Who are you and why are you doing this???

I am an OCD mechanical engineer who enjoys woodworking.  My wife is an avid paper crafter.  As her hobby grew I designed and built a variety of items to get her work area organized.  Because space was at a premium, I had to develop designs that were really space efficient.  What started as some small drawer units in a corner of our dining room eventually became a desk full of ink pad holders, shelf and drawer units as well as a tower of paper holders.

Her stamping friends would visit and were impressed with how neat and organized her area was.

In early 2009 I decided to build a few items based on those designs to see if anyone would be interested in buying them.   We started on ebay and there was enough demand to keep going.  In the fall of 2009 this website was started and we began our online marketing campaign.

For the next couple of years it was a nice hobby business.  The marketing could be stopped and started as there was time to build product and fulfill orders.

“This is fun, but it’ll never pay the mortgage.”

Things started to change in early 2012.  We launched our first punch holder, and within a few months it was our best-selling product.  In May, Splitcoaststampers completed a Product Focus on Stamp-n-Storage products with a featured headline in their Weekly Inkling subscription newsletter.  The response blew us away and we were scrambling for several weeks to get caught up.  (In fact, we have struggled to keep our Combo Holder product line in stock since April.)

Through the summer of 2012 some serious soul-searching was taking place.  This was no longer a hobby business … it was nearly a full time job, and I already had one of those!  Something had to give, and the security of a career in engineering management was set aside for this crazy idea of building specialized storage cabinets.

“This is fun!  I sure hope it pays the mortgage!”

In September, 2012 the business was moved out of our two-car garage and into a 2,000 sq ft shop.  The extra space is very welcome, as is the strange and unique ability to once again park our cars INSIDE!

There’s more work than I can handle on my own, and so help comes from my teenage children who have taken on some of the woodworking, a part-time assembler and others in our community who are contributing in a variety of ways.

Below you can see me with a small selection of product in the new shop.  It has been quite an adventure already, and it has really just begun.  None of it would have happened without you, our faithful customers.  THANK YOU for buying our products and providing your valuable feedback.  Your comments, encouragement and ideas help us constantly improve our products.

Stay tuned for lots of activity in the coming months including an increased social media presence and more new products.

- Brett Haugen

Stamp-n-Storage

Brett in the Stamp-n-Storage shop