How do I create storage for my yarn stash?

Toby Click
by Toby Click

I have a spare bedroom overflowing with skeins of yarn. I have cardboard boxes full of yarn stacked to the ceiling in places. Plastic bins loaded, full of yarn and loose skeins are just willy nilly! How can I store this yarn and still be able to see what I have? Right now, it's just hunt and pick, hoping I can get the boxes stacked back up in case I need to use this room for guests. These cardboard boxes are not very welcoming to anyone spending the night in my only guest room.

  3 answers
  • Oliva Oliva on Dec 20, 2018

    Eliminate carboard boxes as they can attract bugs. Purchase see thru bins with multiple drawers to fit your closet space or a multi tiered shelving unit that enables you to stack items to ceiling height. Try under bed storage in see thru bins, as well.

    You may need to purge your collection via donation or sale if it consumes excessive space.

  • Back in the day, I used Xerox paper boxes (free for the asking at any copy store like UPS or Fex Ex/Kinkos), and covered with contact paper to coordinate with the decor. I would group the yarn by type and color. Purchase pretty stick on labels from any craft and hobby store and use your printer or handwrite the contents. That way even if they are stacked to the ceiling they are not an eyesore.

  • Twyla J Boyer Twyla J Boyer on Dec 20, 2018

    If you CAN'T afford new pieces for storage, you can turn the cardboard boxes on their side to create open shelving. This will work best if the boxes are a consistent size and in good shape.


    If you CAN afford some inexpensive new pieces for storage, use the closet type storage things sold at Target and such places - the ones those fabric drawer style bins fit into.


    Sort yarn by color and stack skeins in the open shelving like they do in lovely yarn displays in stores. If some of it is in balls instead of skeins, leave empty spaces in the wall of "shelving" and place the balls in open baskets or decorative bowls, again sorted by color.


    What is currently an eyesore will become an attractive and colorful yarn display.


    If you don't want it all on display like that or it needs to not be exposed to light and such, you can install a curtain rod or two across the front of the shelving area and use shower curtain rings to hang curtains or even just pretty fabric. (Use large safety pins to attach the curtains or fabric to the shower curtain rings - doesn't damage the curtains so they are still good for future use.) When you need yarn, just open the curtain, shop for what you need, and close the curtain. When you finish with a color of yarn, put it back where it belongs in the color scheme.


    Alternatively, you could hang large but lightweight framed art in front of it - hinge it like doors if you managed to get actual storage shelf things.


    If there's too much for one wall, you could do this along adjoining walls. You could make a bench at the foot of the bed from one of those three-compartment storage things turned on its side with short legs or bun feet added to the bottom and a cushion on top.


    Possibilities abound when you start to think in terms of hiding things in plain sight.