How to organise perfume bottles?

Hi everyone,

I´ve been doing some clean-up and trying to put some order in my collection. My problem is I don't know how to organise it in a way that is practical and also gives me a quick overview of what I have. It's all mixed up and I keep "forgetting" perfumes that are at behind other bottles. I must add that I keep all my bottles in their original boxes. I know this contributes to me neglecting some perfumes but I really don't like to have "naked" bottles on the shelves. In your experience, what is the most efficient way to organise perfume bottles? what works better for you? How do you categorise your perfumes? By brand? Season? Type of scent? 

Thanks in advance for your ideas.

Doesn't matter how you organise them as long as you have a LIST! Doesn't matter if it's on paper, an Excel spreadsheet, a Venn diagram, whatever... I have a list with all the perfumes that I own, listing the names, quantities/types (bottle or vial/sample/decant), groups, notes, and even feelings ("nostalgic", "dressed-up", "uplifting"). And that's what I look at when looking for a scent. Then I'm sure I won't overlook any of the available options that I own!

P.S. this being said, I'll gladly hear other ideas and suggestions 👍 

Hi Nushka!

 I would've never come to this idea by myself,  it makes totally sense to do an inventory!  It is a first step to have an overview. Thanks a lot I will do this.

Great! Give us an update sometimes 😊 Maybe other users will comment with more ideas!

I will do that. 

I keep my collection a majority of them are still in the box they where bought in, some I don't have the box for since they where bought many years ago so I keep them separate boxes but I mainly keep my perfume in shoe boxes and by colour theory. 

Hi EmberRose!

clever! Shoe boxes keep them out of the light and protected from dust. You mean you put, for example, white bottles in the same box, blue bottles in another box, and so forth? and then you arrange the boxes in the same order of the color circle? How do you keep track of what perfumes are in each box?  I've heard that when people have many pairs of shoes, they keep them in their boxes and stick a polaroid outside of the box so they can find the shoes they are looking for without having to go through all the boxes. Do you use something similar?

My shoe boxes are kept in a storage room, others are kept out of light in my studio/bedroom, and no I keep my shoes separate why would I want them near my fragrances. It's more like I go by gradient is the best way to put it depending on the shade of the box and work it out from there took me ages but always fun to do though and it keep them organised.

Hi EmberRose,

I see! You organise your bottles and the gradient effect must be also pleasing to look at. Thanks for your answer!

Hi @Cocopah I had the same problem and didn't know how to organize them. I have a very limited space which made things harder.
I ended up storing them (in their original boxes) in shoe boxes in my closet to keep them away from the sun and light. I categorize them based on the season. I have a winter-fall and a spring-summer box. If they fit inside I keep the box closed and stack another one on top. If they are too tall/big I leave the box open. I keep the ones I'll wear this season in the front in an open box to have better access to them.
So far this works for me and I think it's much better than just placing them on my bookcase shelves.

Hi AnyaK,

thanks for sharing your method. I honestly feel overwhelmed with "organizing" in general and am grateful for any ideas that are uncomplicated but effective. 

Kind regards

At the moment i have a 2 system storage setup. I keep everything in their boxes also unless I am taking them out for a photo for SOTD posts etc.

One is a TV unit that i had before i got a wall mounted TV that i keep all my gaming and tech stuff in but on top of it are all my fresh Summery kind of fragrances like Bleu de Chanel Eau de Parfum , Acqua di Giò Profumo ParfumCK One Eau de Toilette etc, and even though there are some on that unit that will perform in cold weather i think it's easier to just keep them together. I have all my blue fragrances in a row my HUGO in another row musky types in another and then a sort of miscellaneous row with the likes of La Nuit de L'Homme Bleu Électrique which i would probably have in a date night category row but since i am not dating things like that go there lol.

Then i have another 5 drawer unit with a glass shelf top to it that i keep my niche and colder weather fragrances on. Again some can be worn in Summer but most are a stronger kind of fragrance like my 1 Million Eau de Toilette and all it's flankers, it looks better having them all kept together since the boxes are almost identical. I also have my stuff like, Pegasus Exclusif , Soprano along with "Hard Candy Elixir | Aaron Terence Hughes" and other ATH fragrances on there also.

I do have a kind of walk in cupboard along with shelves which if i keep collecting i plan to start moving things in to there at some point. Thing is, i feel like i have most of the kind of fragrances that i like covered and i am only buying things that are starting to smell similar to one another. So i have a few i want to buy but after that i am not sure where to go with collecting, so i don't see my collection growing much unless there is some new kind of fragrance that comes out on the market kind of like we had our blue fragrances a while ago.

Once i have the ones that i am planning on buying i am going to post a recommend me topic here along with to School of scent who does videos where you can send him a list or photo of your collection and ask him if he sees anything you are missing to see if he or anyone here can suggest a type of fragrance i am missing or have not sampled yet and only if there are some suggestions of some that really make me think, "wow i should try that" and it gives me some new areas of fragrance to try otherwise i think i will probably just stop there.

I don't have too many bottles yet and I avoid it as much as possible (I bought 4 frags last month, but before that I had finished 4 frags as well) but I still arrange specific rotations. I work with style/feelings and season and rotate my frags according to this. and i put the frags I chose on the first line. i organize other frags by predicting next rotations or by sorting them together according to their style/type. so currently first line is fall rotation, second line is sweet/gourmand, third line is predicted winter rotation, etc. can sort from anything depending on why you like your fragrances (intensity, brand, etc)

the inventory idea is pretty good i think ill do it too. ill take my journal which i use to write on fragrances in general

Why not just use the collection function here on Parfumo instead of writing one out in excel. There is the ability to add notes to each fragrance, add quantity , bottle size and I mean like notepad notes when I say add notes, not fragrance notes, but when you do want to see the actual notes you can just come here go to your collection and see everything you own and click on it to go to its page to see the actual fragrance notes etc. 

in the notes I add stuff like other fragrances they layer well with and all sorts of information. 

Oh and you can all then join in on the compliment a fragrance from the above comment game also lol 😋

Hey Mitchcraft,

thanks for sharing your set up. If I understood correctly, you keep your fragrances in different places organised according to season and type of scent? 

Seems like your have a very efficient way to keep an overview of your collection. Unfortunately, I don't have much space at home and I am constrained to using only one bookshelf. 

Hi Violette,

I am going to give a try to your rotation system. Just decide on a fragrance profile line-up for the week and see how it works for me. 

Thanks for sharing!

Yeah i can still easily pick out my fragrances by looking at the box and have a decent amount of more space on the fresh side of the collection with it initially being a real long TV unit but even though i have less wintery niche fragrances there is less surface space for them now on top of the drawers. I think I could get another 10 medium sized boxes on there but if I keep on buying more I will have to get to cleaning that walk in closet out for more room lol. 

I would love to see a photo of your collection I imagine it being large and full of interesting fragrances. 

parfumo's assistant is a really nice tool as well, i think it usually makes good picks and if you use the "spray" function enough it will also show you which fragrances you don't wear much

Hey Mitchcraft,

I think this hobby can easily get out of control with the number of bottles and I see others keep better track of their collections. That is nice from you! but I think I do not have a large number of bottles in comparison to other Parfum@s here. )

You have a great knowledge of fragrances I know that to be true. Some of your suggestions have been wonderful for me like introducing me to Van Py Rhum and I also have seen you recommend to others some really interesting fragrances like Plum in Cognac which I plan in getting. I also saw in SOTD posting one of the portraits fragrances. I would love to hear about that BTW.