I have a plastic case that I store them in, 14500 and 18490, on their sides, in a channel that is just the right fit for them. We, DH and I, take from the front, and put newly charged ones in the back as they are charged. I do mark them with date. DH loses one or two, a month, usually leaving them in the Hotel or Rental cars, So every few months I buy 3-4 new ones. He flys out of town every week for a few days. I've started marking the newly purchased ones, with metalic marker, silver for the last purchase and gold for the purchase I'm making this week. He always takes the newest so he doesn't have to use the charger. He's "misplaced" two chargers in the past year.
When we change out batteries, and are going to be here, we put them directly on the charger. Because we only vape them down to about 3.7 or so, they charge back up pretty fast. If we aren't going to be here we lay them crosswise on the chargers to remind us to charge them when one or both of us get back in.
If we are both gone while batteries are charging the last person to leave unplugs the charger. Li-ion batteries don't suffer from "memory effect" so it doesn't mess up the charging if you interrupt it and start it back up again. Also, it's good to charge them before they run too far down. It is supposed to help with longevity.
A few of mine are almost a year old. I have only had to retire one AW IMR to recycle. It was a year old and, although it did charge up to 4.2 volts, it drained, with use faster than we like. After a while most people will learn when the voltage drops below what they like for their best vape and take them out to charge without even needing to check the voltage. This also applies to Li-ions as they age. The voltage drops faster as they get older.
One, but not the only guage of "life" of the battery is based on number of charge/use cycles. A Lithium chemistry battery that is stored properly and topped up regularly, and not allowed to get drained to low, should, in theory, last much longer than one that is used and charged frequently.
By using the very simple system we use all of the batteries have about equal use/charge cycles.
Alice
{edit} For the two of us 14 is a good number. He usually takes six with him out of town, in addition to fresh one in his Mini, and usually comes home with at least two that are not used. (Last week he took eight and I don't know why, but I had five here. He doesn't do much vaping, during the day, while at work. He does carry a charger just in case, like if a flight is cancelled or he has to work late and has to take a flight out the next day.
The insides of ours aren't stained with juice so far, because I've used a little alcohol on the spills immediately. The waxing is the ticket because I was concerned about drying the wood out with the alcohol.
