How to organize yarn stash with cube organizers!
Welcome to the January Pinterest Challenge Blog Hop, hosted by My Pinterventures. The purpose of this Pinterest Challenge is to motivate all the participants of this hop (and you too) to not just pin, but to make it happen!
This month’s challenge is a special one because we are changing things up to include a theme now! This month’s theme is Organization. When the theme was chosen, I knew I wanted to share my yarn storage with you!
In our tiny little home, we have one spare bedroom that my husband and I split for our hobbies, and well, junk (haha!). I call this space of mine my craft area because that is all it is – yarn storage, and not photographed today are bookshelves with craft books, and all kinds of supplies, as well as a lingerie dresser with other craft goodies like beads and buttons.
So, in 2017, THIS is how my craft area looked. I KNOW! Really awful, and I definitely couldn’t find anything!
For a long time, I have kept my yarn in those clear storage bin towers. It worked, but what I didn’t like was that I really couldn’t see what I had in there without having to open it, and dig through, plus if you overfill them, the yarn on the top rubs on the drawer above it when opened and closed. After a while, the bins also became kind of weak, and anytime I would try to move them, they would all come apart. I had just gotten fed up with the mess, the bins, and not being able to see all my beautiful yarn at first glance.
So, my inspiration comes from Make and Do Crew with her Easy DIY Yarn Storage Shelves Using Wooden Crates. Find more craft room ideas on my Craft Room Redo pin board.
While I love the idea of using the wooden crates, it was a larger cost and time investment than I wanted to put. Working on a budget, I found this 9 Cube Organizer in black for around $40 at Walmart. Excellent!
Real quick before moving on, looking online there were a couple negative comments about edges being sharp, pieces being chipped and not being good quality, but I had zero issues with mine. All hardware was included including five chipboard backings, there were zero chips, the surfaces were (and still are) nice and smooth and the edges in the norm for other shelving pieces I’ve had. I love my cube shelves, and recommend them! If I had room, I’d purchase more.
I bought two of them, and my husband built them for me. It fit into the same spot you saw the plastic bins in in my before photo with some room on one side. We stacked the cubes on top of each other, and…
I ended up keeping some of the plastic bins, which I put in the gap to the right. I have a three drawer one on the bottom, and a six drawer one on top.
The top two drawers are finished projects that I will either be using for another project, are waiting to be sold, or waiting to be published on the blog, and the third drawer is one of my many WIP bins. The rest of the drawers are full of supplies – the fourth one has embroidery hoops in there and papercraft overflow, the fifth is full of papercraft supplies and kits, the sixth and seventh are full of throw blankets I intend to crochet around, and the last one has felt in it.
One thing I see in Jess’s post, as well as all over the place is that people organize their yarn by color. This definitely makes for a nicer, more cohesive, less overwhelming look, but I organize mine by brand if I can, or by weight – this way, I know exactly what I have just by looking at the cube.
This is the shelf on the top and it has:
Top, Left & Middle, Left: Lily Sugar n Cream, Bernat’s Handicrafter Cotton, Crafters Secret Cotton & Misc Worsted Weight Cotton Yarns (like Red Heart Scrubby, Lion Brand’s 24/7 Cotton, & Berroco’s Modern Cotton).
Bottom, Left: Red Heart Super Saver and Bernat’s Super Value (I find them both interchangable).
Top, Middle: Aunt Lydia’s #10 Cotton Thread, Artiste #10 Cotton Thread. I even have a skein of thinner Jute there.
Middle, Middle: Baby Bee’s Sweet Delight.
Bottom, Middle: Misc Lightweight Cottons (like Berroco’s Modern Cotton DK, and Paintbox Yarn’s Cotton DK.
All Right Side: Hobby Lobby’s I Love This Yarn.
This is the shelf on the bottom and it has:
Top, Left: More Red Heart Super Saver and Bernat’s Super Value.
Middle & Bottom, Left: Misc Worsted Weight Yarn (like Lion Brand’s Wool Ease, Lion Brand’s Touch of Alpaca, Red Heart’s With Love, Cascade 220, Berroco’s Vintage).
Top, Middle: More Red Heart Super Saver and Bernat’s Super Value.
Middle, Middle: Misc #1 to #3 Yarns (like Hobby Lobby’s I Love This Sport Weight Yarn, Premier Yarns Wool Free Sock, Premier Yarns Sock, Paton’s Kroy Sock).
Bottom, Middle: Bernat’s Blanket Yarn.
Top, Right: More of Hobby Lobby’s I Love This Yarn.
Middle, Right: More of Bernat’s Blanket Yarn.
