Thread Stash!

How do you store and organize your stash threads?  I've tried a couple of different systems for mine over the years.

Way back in the day, a few plastic boxes could hold all of my stash threads, which consisted entirely of the full range of DMC (wound onto bobbins of course) and a box or two Kreinik metallics (which fit into those same plastic floss bobbin boxes very nicely!)

Flash forward a few years after I expanded my interest to counted canvas and needlepoint and I kept my threads in this big set of dresser drawers. As you can see, the "go-back" pile collected on top of the cabinet and often got way out of hand!  (Putting threads away is still near the top of my list of most-hated chores,  just a couple notches below vacuuming!) 

It's a big cabinet, almost 7 feet long and nearly 3 feet deep, but it eventually was crammed full. At that time, I organized threads by type-- the top two drawers were silks, solids on the right and overdyes to the left.  Below were the metallics and sparklies, smaller sizes to the left and the larger on the right.  Similarly, Perle cottons, cotton flosses, wools, blends and silk ribbons all had a drawer.  

While this system worked very well,  I always wanted to have them sorted by color first, then by type. When this cabinet finally got too jammed with threads, I decided it was an opportunity to finally change over!

So now I have these "thread towers", sorted by color, with each type of thread organized onto binder rings.  Re-sorting everything was a massive task that I was only able to do with some extra pairs of hands for the job.  Weeks and weeks of work-- I honestly wondered if it would ever get done! 

I noticed first what my favorite colors are-- obviously pinks far out-rank reds or yellow.  Orange is a close second, and below those, the over-dyed threads are obviously the dilemma you'd expect them to be, so they have their own two bins, sorted by type, not color.  The bottom bins are lesser-used threads:  metal/goldwork and other specialty threads on the left and on the right a few threads I keep as color samples. 

Tower two showed me that green is my overall favorite color, since it required two bins to hold them all.  Browns and greys share space with gold and silver metallics, and black and white get their own bin too. On the bottom is my collection of color cards, and a very small bin to hold the "go-backs".  I made it small so that the returns wouldn't mushroom into a huge job like they always did before. 

Finally, on the top of each tower are embellishments, mainly beads, rhinestones and sequins but also just about every other kind of doo-dad you could conceivably attach to needlework. These are all sorted by type.

Granted, it probably looks pretty messy to you, but it is working great for me so far.  I am obviously a very visual type person, so having everything out where I can see it is wonderful.  Seeing all the color possibilities all at once is tremendously helpful and I'm finding I'm picking threads I would have never thought of otherwise.  And to be surrounded by color, with my thread collection becoming a decorative element in my studio is, well,  FABULOUS!!  Yes, the threads are stacked in the bins rather than laying flat as they were in the drawers, but when choosing threads, I just take the whole bin out and lay them all out on a table.  Since I'm only searching for the right color, for me this has greatly simplified my process.  

So far, so good with this system, and I am already considering adding another tower (or two) so I can have two bins for each of the main colors.  That will also give me more room for more embellishments along the top as well!  You'd think I'd have everything I need by now, but I am finding that while I may have the right color, but not in the right size, so I still end up buying thread for most every project still!  Oh well, I'm always happy to add to the stash!