Monday, January 4, 2016

How Many Bottles Fit In A Helmer?


Hey, everyone! I should be asleep... but a conversation in the Facebook group For The Love Of Indies got me thinking: How many bottles really fit in a helmer?

First, I suppose I should've touched on nail polish storage and why the helmer is the absolute best, but that's for another day. Just know that for $40 and about 30-45 minutes of assembly, you, too can have a perfectly sized "nail polish filing cabinet" from Ikea in one of 4 colors. Then you can paint, contact paper, color on it, whatever to make it your own... if that's your thing. It's totally mine.

But back to the real reason for this particular spur of the moment post. How many bottles fit? I went through my personal nail polish collection, indies and mainstream, and lined them all up to see. Some important things to keep in mind with my numbers:

* This count is for full sized bottles, no minis taken into account.
* This count is for straight lines, no staggering, except where noted.
* I don't put my polishes upside down so I am not taking into account anything other than bottles sitting upright.
* Wasted space is noted. In a lot of cases with wasted space, you can put minis.
* This count is for same size/type bottles filling a drawer, not mixing and matching.
* You may find that you don't like your polish sitting under the lip of the drawer. I don't mind. My counts are for wall to wall fit.
* A helmer has 6 drawers but the "total" count is for one drawer with the width first, depth second.

So without further ado, here is my list:

OPI & FingerPaints: 6 x 11 = 66 with wasted space OR 5 x 11 with 14 staggered = 69 total
ORLY: 7 x 11 = 77 total with wasted space
Kiko: 8 x 14 = 112 (wasted space width, snug on depth)
China Glaze: 6 x 10 = 60 with wasted space
Color Club: 7 X 12 = 84 with wasted space

pipe dream polish, Different Dimension, Drip Drop Paint, MDJ Creations, All Mixed Up, Supernatural Lacquer and other plump, round bottles: 7 x 11 = 77 (with wasted space, these can be staggered to fit a few more)

SquishyFace Polish, Bliss, Colors By Llarowe, NvrEnuff, Mango Bunny, Love, Angeline and other medium bottomed square (and apparently round) bottles: 8 x 13 = 104 total

Lemming Lacquer: 7 x 15 = 105 total (7 across is a bit snug but fits)

Painted Polish: 7 x 12 = 84 total with minimal wasted space

Cupcake, Fair Maiden, Smokey Mountain Lacquers and like bottles: 8 x 14 = 112 total with some wasted space

So that's it. If you fit the biggest bottle into every drawer, your helmer is going to hold just about 400 polishes (give or take a few). If you have smaller bottles, it can hold up to 672. That's full sized with some space for minis. I think it's safe to say that a helmer will hold an average of 550 polishes. Yeah, I know THAT math isn't perfect, but I upped it a bit since most bottles aren't as fat and frustrating to store as OPI and China Glaze. If you're like me and like to store your babies by brand, then maybe you can try different bottle shapes in each drawer to maximize your space. Seems to work well for me.

If you'd like to check out any of the indies I've mentioned, click on their name for a link to their shop.

Let me know about other brands I've missed in the comments! Especially if they have a different bottle shape! And as always, thanks for taking the time to read my musings! XOXO


3 comments:

  1. Thanks for the info! This is so helpful! :)

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  2. THANK YOU!! I was debating whether to buy one but you solved it for me❤

    ReplyDelete