Organize that Cross Stitch Stash

Do you control your stash or does it control you? I have become the master of my stash. When my husband found out that his sock drawer had become yet another place for cross stitch supplies, it was either get it under control or end up in divorce court. Being a stay at home mom of four, I quickly realized that being a single mom would seriously hamper my stash purchasing power and set off to become as organized as possible. First stop…

Patterns

When I began my mission to organize my stash, I realized that there were many different options available. In fact, it was a little overwhelming, not to mention expensive. I started with my chartpaks. Nordic Needle has a neat little product called Pattern Finder. It is a lidded box with a divider so you have two rows in one box. It includes labels and a master index list to tape to the outside. While this product is fairly inexpensive, I chose to make my own out of a cardboard storage box and labels that I printed off of my computer. I sorted them by designer and attached a label with a number on it. Then, I printed a master list of all the charts with the name and number so when I need find one, I just look on the master list and get the number and pull it out. 

Now, books and leaflets are pretty easy, as well. I have a small bookcase that I put them all on and just group them by designer. Then, we get to the tougher stuff. All those magazines! There are many ways to keep magazines in an organized fashion, so you need to figure out which method is right for you.

1. The first method is to take the magazine apart and file each project in a sheet protector and store them in a binder. I think that this is too much work and too much money, but some people like to do this so that they can file them into specific categories.

2. The second method you can use is to purchase, or make your own, organizer boxes. Again these can be purchased from Nordic Needle fairly inexpensively. I have heard suggested that you can make your own out of empty cereal boxes or empty laundry soap boxes. The nice thing about these boxes is that you can generally store a couple of year's worth of a magazine in one box and have them all together in one place.