Ixchel is coming along nicely – will do an update in a day or two when there’s enough progress to show up 🙂
In the meantime, I wanted to share how I organize my yarn stash. I have felt a little weird talking about this, because I don’t know that it’s of interest to anyone. But then, I’m interested in how other people manage their stash, so maybe how I do it might be helpful to someone else.
Anyway! The first thing I do with new yarn is save it to my Stash in Ravelry. This is a fabulous tool, in that it lets you see what you have from anywhere you have internet access. A quick check into the stash via my phone has saved me from many an unnecessary yarn purchase over the last couple of years! When you are looking at patterns on Rav (and you know you are looking!) you can check your stash right away and see if you have anything suitable. If you’re not using it, do consider it. It’s a little work to keep it up, but it is so helpful in so many ways!
So that’s the first part. The second part is physical. It involves getting this…
put away into this.
Over the years I have tried all kinds of organization schemes. I have sorted strictly by yarn weight. Then I put each project into a project bag along with the pattern and so on and had the bags stuck together in bins. My latest thing is a combination. Sweater quantities are all packed into a SQ bin regardless of yarn weight, small projects have their own bin, socks and minis have their own bin. There’s a bin of scraps and leftovers from other projects, a bin of things I’m a step away from letting go of, and then a bin for misc skeins.
The bins are clear, which I know can be problematic if they are in the sun. I don’t have that issue where they are stored. We get a little indirect light in this room, but nothing bright or direct, so I think it should be OK. The white rectangle you see on the side of each bin is the label, which are just slide down on the inside between the yarn and the bin side. I try to keep them straight and centered, but that is a bit of a losing battle. As long as I can read them, that’s good enough. There’s not a set order these bins go in, which helps ensure that whatever bin I need to put things away in, it will be on the bottom of the stack. Oh well, at least it’s a little exercise!
How do you organize your stash? Any tips to share for the disorganized and despairing?
Quite A Yarn 
Well one – oh my, now I feel so guilty my stash looks a lot like your first photo, but quadrupled!!
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There are all kinds of ways to keep you yarn – whatever works for you!
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True. I wish I could be slightly better organised – my ‘problem’ is when I am sorting it I just want to start a zillion new projects and go off at a tangent! Don’t get me started on the piles of pattens I have saved ‘to make some day’…
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Yes! You just want to KNIT! I generally have to wait until my hands are tired to get any organizing done at all 🙂
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My stash is stored in multiple plastic bins also. They are mostly separated by weight. There is one bin with UFOs and odd bits of leftover yarn.
I have most of my stash on Ravelry. It is a great place to keep track of things.
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I love the stash feature, as you can probably tell! And plastic bins – they are also good for keeping dust and moths out and so on 🙂
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I can’t believe y how much yarn you have. Having said that, when I sewed, I had containers of fabric. I finally found someone who does projects and cleared all out but ones I may actually use. Organization is always key to saving money. I never knew if I had enough lining (for window treatments and such) so I always bought it. Then I’d find I still had 10 yards left!
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It is a lot of yarn. I do have plans for all of it, believe it or not! Yes, getting and staying organized is very important for avoiding duplicate purchases. Do you sew mostly clothes or household things?
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Mostly things like window treatments, upholstering and other major household items. I am not a craft person so I rarely use snips and snabs except for catnip bags for the cats! I haven’t sewn in a few years because I have needed anything. I do have 3 sewing machines. One regular and two specialty.
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Do you ever think of doing any other types of sewing at all?
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I use Numbers in Mac to track the purchases and use, with complete listing of yardage, weight, needle size, color number. Was very labor intensive to set up when I first did, but now is easy to enter new purchases. For storage I use cedar chest and an old army chest for most of it, then plastic drawer bins and large bedding bags for the rest.
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That sounds really comprehensive!
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