Join me for my epic yarn stash declutter as part of the Komono category of the KonMari Method.
This epic yarn stash declutter was a long time coming. It’s another instance of how grateful I am to have discovered the KonMari Method, because otherwise I’d probably still have a closet overflowing with yarn.
I’m not gonna lie – I’m a bit of a craft supply hoarder. I enjoy many textile hobbies and have been crocheting since I was ten. Pretty sure I still have all my embroidery thread from when I made friendship bracelets as a pre-teen. (Okay, time to go KonMari that stuff…) I’ve got all kinds of fabric and sewing notions, knitting needles, crochet hooks in many sizes, and of course, a giant yarn stash.
I’ve decluttered my yarn in the past. But here’s the thing about doing the KonMari Method: you may think you’ve already gotten rid of everything you’re going to, until you actually follow Marie Kondo’s instructions. You’ll discover you’re actually still sitting on a pile of stuff that doesn’t bring you joy, and you just don’t know it!
I had no idea, until I started doing this subcategory of Komono, that what I had in my closet – what was supposed to be for a joyful hobby – was actually a stress and anxiety inducing mess. All the old Works in Progress (here on out known as WIP’s) that I just hadn’t gotten around to completing, all the old yarn that I felt obligated to use up, it all was sitting in my home taking up space and causing me stress over the fact that I won’t have time for the foreseeable future to do these projects.
Below I’m going to tell you, in excruciating detail, how I went about decluttering my epic yarn stash. Why the detail? Because this is real life, and most people I know have a similar amount of clutter they want to face but don’t have the tools to. I want this to motivate and inspire you to tackle something that’s secretly been stressing you out – but that you think you just can’t get rid of.
Epic Yarn Stash Declutter
First, my “Come to Jesus”
My crochet bag was an eye sore.
Every time I walked into the Room of Crap, it was there in the middle of the floor. My unfinished temperature blankets for 2018 spilled out onto the floor, mocking me for giving up on them. Four different colors of yarn for said blanket were tangled up from when the baby got into the bag – which was why it was banished to the Room of Crap. I also knew, even if I couldn’t see it, that there were several other unfinished projects in there, a mess of yarn, and probably some crochet hooks I’d been missing for awhile.
On the outside, it was just a messy crochet bag. In the back of my mind, it was a bag of anxiety. It needed to be organized ASAP.
I pulled out the unfinished temperature blankets and started trying to untangle the snarl of yarn. I looked at the mess of crappy acrylic yarn that would probably take a few hours just to set right, and then over at the basket of brand new skeins of yarn in other colors (colors I don’t even like) that I bought specifically for this project. Then I thought about how much more yarn I may have to purchase in order to eventually (in the distant future) complete this project. And about storing this project and all the supplies I’d need indefinitely until I had the time and wherewithal to get around to continuing it.
I had a revelation.
This project no longer sparked joy!
I liked the idea of it. I wanted to be like those people who commit to a big project and then see it through, and have the most gorgeous completed piece at the end. But the actual project – no, it did not spark joy any more. The idea of having to store all this yarn for however long was the opposite of joy. I want the Room of Crap cleaned up now, not when I can finally crochet 334 more rows of a 2018 temperature blanket!
I then extended this thinking to the rest of my yarn stash. There must be a ton of other projects and supplies that also no longer sparked joy! I decided then and there that I wasn’t just going to quickly organize my crochet bag. I was going to KonMari my entire yarn stash!
Time to actually follow the Method, Marie Kondo’s way
Before that day, I didn’t think I needed to get rid of any more yarn. I’ve decluttered my stash before. Several times. I’ve given away yarn to other crafters, and I donated some to the local church ladies to make hats for the homeless.
Yet my yarn stash was still enormous. It seemed that no sooner than I got rid of some yarn, I had to get more for another project. I had:
- a large plastic bin full of yarn
- a large cardboard box full of yarn
- a basket full of yarn
- three clear plastic zippered bags full of yarn and WIP’s
- a separate crochet bag with projects and materials
It was taking up quite a lot of room in the small closet in the Room of Crap and was overflowing into the rest of the room.
