Organizing Yarn: Organizing Yarn: An Organizer’s 5 tips (plus a bonus tip) for Keeping a Yarn Stash Under Control

Organizing yarn can be a daunting task. Are you acquiring yarn as a result of your new crochet or knitting hobby? Maybe the hobby isn’t so “new” and you’ve curated a yarn collection. Either way I have 5 tips to share from my own yarn stash organization.

My yarn organization took on a life of its own when I started acquiring way more yarn than I knew what to do with. It started with a tote here and a box there. And then it turned into multiple containers overfilled with yarn. Eventually, I graduated to the level of yarn connoisseur with dozens of containers of yarn.

While my yarn projects on Pinterest were growing at about the same rate as my yarn collection (wickedly fast), my finished projects had a much, much slower finish rate. (You can check out my Pinterest boards here.) My aspiration was to have a handmade business of crocheted items so I thought if I bought yarn when it was on sale or discontinued I could absorb the cost of supplies a little better.

After a few years of digging through containers of different colored yarns, different textures, and different weights, and really just having no idea what I had, I decided I needed to re-organize for functionality…..and my organizer-brain sanity.

1. Organizing Yarn By Color

One of the first things I would recommend to any yarn aficionado is to at least organize yarn by color. Whether you have 25 skeins or 2500 skeins, at least separate it by color. And sometimes multiple colors can go together, like orange and yellow, until you acquire enough to justify storing them separately.

I started going through each of my containers of yarn, one at a time. Any yarn that I had both inherited AND remembered from my childhood (especially if the brand was no longer around), I put in a “vintage” pile. Also in this pile went any color I just wasn’t crazy about…and there isn’t much yarn I’ve met that I haven’t liked.

I divvied up this first round by color. I quickly came to realize I had a boatload of most colors in many different weights. So definitely consider organizing yarn by color!

2. Organizing Yarn By Weight

Each of the colors I then started divvying up between weights (3-weight, 4-weight, 5-weight, etc). So I would have 4-weight red, 4-weight orange, 4-weight yellow, 5-weight red, etc. Most of my 3 weight or less yarns were stored together since I didn’t have as much of those weights. But I still grouped them by color.

3. Label the Containers of Yarn

Every good organization project usually involves some form of labeling — organizing yarn is no different! From here I labeled each container with the weight and color and packed those babies full. Most color/weight combinations I had multiple containers, so it went like this: ‘4-weight, red, 1 of 3’, and then ‘4-weight, red, 2 of 3’.

4. Store Containers in a Logical Way

I saw Pinterest ideas on using a canvas shoe hanger to store yarn, or a couple of cubbies….yeah, that’s cute if you have a couple dozen skeins of yarn. I had a few dozen moving boxes overfilling with yarn. At this point, I was rivaling a yarn shoppe. Not kidding.

I’m sure there are “proper” ways to store yarn. I was going for practical and budget-conscious so I used computer paper boxes and plastic totes.

I purchased wire shelving units and essentially made one for all my 4-weight yarns, and one shelving unit for my 5-weight yarns. Most of my 3-weight or less yarns went in containers under our pingpong table since I didn’t use those as much. You didn’t know a pingpong table could help with yarn organization did you? Well, now you know. And that’s not even the bonus tip! My “vintage” yarn pile went into containers of their own and were also stored under the pingpong table.

Instead of storing by yarn weight, some folks might prefer keeping all their boxes of red yarns together next to each other. Figure out what works best for you and how you use your yarn.

5. Create an Inventory List

This step takes the idea of organizing yarn to a whole ‘nother level! Once I got some reorganization underway I decided I would actually inventory the yarn — yes, I had that much.

I did a little research and along with my own requirements, I used a notebook to record (by color and weight) every skein of yarn I had. As you can see, I recorded the color as it was listed on the label (and who are these companies that don’t put a color name on the label!?), the brand, the # of skeins and how many of them were started, how many yards were on a skein, and what container they were in.

This would come in handy when I would see a pattern for something and know exactly which of my yarns I wanted to use. I could easily tell from my inventory notebook if I had enough of said color. And I would know exactly which of the numerous containers it was in. Or, if I wasn’t sure if I had enough of any yarn to complete the project, I could easily browse through the list of a particular color and see that YES! I would have enough if I used that one.

BONUS TIP: Donate unwanted yarn or the projects made from them

In addition to just organizing yarn, I challenged myself to use just the vintage yarns to create numerous blankets, scarves, and prayer shawls in some pretty neat color combos. At one point, I stopped limiting myself to just this “vintage” yarn and began incorporating yarn from my organized stash as well.

I also donated some skeins of yarn for Christmas roundups for orphanages and children’s hospital groups.

I would go on prayer-shawl-marathons where I would just make prayer shawl after prayer shawl. I’d do the same thing with hats and scarves and blankets. These were donated to local nursing homes and Project Linus.

After undertaking this organizing project, I was pretty fluent in color names and brands and “feels” of the yarns (ie. weight). I could go to a craft show and see a yarn project and say “That’s Vanna’s Choice, 4-weight in linen”. Does anyone else do that? No, just me?

Did you enjoy this Organizing Article?

If you found this article on organizing yarn helpful, check out these other organizing ideas:

What do you think about my yarn organizing project? Would this be useful for your yarn stash? How do you organize your yarns? Do you have so much yarn that we should be yarn friends? Remember, it would only take a few skeins to be friends. The more skeins the merrier though, right? And remember to check out my Pinterest boards for more yarning inspiration!