When you have 2,000 cookie cutters, how do you find that one that you need?

I'm not gonna lie. There is a 12 step program for people who hoard cookie cutters. I am unapologetic. I love cutters; tin, plastic, brass, and printed. Before the day of the 3D printer, a baker who wanted a custom cutter had to drag a knife around an index card template. It was an unsightly mess and the cookies that methodology yielded were less than lovely. Now that I have a 3D printer in my life, I can get any cookie cutter, any shape, any size, any time. It is a beautiful thing.

Back in the day when I had a couple dozen cutters, I kept them neatly tucked in a snap top craft box. I enjoyed the sound the cutters produced when I was pillaging the box looking for the one that I needed at the moment. Weeks turned into months and months turned into hundreds of cookie cutters. It became a lengthy process to just locate the one I needed. I didn't have time to go through hundreds every time I needed one. I bought this house for the few square feet that comprised two unspecified pantries in my kitchen. One holds my baking utensils (pictured above) and the other one holds baking ingredients (flour, sugar, powdered sugar and the like).

Some of you with a gift for organizing may have a better way but this is the way I do it. I have lots of these little drawers that hold various themes. Obviously, some themes generate more cutters than others. They get the larger drawers. I have the drawers labeled so that if I need a team cutter, I go to Varsity/Sports. If I need a tile, I go to shapes. If I need a wedding cutter, I only have to look through the wedding related ones.

Here are my categories:

Wedding

Baby

Spring/Easter

Birthday

School/ Kids

Collegiate/Sports

Military/Scout/ Political

Shapes (tiles)

Characters

Christmas/ Hanukkah

Animals

Snowflakes

Graduation

Alphanumeric

Halloween

Valentines

Fruit

Animals, Sports teams and Christmas categories have the most in them. Otherwise, it takes just a moment to sift through and pick up the one I want.

So, how do you find the one you are looking for? Leave a picture that represents your prize cutters in the comments!