Now, I have been a little lax in the way I’ve gone about KonMari in the previous categories. (Links to my other posts on the Method are at the bottom. I’m honest about where I cut corners.) This time I did EXACTLY as Marie Kondo suggests.
As I said in my Introduction to Komono post, it’s extremely helpful to take everything from the subcategory out of it’s “home” and view it in a different space. I took every last scrap of yarn out of the Room of Crap and moved it to my bedroom. Every box and bag full of yarn, every WIP, every little bit. Then I put it all into one massive pile.
I knew I had a huge stash of yarn, but seeing it all there in one huge pile was still a bit shocking. It was like in the TV show when Marie Kondo has people pile all their clothing on their bed to see exactly how much they actually have. Had I had someone with me, I would have nervously laughed and cracked a self deprecating joke about how much money I’ve spent on yarn in the last 20 years.
But it was just me in there, so no bad jokes. I got to work immediately and went through the giant pile quickly and methodically. I picked up each skein of yarn and asked whether or not it sparked joy, but also, am I actually going to use this again? Is this for an unfinished project that is causing me anxiety?
I separated everything into three piles. One pile to keep, one pile to donate, and one pile to trash. The keep pile was for yarn and supplies that sparked joy or that I definitely wanted to use in the future. The donate pile was stuff in good usable (sometimes brand new) condition that someone else could use, but that I no longer wanted to be burdened with. Last, the trash pile was yarn that was extremely tangled, covered in cat fur, or old projects too big to bother to frog. I briefly started a “maybe” pile, but then I just wanted it done, so I sorted those few things into the main piles.
There was so much “old” yarn in my stash. I had some I’d probably been hanging onto for 20 years – the chenille was definitely from before this century. I also had a lot of WIP’s. Most of them I decided I did not want to complete in the future and trashed them. (And really, there’s nothing else to be done with old acrylic yarn that’s already been worked unless you spend hours and hours unraveling and untangling it and then re-raveling it. Just… No.)
Unfortunately, my temperature blankets ended up in the trash pile. I felt quite a large pang of guilt for this. These were projects I was excited to start and spent months working on. I originally started them as a way to use up old yarn in my stash. Then I realized I didn’t have enough of each color I needed and had to buy even more yarn. Oh, and one of the blankets wasn’t wide enough and I’d need to completely redo it from scratch… The project had gotten out of control, and I was just done. Honestly… if I want to start another blanket, I can do it in a better pattern with higher quality yarn in colorways I enjoy.
Another major reason my yarn stash was so massive was all the leftover yarn from previous projects. Such as, the yarn that was left after I completed special order scarves. Or I wanted to make sure I had enough for a project, so I ordered slightly more than I needed and ended up with an extra skein.
What’s staying, what’s going
For now, I’m only keeping one large WIP. (I’m also keeping two almost finished hats.) It’s a blanket I started years ago when my grandmother taught me how to crochet her signature chevron. I’m not sure that I’ll ever get around to picking it up again, but I couldn’t bear to trash it. I can’t separate my feelings of the blanket project from my feelings of my grandmother teaching me that pattern. For now, I’m okay with hanging onto it.
In the end, all the loose yarn I’m keeping fits in the large plastic bin. The WIP I’m keeping and yarn specifically for it are in a large clear zippered bag.
All my crochet hooks I corralled into one baggie so I’m not searching all over my house for them anymore. One day I’ll get an actual pouch to store them in.
I discarded a literal mountain of yarn that does not spark joy.
I stuffed it all into two bulging trash bags and listed it for free on Craigslist. Not 20 minutes later I was inundated with offers to take it off my hands. I’m so glad that my excess yarn will bring someone else joy!
