Stash management

To continue with the theme of stash management, I have decided to reorganize my stash. I have had my stash sort of put out of the way for a few years, but there isn't any rhyme or reason to it, as the following pictures will show:



This is the basket that I keep WiPs in. The little barrel thing used to be used to hold current project yarn, but now just stores yarn that I was too lazy to put away in the plastic tubs pictured below.



This basket has been in this spot, full of whatever it's full of, for at least a year. I don't even know what's in it. The thing on top is a failed attempt at making a triangular shawl out of Lion Brand Homespun that I can't bring myself to get rid of. The tree trunks, er... needles on top of the Homespun mistake were a freebie from the Stitch N' Pitch. My hands hurt just looking at them.



This is the last box I received from Knit Picks a couple of weeks ago. I haven't taken anything out of it yet because I haven't known where to put it. It holds some Andean Silk and some sock yarn.



This is my knitting bag (and also my first knitted object - still in use 4 years later!). It holds another WiP that I haven't blogged about yet.



Here are the plastic tubs referenced above. There are 3 of them, and they are packed to the gills. They live in the closet in the office. I have to move other stuff to get to them, so they're not very convenient.

And finally,



This the the "temporary" cardboard box that I whined about in Tuesday's post. I have no clue what is at the bottom of the box.

That's everything. Any yarn in my house is in these 6 locations.

Now, the plan:
1) Purchase under-the-bed flat plastic bins. *DONE*
2) Sort yarns by weight.
3) Sort yarns by project if I have a project in mind for a particular yarn. Bag up these yarns in zipper bags so that they stay together.
4) Enter all yarn specs into Excel spreadsheet.
5) Create Excel spreadsheet. I guess this should go before #4.
6) Put yarn in underbed bins.
7) Marvel at space leftover after organizing and smack myself for not doing it sooner.

Some of you may wonder why I intend to keep a spreadsheet for myself instead of entering all of my stash into Ravelry. I may do that eventually, but for now, I think it will work better for me to have a separate spreadsheet. Also, the thought of photographing my stash makes me wince. With the horrible lighting in my house, I have a hard enough time photographing WiPs and FOs. It would just frustrate me to distraction if I had to try and get decent photos of all my stash. Plus, I know what it looks like. I don't really need photos of all of it.

I'm going to try and have all this done by Sunday night. That's a pretty optimistic goal, but I'm definitely motivated.

Onto making that spreadsheet...