Stash of joy.

A couple weekends ago I re-organized the stash, which had become unmanageable.

Before:

To the untrained eye that may look fairly well organized, but some boxes are only partly full, others are overflowing, and the whole tower wobbles.

Then there was this mess:

That is what used to be my laundry-folding table before it became overrun with newly purchased yarn -- some of which is a year old by now -- and various other flotsam and jetsam. (Yes, those are two Red Scarves in the front, waiting for their ends to be woven in and to be blocked and mailed. When this room is more orderly I will be able to do that -- easily.)

I am not showing you the yarn that is still in the cardboard boxes in which it arrived in my mailbox. I do still have SOME pride.

Since most of my stash is wool or wool blend in worsted weight, I sorted it by color, plus one basket each for DK, sport/fingering weight, and sock yarns, plus one for oddballs that didn't fit neatly into another category.

It became immediately and abundantly clear that I needed a couple more Rubbermaid stacking/underbed boxes, which were obtained forthwith.

A goodly part of the worsted weight stash is Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, mostly purchased on sale with an eye toward community knitting. I am slowly replacing that part of the stash with Cascade 220, similarly purchased on sale but from Webs during their annual May sale. It is so handy to have a multicolored stash of wool when a plea comes out for hats or mittens or whatever.

Ta da!

 

The room is still a work in progress, but it is vastly improved over what it was and I am pleased. Note how much more orderly the shelves to the right have become. That was thanks to the two new big plastic bins at the bottom:

The stack of yarn boxes used to sit atop two nested cardboard boxes that held fabric. Over time those boxes had squashed enough that the entire pile was unstable. This is much better. I also turned the entire stack so the long side of the boxes was against the wall; now it does not intrude into the room.

The Goodwill pile also grew significantly during this whole exercise.

btw, if anyone is interested in those two big cones of Sugar 'n' Creme, one whitish and the other pale yellow, sing out in the comments. I got them for free; they are yours for the cost of postage. You can see in the photos above that I will still have plenty of S'n'C for myself.

Cleaning and organizing always brings brings things, previously thought lost, to light: for example, these four skeins of Drops Alpaca sportweight, purchased last October for a sportweight Palindrome for the Red Scarf Project. They disappeared into that table, never to be seen again... until now.

I'm set for next year!

Comments

[Bullwinkle]

Yow! I so need to go home and finish this (started over the summer).

Possibly the problem may be simple that I am Not home. ;)

Excellent work. How did you avoid a case of startitis?

[tinebeest]

Thanks for sharing! I love seeing pics of other people's stashes and organisation. Maybe because I don't really have a stash to speak of. That's my own choice, I get nervous if there is too much wool around to be knitted up, as if it is all shouting out at me at the same time to knit it up right here and now (or why do you think that PhD is taking for-bloody-ever?)

[Erika]

Nice job, it looks great!

[Chris]

Wanna do mine next?

[Big Alice]

ooh, so pretty! I love seeing other people's stashes.
Mine really needs an organization and an overhaul. ugh.

[soxanne]

Awesome!

[Cookie]

Woo Hoo!

Is it wrong that I see your stash and think you need lace weight? Don't answer that...

[lisa]

I recently saw the Harlot's re-org of her small room and keep thinking "I should do that"... Like yours, mine SEEMS organized, but, well... Maybe over the weekend I'll actually do something about it. Or not. I was into it the other day looking for a ball band of the yarn I made the red scarf with, and thought "ohmygawd, I have a lot of yarn, wtf was I thinking buying more???"

[lisa]

Oh, and I like that all your bins are clear (I have a big one that isn't) AND that you put signs in them! Yes, you might need some laceweight...

[Kym]

You know, I am in total stash-denial. I have it. (In fact, I have a lot of it.) I store it. Once in a while I reorganize it. But now, you've got me a bit inspired. The whole labeling thing. The organizing by color. I might need to try that. (But, of course, I would have to dig myself out of denial. . .)

[tammy]

Nice! You're inspirational.

[robin54]

you have inspired me -plus I was looking for some special yarn I had put aside for a pair of maine mornig mitts & had to rip apart 3 shelves of yarn to find it! .... so I think it's time to reorganize... plus I am interested in your sugar n' creme cones!! I live in Valparaiso IN

[Yarnhog (Suzanne)]

It is so satisfying to reorganize the stash! I always find so many goodies I forgot I had. I'm not very good about getting rid of the stuff I don't want, though. I still have three large bins of stuff to go in the top of my closet six months after my last reorganization.

[Lorette]

Oh dear, I think I love you. Now I don't feel so bad about my stash. I've taken to keeping it in two different closets so it doesn't look like so much.