My recent de-stash attempts in the fabric department of my studio got me thinking – what is the process for letting go of something I coveted so much when I bought it? Is it as easy as saying: ‘I haven’t used it in over twelve months’ like we do with our clothes, toys etc.
Fabric and craft supplies are a bit different {I think}, in that one builds a stash to be able to pull the perfect fabric collaboration from; and buys that fat quarter/pre-cut bundle, yarn, thread or zipper for a particular project in mind – a project that you haven’t yet got to, but still intend to. Are you all hearing me on this, do you relate?
So, how does one part with such items? Here’s how I did it, pretty simply {it’s still so tempting to put them all back on the shelf} – a stocktake was needed and so I’m sticking to it. Plus there’s plenty more gorgeous lines to fill their place, right?
1. Time – first, set aside some time to go through your whole supply at once, or break it up into sections if that seems more manageable. I did pre-cuts one nap time, fat quarters the next day and the rest over a few hours on the weekend. This wasn’t due to me having a huge stash {I really don’t!}, but more that I wanted to take my time sorting and re-organising in order to make the ‘right’ decision.
2. Sort – take everything out of your shelves, cupboards, boxes ready to sort {this is why I broke the task up – much easier to focus and much less overwhelming!}. While everything is out, take the time to clean those shelves. It’s amazing the dust and teeny, tiny strings/threads accumulate on those shelves!
Make choices based on these three categories:
- Keep {for those absolutely-no-way-am-I-ever-letting-go-of’s} – these are the items you will keep. I started to fold and organise this pile as I went, making re-organising less of an arduous task. It’s important to label boxes if you use them, or keep things in some sort of order that makes sense to you {colour-code, sort by designer, manufacturer or fabric weigh etc}.
- De-stash {sell, donate, recycle} – these are the items you immediately feel you want to move on. I found the items I put in this pile were the ones I was sure I would never use for a project, weren’t to my liking or tastes, or were damaged in some way {stained, faded etc}. I also donated fabrics for garment or upholstery type sewing of items that I had leftover from projects or had been given in scrap bags etc. Most of these items were a quick decision, and an easy one.
- Maybe {this is the hard one…!} – this is the pile for those items you have a really hard time deciding on. You’ll leave the items in this pile for a set period of time {say a month?} initially, and then re-assess. After this time, you’ll move some straight away for destash, and some to keep. If you’re still having a hard time deciding, put them away again. If in six {or twelve, if you can stand it!} months time, reassess again. My thoughts are, if they’ve been away for this long without any thought then you probably won’t use them.
3. Organise – deal with the piles immediately after you’ve made your final decision. There’s nothing worse than going through a de-clutter process and then having piles of fabric and supplies lying around {the point is to clear the space no?!}. Items I could re-sell were bundled up and photographed for sale. Items that were to be donated were given to goodwill, or our local daycare or school {the kids at Lil’s preschool have made some gorgeous artworks from my quilt scraps}. Items that are damaged and faded etc can be reused or recycled – maybe rags for husbands workshop/garage or added to a dress-up box as capes, doll cradle sheets etc. With good storage there really shouldn’t be too many of these items {I’d just about die the day FJ used a fat quarter in the workshop!}.
Storage of fabric and craft supplies is purely personal preference, with a bit of commonsense and creativity thrown in {you don’t want to store your fabrics in direct sunlight for example!}. There are loads of great tutorials on storing fabrics on comic book boards, on drop-files in filing cabinets or folded upon shelves.
I store all fat quarters and half-yards folded and organised in colour in a DVD rack. We mounted it on the wall {not only providing storage but is something fun to look at!}. Larger cuts of fabric are stored on comic book boards, and also organised by colour. I never un-bundle a pre-cut pack until I am using it, keeping fat quarters, jelly rolls and square packs on shelves of their own {Ikea Expedit bookshelves are the best!}. Scraps are kept in storage boxes under my cutting table, and projects on the go in wicker storage baskets – also under my cutting table. This includes all backing and binding fabrics set aside for those projects {I work better having everything kept together and everything in its place!}.
Notions, rulers and patterns are all kept in drawers in my bookshelf – we opted to kit the bookshelf out with cupboard doors and drawers on the lower half, keeping fabric out of the hands of little ones! I’m working on a brief overview {and basic tutorial} on my cutting table that I can’t wait to share with you also – my studio hasn’t been the same since we added it!
Hope this helps with some of your own fabric de-stash and storage solutions!
Keera
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*Note: All opinions are purely my own – any links I provide are NOT affiliate, just products or tutorials I love and find helpful!
Thanks for the tips. I really need to get myself sorted and organised. I probably wouldn’t even have a quarter of the amount of fabric that you have, but it takes up probably at least as much space 🙂
Great tips. I’m about to move into a space where I’ll have a separate room for crafting (yay no longer scampering between the kitchen and living room!) and I’ll be using some of these tips to get things setup the right way and to make smart decisions about what fabric is important to add to or release from my stash.
The trickiest part I found in destashing is the stuff that I do 100% want to part with aren’t really things people want to snatch up in destash sales, so I feel like I’m still left with it! I’m thinking just generic blenders or stuff not made by “Big Name Important Designer”. To sell it, I’d probably have to price it extremely cheaply, but if I do that I’ll feel like I’m cheating myself. If I sell a generic fat quarter for $1 (or a bundle with the price equivalent to $1per FQ), I could never buy the same amount of fabric or anything close to it as replacement, so what am I really getting out of it? Fabric is generally expensive and if I end up at a point where I HAVE to just use what I have over buying new things, at least the fat quarter I don’t really want I can still use… Unlike clothes that end up worn out, fabric doesn’t really “lose value” so I hate actually marking things down super cheap just to entice enough people to purchase them.
I felt like to just make some money (because I do need some at the moment) I had to part with a handful of things i didn’t really want to let go of. Those however, i chose because they are bundles/precuts that have been sitting around for 12 or so months that I don’t even have a single plan on what to do with and i figured if I’m not serious enough about the fabric to not even have a plan (not necessarily a pattern, but what I want to do with it – a quilt for me, a quilt for X, a quilt for here…whatever) then I’m not really going to miss it at all once it’s gone!
I love how great your organization looks.
destashing is so hard sometimes!
This is a great process! I need to go through my stash again, but de stashing is a little overwhelming (I’ve been stashing too long!)!
Your fabric sorting system sounds great. It reminds me of Peter Walsh’s decluttering advice, a couple specific “tricks” he uses that I like are (1) hang all your clothes in the closet with the hangers backwards (hooked from back to front), then as you wear clothes and hang them up, hang them back up normally, at the end of 3 or 6 months, look at what’s still hanging backwards — that’s the stuff you may be able to purge; and (2) in the kitchen: take out all kitchen gadgets and put them in a box on the counter, as you use them return them to the drawer, at the end of 1 or 3 months you can purge what’s left in the box.
Lovely way to organize. Hard to part with some fabrics.