After soaking them with PJ whats the best thing to store them in?

I have used both altoid tins and regular plastic zip-lock bags.
With the altoids tin you can really cram them in there.

When putting them in the tin do u put them in something or directly in the tin?

I always have put them directly in the tin and then sealed/closed the tin lid with a strip of duct tape. They seem to keep fairly well in the tin. Although they WOULDN'T be water protected in the tin as I have it setup, this may be a problem...

I don't know if this is the best way to do it, it's just the way I have done it. I once was like you...asking "what is the best way" and I just made something work that seemed to make sense.

I put some of mine in old pill bottles

That sounds like a better idea. More "waterproof" if you will.

I have found that an old 35 mm film canister works just fine. It is compact, seals them in quite nicely, and protects them as well.

Other solutions that I have seen are simply folding them up in aluminum foil.

What's a film canister? Just kidding. It won't be long before people don't know what they are anymore.

PS. They work great for storing cotton balls\PJ

Making a small cigar sized wad in the bottom of a plastic sandwich bag and then rolling it up tight and rubber-banding it closed works pretty well! It has the advantage or being a soft shape that is easy to pack and easy to use as well!

I have also heat sealed it into short pieces of soda straw but that is a lot of work and even though it works well is not resealable in the field!! (It is waterproof which is nice!!)

Most of the other things that I have tried (35mm film can, small Nalgene bottle etc) where harder to pack not as compact or in the case of the film can the lid would pop off if you fell or rolled on it in your bag!

Oh I should add don't soak the cotton a little works better than a lot in this case!!

SD

For small kits I use miniature zip bags. Often electronic parts come in them. I found a bunch of them at a local antique show and flea market. A stuff dealer had them bagged in 50 and 100 bag lots depending upon size for a couple of bucks. The ones I got were 3/4 X 3/4 on an inch and some 1 X 2 inchers. Very handy for a number of uses. The dealer had a number of different sizes available.