Keep a look out at all times on Craigslist (don’t go alone!), Facebook Marketplace, eBay and local auctions. I’ve noticed the past 10-15 years have been a great time to score one because when libraries renovate these days, they often let the card catalogs go to make room for 21st century stuff.

As always, if you have your eye on a specific antique, then you need to make friends with local antique dealers, booth owners, vintage shop owners, and people who work in estate sales. They’re the ones who scout and scour and have crazy good connections. Everyone has an Instagram account or email these days. Shoot them a message and see what they know! They’re the fun-loving pirates in today’s world. For the right price, they’ll always keep an eye out for your treasure.

Happy hunting!