If your yarn stash is starting to feel more chaotic than creative, I get it. I’ve tried messy baskets, color-coded shelves, and even the “just buy less yarn” approach (spoiler: didn’t work). After some trial and error, I finally landed on a yarn stash organization system that helps me keep my yarn stash organized and inspiring—and today I’m giving you a behind-the-scenes look.
How to Organize Yarn
My system is built for ease, visibility, and creativity. I want to be able to find what I need, see what I already own, and feel excited about the yarn I’ve chosen.
Glass Cabinet Doors are the Key
I have two of these IKEA HAVSTA cabinets (not sponsored) with glass doors on top and deeper cabinets on the bottom. The glass doors allow me to see what I have and enjoy it, and they also protect the yarn from dust.
I keep my partials skeins visible unless it’s a tiny amount of yarn. I store the itty-bitty less than 10g balls of yarn in plastic drawer stacks in the lower cabinets.
organizing Yarn by weight
I divide my yarn first by weight. While dividing by color is tempting (and beautiful), weight is more practical.
Think about it: if you see a pattern you like, do you first think about what yarn you have in a particular color or what yarn you have in the weight called for? Weight makes the most sense.
And you’ll usually be using similar weights together, so it’s nice for one weight to be in one place.
I have 4 sections to work with on each of two shelves, and I chose these categories: Lace & Fingering, Sport & DK, Worsted, Aran & Bulky). Full skeins go on the top shelf and partial skeins go on the bottom shelf. I can find what I need in seconds.
Here’s a visual of this system:
I store the full skeins lying down so that one end is pointing to the front of the shelf and the other is pointing to the back. This allows me to stack as many skeins as I need, and I can still see all of them. The sides of the shelf and shelf dividers create support so that I can keep stacking as tall and wide as needed.
I use clear acrylic shelf dividers like these to keep each section that shares a shelf separate.
The Book For Yarn Stash Tips
While it’s not a traditional organizing book, The Joy of Yarn by Marie Greene is a great book for helping you shift your mindset around yarn to that of a curator. Sounds lovely, doesn’t it? I curate my yarn collection. This book also shared a great perspective about how to shop for yarn going forward to optimize your stash.
A wonderful reference to help you curate your stash.
How to track Yarn Stash
Even with a well-organized physical stash, I want to be able to see what I have on my phone, and I want to know how much I have. Enter: my tracking system.
1. I Use the Ravelry Stash organization Feature to Log Yarn Details
Ravelry’s stash feature (NOT sponsored) lets me input each yarn’s brand, colorway, and how many skeins I have. Ravelry already knows to the weight, yardage, fiber content, etc. It’s amazing! And free! If you haven’t been using Ravelry for this, please give it a try.
If you’d like, you can also track details like date, amount paid, where it was purchased, color, color attributes, the list goes on. You can also indicate when a yarn has been completed used up, if you gifted something, etc. This way you have an accurate record of your stash.
If you haven’t already been tracking your stash in Ravelry, it will take a little bit to put everything in, but going forward, make it a habit to tell Ravelry about your new yarn.
2. I Use Ravelry’s Projects Feature to Track My projects
When I start a project, I enter it into the Projects section in Ravelry, and link the yarn from my Stash. When I’m done, I weigh the remaining yarn so that I can enter how much I used. Then the Stash section in Ravelry already knows how much I have left. Again, it’s amazing! It’s free! Go check it out! (NOT sponsored)
Yarn Stash Storage Best Practices
- Avoid Sunlight. Keep yarn out of direct sun to prevent fading.
- Control Pests. My yarn is behind doors, which helps to keep moths at bay. You can also consider cedar blocks, lavender sachets, and airtight storage for further protection.
- Label Everything. I have tiny post-it notes on the inside of my cabinets to remind me which weights go where. And while I don’t keep tags on my partial skeins, all of the details are in Ravelry if I need to reference them.
- Use Your Stash. I LOVE using existing yarn in my stash to start a new project when I can. My favorite technique is to marl lighter weight yarns together to create a heavier weight yarn for small projects. And I keep those teeny-tiny scraps for bigger marled projects, like the Scrappy Rainbow Shawl.
Final Thoughts on Yarn Stash Organization
An organized stash doesn’t mean a small stash—or a perfectly matching Pinterest wall of cubbies. For me, it’s about keeping yarn visible, usable, and joyfully displayed. When I can find what I need and see what inspires me, I knit more and stress less.
Is it perfect? Of course not! But I’ve been doing it this way for 5+ years now, and I haven’t looked back.
If you’re in the mood to rethink your own yarn storage, I hope this peek inside my system helps spark a few ideas!