What was left was a huge pile of garbage. I really hated putting it all in the trash, but there wasn’t anything to be done about it. Not and saving my sanity at the same time.
This is a common issue people have when they do the Method – discovering all the literal trash in their homes. I have to look at it this way: KonMari’ing my stash didn’t create more trash. The trash was already in my house. Decluttering just identified it.
Afterwards and Going Forward
The final thing I did was clean up afterwards. I’m mentioning this because there is something soothing about the ritual of putting things away and cleaning up after making all those (sometimes emotionally charged) decisions. The box of yarn and supplies I’m keeping was put back in its place. I immediately took the bag of trash out before I could go digging through it to “save” that one thing. I vacuumed the area where I had been working. All that stored yarn had stirred up and spread around a lot of dust.
As mentioned before, I listed the yarn I was donating on Craigslist for free, so I could be rid of it ASAP. Otherwise it would just be sitting around somewhere taking up space. I may have been tempted to take things back out of it.
The best thing to do going forward is to identify why I had so much trash in the first place so I don’t repeat the problem in the future. This means: A. keep yarn clean and away from the cats (it all fits in a plastic bin now, so no problem) B. don’t buy any more cheap acrylic yarn (I prefer to work with higher quality yarn now) C. be careful about starting very large time consuming projects (I have no time right now to work on any projects anyway).
Here’s another side effect of doing the Method. It’s got me wondering if I even want to continue to run my Etsy shop. I have bags of products to list for sale but no time to do it. Do I even want to continue that side business?
I’d love to hear from you: do you have a giant stash of something that would benefit from a good KonMari? (Crafters know what I’m talking about!) Did any part of this story resonate with you? Leave a comment!
Pin it for Later!
Resources:
If you’re interested in trying the method, I highly recommend you read Marie Kondo’s books. They are good quick reads and will change your life.
These are affiliate links. That means if you purchase a product directly from a link on this page, I will make a small commission at no extra charge to you. Thank you for supporting Cozy Tasty Home!
The Lifechanging Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
Spark Joy by Marie Kondo
The Lifechanging Manga of Tidying Up: A Magical Story by Marie Kondo
Want more recipes, lifestyle, and decluttering advice? Please subscribe!
My Other Posts on the KonMari Method
The KonMari Method: Clothing, Part 1
The KonMari Method: Clothing, Part 2
The KonMari Method: Clothing, Part 3
The KonMari Method: Clothing, Part 4
Recently did a yarn stash decluttering myself. I have a nicely organized system of drawers which are labeled. Those labeled by weight were working out okay, but worsted and fingering were starting to overflow. Then I had, “Acrylics,” “Baby wools,” and “Projects.” Guess which ones had to go!
Like you, I took everything entirely out, and brought it to another room. While I struggle to separate other categories, like clothes, into joy/no joy (since they’re mostly no joy) – yarn was trivially easy! I love it or I don’t. Make two decent sized donation bundles, including virtually all of those acrylics. I kept them for infant projects… but making items for babies does not spark joy in me! Out they go!
The “Baby wools” were gifts from my mother who DOES make a lot of baby clothes! Unfortunately, many had labels like, “Baby Ull,” which wasn’t helpful. I entered every single one of these on Ravelry to determine their weight — and recategorized them as Fingering or Sport, where I will actually use them!
So “Acrylics”drawer became “DK,” a new category. Worsted and Fingering each got a new drawer. And “Projects” got unwound, or filed by weight. Every drawer labeled, of course!
I took one more pass! For the weights occupying more than 1 drawer each (worsted, fingering), I separated them by color groups. Now I can actually SEE what I have! No more hunting wonder where “that one sort of turquoise skein” went!
The love I thought I already had for this collection is reinvigorated. Now I know for sure I love every piece in here. I sent the ones that didn’t spark joy onward. Everything is neatly organized, labeled, and setup in a way that makes sense for my crafting habits TODAY.
Loved seeing someone cover this specific topic – good post! Thank you!