A Peek at Shelly’s Seashell Collection

I’ve been collecting seashells for the past 45 years. Every summer my family would take trips to the beach where I would scour the beach for hours collecting them. I’m very particular about the shells in my collection and ONLY collect the ones that I personally find. Shells that are gifted to me are used in home decor and/or crafting projects. Each one is carefully cleaned and identified before placing it into a storage box. I only keep the best specimens and use the other’s in my craft projects.

When it comes to cataloging and storing seashells on the smaller size I find that it’s best to store them in plastic storage boxes that I pick up from Amazon. These storage boxes have removable dividers so I can make the compartments smaller or larger according to my needs. Let’s face it, shells come in all kinds of different shapes and sizes, so this type of storage box allows me to store many different sizes in one box.

The photographs in my post show a very small sampling of some of my seashells in my collection. When I say “small”, I really mean small. This is probably 3% of what I have. I like to identify them using a Seashell Collecting Identification Guide. I’ve reviewed on on the blog previously and you can check out that post to learn more about the book. I have 6 books that I currently use.

You can print out little labels with the name or just cut slips of paper and place them in the box or tapped underneath the box to identify them. I like keeping things looking neat and clean, so a lot of my boxes have the shell names written underneath the box but over the compartment that the item is in. In a few of my other boxes you will see “taped on” labels. I need to find some time to get them all straightened out.

Majority of my collection are shells found off the beaches in the United States. Others were found in the Caribbean, off the coast of Mexico, and a few others are from an overseas trip many decades ago. I would estimate that 50% of my collection can’t be stored in these type’s of boxes and I have those stored using a different system which I’ll share with you in the coming weeks. That system is for larger ones like your big whelk and conch shells.

That starfish in the photo above is very special to me. It’s the first starfish that my husband found for me on our first trip to the beach together. Gosh, I think that was back in 1986 or 1987. It was found on the beach in Ocean City, New Jersey. Ahhh, fond memories! Also in that box you’ll see some of the plastic dividers that I have stacked in there on the left side. You use those to customize the size of the compartments that you need.

So, there you have it! This is how I store my tiny and small seashells that I have in my collection. You always want to thoroughly clean them and dry them before storing them away. Saltwater, air, extreme heat, extreme cold and moisture can ruin your items, so make sure you store them properly.

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