Bottom, Right: Misc Chunky & Super Bulky Yarns (like Lion Brand’s Wool Ease Thick n Quick, Berroco’s Vintage Chunky, Lion Brand’s Homespun, Bernat’s Softee Chunky, Lion Brand’s Scarfie, T-Shirt Yarn).
Join the EyeLoveKnots Crafting Community on Facebook to share your creations, and see what others are up to!
Let’s see what other things Pinterest inspired! Head over and visit the other hosts to see what they crafted, cooked, built, or tried!
Erlene – My Pinterventures | Jenny – Cookies Coffee and Crafts
T’onna – Sew Crafty Crochet | Marie – Elle Marie Home
Cherryl – Farm Girl Reformed | Beverly – Across the Boulevard
Gail – Purple Hues and Me | Slices of Life | Krista – Teadoddles
Lydia – Life Beyond the Kitchen | Alexandra – EyeLoveKnots
Lauren – Mom Home Guide | Shirley – Intelligent Domestications
Lulu & Celeste | Lynne – My Family Thyme | MM – Coastal Bohemian
Emily – Domestic Deadline | Terrie – Decorate and More with Tip
Kristie – Love my Little Cottage | Cynthia – Create with Cynthia
Terri – Our Good Life | Christina – Christina Faye Repurposed
Terri – Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After
Erlene says
Aren’t these storage cubes great?! I use them in my craft room with bins. The way you use them for yarn is perfect and I’m sure makes finding what you need so much easier. Glad this month’s challenge helped organize your yarn stash.
Alexandra says
Thanks for hosting it Erlene! I love being a part of the challenge.
Terrie Tipler says
We just purchase some of those for a play room we are working on. They are great items for storing. You have a lot of storage now for your yarn. Great post.
Alexandra says
Definitely! Going to be perfect for a play room.
Verna Bradshaw says
In January 2019, we bought the 12 storage cubes from IKEA. They work great and we opted for this style because it fit my wall space perfectly. Then I had room to add canvas cubes on top of the shelving. I store by acrylic weight, color and brand. I don’t have many different weights or brands. Cotton is all in two cubes.
But neatly stored is super important for me. I cake my partial (3 oz or smaller) skeins for neatness and ability to see my stash at a glance.
I also weigh my cakes and used skeins so I know how much I have of each. It only takes me a couple hours once a month.
Love all the information yo provided and the hop!
Alexandra says
12 storage cubes?! Wow! Props to you – I don’t have the patience to cake yarn (even when I need to do so to use a particular yarn). Maybe when I get an automatic yarn winder – I have my eye on one!
Verna says
I don’t get response on replies….so sorry. I should clarify that one unit has 12 cubes in it.
I don’t mind caking at all. But I make it loose so it doesn’t stretch the yarn.
Joanne says
That is perfect for yarn storage! I tend to organize my craft supplies by color but I don’t use yarn and I know the weights are really important with that. Pinned.
Alexandra says
I will admit that I LOVE the way the yarn looks when it is organized by color. I just don’t find it practical.
Lauren | Mom Home Guide says
That’s great that you got your craft area organized! I need to organize my craft room! Mine is a mess!
Alexandra says
It was in desperate need! Now to keep it that way, hehe.
Christina Woodcock says
I love storage cubes and what a neat idea. Now you can see all your yarn and the colors. The cubes are so versatile! I will have to use a few of these for the staging items that I have!
Alexandra says
My brother had one of these in his home for quite some time, and on each of the top six shelves, they had really pretty items styled to match their home, and they used the bottom three to store the kids toys in canvas baskets. If I had the extra space, I’d buy more, and use them all over the house!
Jenny says
Storage cubes are the best. We have a few of these in our house, but this is great for seeing all of your yarn that you have when you go to do a project.
Alexandra says
Yes, definitely!
T'onna | Sew Crafty Crochet says
Cube organizers are great for storing and organizing yarn. I also like to organize my yarn by brand.
Alexandra says
Yes! Just easier that way.
Beverly says
I love storage bins, too and your use of them for your yarn supply is a great idea!
Alexandra says
Thanks, Bev!
Cherryl Ehlenburg says
I don’t have a lot of yarn, but I have a cubby organizer similar to yours. A few months ago, I got the idea to stack my fabric in the cubbies. It is so much easier to locate what I’m looking for now!
Alexandra says
Yes! I can see that being a good idea too! Right now, my fabric is sitting in canvas storage totes. I also like the idea of using file folders to help store the fabric, and make it easy to go through.
LydiaF says
My yarn is stored in several different ways, but I always have to pull it out to get a good look at it. I think a set of cubes would be a good solution for me, too.
Alexandra says
Yes, definitely! I love being able to see it all at first glance.
Emily says
This look great. Those cube storage things are great for storing so many craft supplies.