A huge thank you to Lisa in Georgia. Lisa originally wrote a list of tips on the Stashbuster's Yahoo Group to help another quilter who was overwhelmed by her stash.
Here is her method
All cleaning and organizing pros advise their clients to start organizing their homes by getting several boxes or containers, labeling them, and then rough sorting.
This method will work for our quilting studios too. We just need to know where to begin.
Remember to take baby steps at first. If you try to do too much all at once you may become discouraged and give up.
You will need at least 6 containers to start. If you have more kinds of craft items, you will need more containers. A container can be a box, bin, bag, crate or basket. Use what you have available for now.
Label your containers, notions, scraps, fat quarters, thread, books & patterns, and unwanted.
Toss sewing machine feet, rulers, pencils, safety pins, and other gadgets in the notions container as you come across them. It doesn't matter that they are all mixed up in the same container right now. You will know where to look if you need them and you can refine your system later.
Throw all your small scraps under a fat quarter in the scraps container.
Put all of your fat quarters in the fat quarter container. Anything under a 1/2 yard but more than a fat quarter, put with fat quarters.
Put all the thread in one place, do not worry about color or type right now. Later you can organize it more completely.
Anything that is at least a half yard should be folded. The RULER FOLDING METHOD is fast and makes uniformly sized pieces. Tape a yard stick or tape measure to the table you are using to make measuring easier.
Stack like amounts together and label them by folding index cards in half and writing yard amounts on them. Tuck the folded end of the card under the bottom fabric in the stack on the shelf. Don't worry about color or theme sorting them now.
Batting scraps and rolls of batting go together.
Interfacing, fleece batting, Heat N Bond, and other similar products can be ruler folded and stored in gallon zip lock bags along with a copy of the instructions.
By the time you finish all this, most of your stuff will be roughly sorted.
Now you just need to pick one container and refine your sorting.
Fold the fat quarters and stack them neatly, don't worry about colors right now, just stack them up and put them on shelves or in containers. (Shelving units designed for CDS, DVDS and VHS tapes are all a good size for FQs.)
Think about how and where you use your notions and make a plan for the best way to store them. Those little plastic drawer units are great for storing things like feet, scissors, cutters, small rulers, marking pens, thread, pins, needles etc. and they fit on a shelf or on top of the bigger plastic units. You can also store these items in labeled plastic shoeboxes. Rulers and small mats fit nicely in file folder holders or can be hung from a pegboard. Some rulers and mats have holes precut in them and can be hung by a nail on the wall.
Some people like shoeboxes or small plastic drawers for organizing thread while others prefer specially made thread holders that hang on the wall.
Your scrap container will probably take the longest to organize. Bonnie Hunter at quiltville.com has a great system for organizing scraps to make them easier to use in beautiful scrappy quilts. Check out her "scrap users system".
Make a list of the scrap quilts you would like to make (there are lots of free scrap quilt patterns linked in the QUILTING LIBRARY) and note the sizes of the squares, bricks and strips needed.
Cut stacks of those sizes from your scraps and put them in containers labeled with their size. Gallon ziplock bags are great for this and fit nicely in plastic 3 drawer units or you may prefer plastic shoeboxes if you have shelves to put them on.
Cut up your scraps a few at a time whenever you have a few minutes. If you are cooking, set a timer for the food and cut while you wait. A June Taylor Shape Cut Ruler saves time.
Scraps can also be cut up when you watch (ok, listen to TV, keep your eyes on the rotary cutter) television. A tray table is handy for this.
If you like the look of CRUMB QUILTS, save the pieces that are of a usable size and put them in a separate container labeled Crumbs
Along the way, you may find you need to change containers because some will get too full and need to be swapped for larger ones and some will become too empty and need to be swapped for smaller ones.
When all the secondary sorting is done, it is time to refine thread and fabric by color and theme if you wish.
After all the sorting and organizing is done, it will be easy to keep your area tidy if you spend just a little time every day putting things back where they belong.
After you finish a quilt top, it is easy to cut your scraps to your preferred scrap system and put them in the proper container. If you have a fat quarter left, leave it as a fat quarter and store it with the fat quarters, etc.
