Stash C̶h̶a̶o̶s̶ Control

Bringing order out of chaos is a challenge. My office has been cluttered for a while, but I've slowly been whittling away at it, getting rid of things I don't need, finding better ways to store what I do need. Yesterday I tackled my yarn stash. That is no small task - I think I could knit for about five years, just using my stash yarn. It had reached the point where my yarn cubbies were full, the bins in the closet were full, and yarn was piled in bags and boxes randomly scattered around my desk.

At this point, it's not a lot better. (At this instant, it is really awful.) I've gone through all the yarn, which - in addition to facilitating this ordering process - let me look at all my yarn, and allowed me to find the perfect skein for a gift I want to knit this fall. It also allowed me to eyeball the yarn for signs of moths or other critters (none spotted, happily). I tossed some yarn into a box of "yarn that I am pretty sure I don't want to knit with" - mostly cotton yarn that someone gave me, once upon a time - and I will pass it along to some unsuspecting soul. Other yarn went into a box of "yarn that I like, but there's hardly any left, so maybe someday I'll combine it to knit some project."

Those two categories didn't really account for much yarn, so I still have a rather large stash. I had yarn spread all over the living room - lace on one end table, bulky on another; sport weight hanging out by the fireplace, fingering yarn perched precariously on the rocker, aran on half the love seat, and worsted taking over the couch. At one point, I stepped outside briefly, and when I returned, Bonnie had awoken from her post-walk stupor and was sprawled on the love seat - but not in the spot I had left for her:

This isn't my yarn?

With the yarn sorted by weight, I pulled out a few skeins to use for some upcoming projects, and put them on my "project shelf" (doesn't that sound official! organized! over-the-top!), and then I bagged the rest of the yarn, in large garbage bags, by weight. The smallest are sitting on top of new bins in the living room, and the rest have taken over my office. I also cleared out several cubbies in my shelf system, that were holding random non-yarn things, and now need to hold yarn. Those former contents are now on the floor of my office, and stacked on my chair.

What a mess.

I realize there is danger in putting perfectly good and wonderful yarn in garbage bags, but my patient and long-suffering husband is really happy to have the living room furniture back. I promise that the yarn will quickly move from bags to cubbies and bins and closets. (And the other stuff will move from floor and chair to appropriate homes.)

Just to show that I'm not the only nut with a stash, you can read the some of the Yarn Harlot's insights here or here or here. I've heard of people storing stash in pianos, freezers, and coat sleeves - at least I haven't done that! (Yet.)

Bonnie is also annoyed that, as long as those bags of yarn are taking over my office real estate, her unsupervised visits are banned. Hopefully, a couple of evenings should bring order out of this new chaos.

Sulking?