I’ve been slow and it was a long time ago but I hope my last blog post has helped you focus on your stash.  It has taken me a while to publish this because I started with A LOT of words! I had to do an awful lot of editing out so this is a concise summary of my stash taming.

Maybe you are ready to take the step to reduce your stash and break the stash habit, maybe you want to use it all or maybe you don’t think you have too much and you are happy to leave it where it is!  If the latter then you may not agree with a lot of things I’m going to say in this blog post but don’t worry I have a new post in draft which you won’t have long to wait for.

I started to reduce my yarn stash several years ago.  It spurred me on to declutter more of my home and it is something that is embedded in my life now. At one stage I know I had over 350 skeins/balls of yarn.  I thought this was a lot but I’m amazed by the number of people who share their stash problem on social media, hiding it in all sorts of sneaky places so their family can’t see it.   Many have a lot more than 350 balls, some have rooms stacked high with yarn – probably even more yarn than a yarn shop!  S

Ask yourself a few questions: Do you know how much yarn stash you have?  Do you know where it is stored?  Do you hide it?  These will help you think about whether you have a stash hoarding problem and whether you are ready to tackle it. The suggestions below are based on how I tackled my stash problem.

Cataloguing it was the first stage and for me that means a spreadsheet.  Cataloguing your stash gives you a good grasp of how much you have.  It’ll take time but you don’t have to do this all at once, work through it in stages.  Just make sure your catalogue or spreadsheet covers all the things that you need to know, so you can just use that to help you declutter once you have a full picture of your stash. And don’t forget your kits, you could have a lot of yarn lurking in those kits!

I started with the spreadsheet I developed in 2014 which peaked at 350 balls, but a ball could be 25g or 100g and could be laceweight or chunky so that didn’t really give an idea of how much potential knitting and crocheting I’d need to do to use it.  I decided to redevelop and include meterage. However, the original spreadsheet did show 25% was 4ply, 35% was DK and 20% was lace – and, using some averages, that major part of my stash was probably well over 100,000m!

The basic information you may want to log is:  brand, yarn name, composition (eg cotton, silk, merino), ball/skein weight, meterage per ball, colour (you may wish to give colour name, colour group and lot no), number of balls , you may wish to add where you are storing it (label cupboards, shelves, boxes so you can find it easily) and possibly original price.  I didn’t bother logging price, mainly because I decided declutter was the object not the monetary value.  I added a simple formula to work out the total meterage and I can sort the spreadsheet any which way I like – useful when trying to match a stash busting project to my stash.

The second stage is to work out what you can or want to use.  It is tempting to hold onto a skein because it is so beautiful and you really love it, but just ask yourself ‘will I really use it?’.  Surely a good yarn deserves to be used, if not by you then by someone else.   Then sort your catalogue into the yarn you can and will use as a priority, at this point you can add to your catalogue what it will be used for and possibly a priority order.  My now small stash spreadsheet has ‘socks’ against 5 entries as well as the 8 in WIPs.

The next stage is to take all the yarn you will use and put it in sensible and visible locations.  That may be shelves or boxes in your cupboard or craft room. Don’t put it somewhere out of sight – make sure you are conscious of it.   Try to touch only the yarn you will use because once you touch yarn you can’t use you may fall into the temptation trap!  Don’t forget to catalogue it as kept and label it. I like to keep mine in organza bags.

You will now be left with yarn you cannot/must not use.  It may be that at this stage you need someone to help you, because this a dangerous point – once you know it should go temptation may creep in again!  So a friend may help you sort it ready to remove from your life, and yes you may shed a tear or two.  Sort it into sensible groups – luxury yarn, yarns suitable for toys or blankets, regular yarns, and then label it. Depending on how much you have to ‘remove’ this may be a lengthy process and something else you want to do in stages.

How to remove it? There are some very good facebook groups for selling yarn, especially luxury yarn.  Selling it is a great option as you get back some of the money that you have, dare I say it, wasted on yarn!    There are other selling websites such as ebay and I have seen a new trend in craft de-stashing sales. Or you may wish to give it away to someone who you know will use it – ask your friends if they would like any or if they know anyone who would like any. Or donate it to a good cause – there are many knitting groups, care homes, hospitals and schools which appreciate yarn donations.  And then there are charity shops, but make sure you find ones that have special craft sections.  Knowing that some of your yarn will be put to good use and will even raise money for charity is a great feeling.

There are 2 final stages to the declutter and both are very important.  

Start using your remaining yarn stash as you planned and keep recording it in your catalogue.  Once I started to use up my remaining stash I found checking off numbers on my spreadsheet gave me a buzz. 

Do not buy any new yarn unless you have a distinct plan for it AND you know it will be used within a couple of years, or even a year, or better still a couple of months! I have been remarkably loyal to this stage despite the temptation put in front of me every day.

Believe it or not this is a short description of my stash declutter.  There were many points where I stopped and readdressed, but I got to a point where I felt my yarn stash was manageable. I now have 23 skeins/balls and 8 of those are in action in my current projects (WIPs).  My total meterage in stash is 7,500m and I can fit all my stash into one IKEA KALLAX cube!

If you have any tips on decluttering your yarn stash, please share them here, on Ravelry or on Facebook.

Good luck!