Cataloguing a stash, or ‘how to shame yourself into not buying more’

As you probably know by now, I have an embarrassingly large stash and it has grown a bit out of control – so much so that I am currently on a #stashdiet and I’m not allowed to buy anything new until July. I can’t even show you a photo of the mess that it is, I’m too embarrassed! I really don’t need any more fabric and I have lots of projects that I can work on without buying more but I have lost any real concept of what I have. At last count I had 158 pieces… Not all of these will be used up as I think I will probably need to do a destash and some of it will also end up being donated or sent to recycling.

Because I have so much, I needed a system to keep track of what I actually do have and how much I have of it. At the moment there are 8 large tubs from Ikea in my sewing room that are full to bursting, plus extra and in an ideal world I would like to reduce that down by 50% (I am aware this is wishful thinking as I shop faster than I sew…).

I didn’t want to use an app on my phone to record my stash in case I ever lost it, so I went old school and bought a ring-binder, a set of blank playing cards from ebay and some trading card sleeves. Who knew they existed?! Working a tub at a time, I’ve taken a tiny swatch of each piece, stapled it to a card and written a summary of the width and length, fabric type, the pattern/print and if possible where I bought it from. I’ve only worked through about 6 tubs and I do need to have another sort out as I’ve bought a lot more since I first started cataloging and things have been moved around too. However since starting to catalogue, I have thought more about using from my stash first instead of going straight online to shop for more, so although it is taking ages, it has already proved to be a worthwhile project!