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Organizing the Stash
By Susan | January 29, 2009
Our office was closed for two days this week following a massive winter ice storm. Basically, this is what it looks like outside:
I’m not sure how accurately that picture portrays it, but everything is covered in about a half inch thick layer of ice, then snow on top of it. Tree limbs are snapping power lines all over the city, cars are frozen in their spots, and from the looks of it (at least in our apartment complex) no one in Louisville owns a snow shovel. Yes, that includes me and Mr. Martini. (Hey, we don’t have a driveway!)
The first day I was home from work, I was able to actually get some work done remotely, which was great. The second day, however, our DSL pooped out, and the modem flashed a little red light all day long. Which was annoying, to say the least.
While I waited to be reconnected to the outside world, I did a little housekeeping. Specifically, I reorganized my stash, which I had been meaning to do since we moved in.
Here’s what it looked like before, spread out on our queen sized Ikea bed:
This is completely unacceptable. I have a white dresser in my closet whose sole purpose is to hold the stash. However, the stash has grown and can no longer fit exclusively in the dresser. Plus, I have random half-completed projects in various project bags, which is just taking up space. All in all, it’s one big mess. This will not do.
My goal for this reorganization was to fit all of the yarn that I would ever plan to use into the dresser. The rest? Well, we’ll get to that in a minute.
So that’s what I did. An hour and 15 minutes later, I had this:
At the top of the picture are the three works in progress I have on my needles (a cowl, a scarf, and a sweater).
The two drawers on the right hold all of my worsted weight yarns (upper drawer) and all of my sock yarns (lower drawer). The drawer on the left is all of my bulky yarn, pattern kits, and all projects that need completed (blocked, seamed, buttons sewn on, etc) or frogged (three different half-completed single socks). These three drawers now hold all of the yarns I love, and will want to use. The trick – nothing can go into these drawers unless something comes out, either completed or sold.
Two of the smaller white bins in the middle hold all of the leftover scraps from various completed projects. I like to hang on to these in case of repairs. I’ve already dug into these boxes on more than one occasion. The other white bin holds the yarn and finished squares for my Babette blanket.
The yarn that I knew I wasn’t in love with, that I probably wouldn’t use anytime soon got separated into two places.
First, the large bin in the middle. This yarn is for sale, and in most cases is already posted as such on Ravelry. I added a few items to this bin, and I’ll be adding them to my sale page on Ravelry soon.
And finally, the big blue bag on the left. This is all of the yarn that I can’t sell (or wouldn’t be worth selling). Half balls of Cotton Ease, leftover acrylics, etc. All of this yarn has been grouped together into the big blue bag. If I don’t use this yarn in the next six months, it’s going to be donated to charity. I’m just going to give it away.
I can’t tell you how happy this made me. I’ve hated not being able to see what my yarn looks like except by the pictures on Ravelry. Now I know that I can open a drawer and see exactly what I have, and make plans for how to use it. Granted, a lot of this yarn was bought in the early days of knitting, when I didn’t really know what I liked. Now that I know, I think I can be more conscious going forward of only buying yarn when I need it, or when I have “room” for it (both in the drawers and in the budget).
It feels like a fresh start, perfect for the new year.
Topics: Stash Busting | Comments Off
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