Maintaining Your Organized Space

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We've put seven full weeks of blood, sweat and tears into organizing our stash and we want to keep it looking great! It can be rather difficult to stay on top of your organization as time seems to fly by. If you keep the following simple tips in mind you should have no problems maintaining a beautiful,
functional fiber filled space! 

• Add all of your new purchases to your tracking system as soon as you bring them home. However you have chosen to track your stash whether it be a notebook, journal, note cards, Ravelry or some other digital format; take a picture, make notes, and sort downloads asap. This will cut down on your getting behind and needing to go through the full seven weeks again. If you find it hard or know you will not do these things as soon as you walk in with your new goodies, plan ahead. Plan for one day every week or month to sit down and add everything in all at once. This will help you stay on top of things and keep you on track with your organization. 
• Once you have added all of the info for your tracking purposes take a minute and put everything where it belongs. It is perfectly natural to want to spend a few days going through your new Interweave Magazine. Once you are finished reading it, follow your storage plan and either make your pattern notes and tabs then file it with the rest of your magazines or find it a new home. Did you buy a new skein of yarn? After filling out the tracking information, snapping a picture or getting a sample cutting then put the yarn in its new proper home. 
• As soon as you have finished a project take a little bit of time and take some detailed photos of the new item, make notes of any changes you have made to the pattern and what needle size you used so you can reproduce it in the future. It is best to do this as soon as the project is finished so that everything is fresh in your mind, if you wait you may forget crucial information. It is also nice to have a journal of your finished projects so you can look back and see what all you have accomplished over the year, you can show your fellow knitters/crocheters what you have done or even just as a reference for patterns you have in your library. 
• Plan a maintenance day. No matter how hard you work at staying on top of your stash it seems to need a little sprucing from time to time. How often to plan a "stash cleaning day" depends on how big your storage space is, how much of a stash you want on hand and how often you stock up on supplies. Some people may only need to go through their stash once a year, some once a quarter or with the changing of seasons and others once a month. Being honest and realistic with your de-stashing needs is the key to taking this cleaning from a seven week project to just one afternoon or weekend. Take a little time and decide how often you want to organize your stash, tools & patterns, set a calender reminder on your computer or smartphone and it will pop up and remind you when it is time. These posts will be here for you if you ever need a little help!

Good luck with your organizing and thank you for taking part in our little challenge! 

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