The four ways to organize your stash according to Craftsy are color, fiber, weight and project. I think I may have found a better way for those of us to have humungous stashes. When Ashley Little the writer of "4 Ways To Organize Your Yarn Stash" started her article by saying, "I recently moved my yarn stash from individual fabric bins into a chest," I thought, "AMATEUR!!!!!" But I decided to give her tips a try.
1. Color: Even though I am a color person, this doesn't work for 90% of my stash. I do have 9 tubs of pink yarn left over from Survivor Shawls, 3 bins of turquoise and copper I collected to knit the wall hanging I fell in love with at Knitting On The Fringe, 1 tub of blue from Knit The Sky and I have 1 tub of white/cream that I really don't remember why I was collecting.
This is the only time I would tub like colors. What happens is that you loose individual skeins of yarn and it all blends in together. Each beautiful skein looses it's identity to BLUE or PINK or GREEN or whatever color you are sorting. To quote an old saying, "You can't see the trees for the forest."
2. Fiber: The concept may have merit but this also does't work for me. Once again individual skeins disappear into the black hole of COTTON or WOOL or ALPACA.
3. Weight: This is the organization method Ashley chose for her stash. She had her sock yarn together in one draw of her chest for sock inspirations. She also says organizing by weight helps you quickly see if you have the right yarn for a project. Once again, "AMATEUR!" My head is stuck on a chest holding an entire stash. In what year or decade would my stash have fit into a chest organized by weight? I think it was the late '80's!
4. Project: This is it! This is the closest I come to organizing by Ashley's 4 Way method. I call organizing by project "In The Queue." But what about UDY, my undesignated yarn category? I buy yarn that I have no idea how it will be used based simply on the "love it, got to have" philosophy. I have lots and lots and lots and lots of UDY!
Now let's see how I go about organizing my amazing Stash Studio.
My two favorite ways to organize are by project or "In The Queue" or by company. I must say, I really do know every skein of yarn in the stash. When we built the Stash Studio and I moved all of my stash into it, I had somebody say to me, "I bet you found yarn you forgot you had." My response was, "Have you ever found children you forgot you had?" I have 3 tubs of Madelinetosh, 15 tubs of Noro, 1 tub of Blue Herron, 3 tubs of Twisted Fiber Art, 1 tub of Kauni and the beat goes on. All of my tubs are labeled with exactly what is inside; company, type of yarn, color, ect.
When I find a pattern I fall in love with (now a days usually on Pinterest), I think through what I have in the Stash Studio that would be perfect then take a trip up the stairway to heaven. Usually I can see my yummy yarn knit up into the amazing pattern.