Organizing Your Yarn Stash: 3 Ways to Stay Ahead of the Chaos

Keeping a print magazine library and yarn stash well organized takes effort. Thankfully, with a few easy tips and organizing habits, maintaining your crafting space doesn’t have to be overwhelming. It’s simply a matter of putting things back where they go to stay ahead of the chaos. 

Above: Image source – Adobe Stock

Daily/Weekly Tasks to Stay Organized

The hardest part of keeping your print library and stash organized is resisting the urge to just put things, either magazines or yarn, in the first place you see. No matter how big of a rush you are in, try to take a moment to place items where they belong.

In many libraries, a misplaced item gets lost and can only be found again in a massive reorganizing effort. So, if you struggle to immediately put a magazine away, create a location either in your library or your favorite crafting spot until you have the time.

Like new magazines, you should put new yarn wherever it belongs in your stash if not immediately using it in a project.

Monthly To-Dos

Knitting is a portable craft, and yarn has a tendency to wander off from where it is supposed to be. Once a month, look for stray yarn around your home, especially in your crafting spaces. And when you rediscover yarn in a project bag or other random places, put it back in the stash where it belongs as soon as possible.

Related: How to Improvise a Hat from Stash Yarn

After completing a project, look at any leftover yarn and ask yourself, “Do I need to keep this?” If the answer is yes, return it to the stash; otherwise, consider rehoming it. Have a designated location for yarn you no longer need to keep. You don’t have to rehome yarn every single time you come across it; waiting until you have several items might be easier.

An Annual Tidy

Even when you put everything in its place every time, things can still end up a little chaotic. Sometimes it’s pattern binders falling out of alphabetical order, or sometimes it’s skeins of fingering-weight yarn in your worsted-weight bin. To correct this, an annual tidy effort is needed.

For your print library, you can use this yearly tidying to straighten the issues and make sure everything is in order. You can also experiment with a new storage container or organization system. Maybe you have a new favorite issue or need to move publications into a larger binder. You could even break a large binder into multiple smaller binders.

Going through your yarn every year, even if you only reexamine a portion of your stash at a time, will go a long way to maintaining a functional stash. And if you find you can’t sit down and examine your stash without wanting to start all the projects, take a moment and ask how long the yarn has been with you. Then consider if you will actually knit the project or if it is time to let the yarn go.

Related: Types of Yarn Skeins and How to Knit with Them

Finally, don’t be afraid to try a different library organization or rearrange your stash if you find the current system isn’t working! Organizing is an ongoing process, not something set in stone. While you won’t need a massive reorganizing every year, smaller efforts go a long way to maintaining order and function.

C. Brooke Caldwell is a Librarian living in Arkansas with her cat and dog. You can find her on Instagram @cbcald.

Learn More About Your Stash