Stash Along January: Inventory

Welcome to the first official Stash Along challenge: Inventory.

I'd first like to remind everyone of the purpose of the Stash Along. To use stash, and, if it's your intent, to reduce the amount of stash you have so there is less clutter and noise in your life.

What do I mean by Inventory? I mean knowing exactly what you have, and how much of it you have. I personally add to my stash, and add, and add. I regularly go through the stash to remind myself of what I have.

This also includes moving some stash along to other places.

So here's the challenge:

Pick a day that you have a lot of time open.

Pull out your ENTIRE stash. Take it out of it's boxes, bins, bags, and drawers. All of it must come out of storage. Pile it on a table, or the floor, or anywhere that's not it's containers.

Then go through it.

If you are the super organized type of person, catalog it. Use a notebook, a spreadsheet, whatever. Find a system that works for you: Organize by intent. Organize by size or color. If you're like me, just make a mental note that you still have that and can use it for this project or that project.

Now, don't get overwhelmed. Or maybe do. Being overwhelmed by stash is what motivated me in the first place to get this going in my life. I don't like feeling like I'm being suffocated by clutter and unfortunately my stash started to feel that way.

Don't worry! Over the next few weeks I will be publishing posts on my methods of tackling the stash. And hopefully it will help you get going! I feel like this is the best challenge for January because it will set you up to have a successful year working with your stash!

Please feel free to comment here on the blog with how it's going for you, and use the hashtags on Instagram #stashalong2017 and #stashalongjanuary so we can see how you are interpreting and tackling this challenge!

Stash Along 2017: Join Me!

I recently wrote about re-thinking my priorities, and how I'm going to focus more on my Want To than the Have To. As part of that process I starting thinking about how I could go about one of my Want To items, using up the stash.

Now, Project Leasa did a Sew My Stash challenge a couple of years ago, and I sort of participated, but not really. She chose a niche market for it and it worked for her. Me, not so much. But I liked the concept of people joining together. People all participated and encouraged each other, cheered each other on, and shared how they interpreted and executed each challenge. 

So, I decided to create a Stash Along for the year 2017. Why a Stash Along?

Stash can be materials other than fabric. It can be yarn. It could be paper craft materials. It could be paints or ribbons or whatever. A Stash Along is much more universal.

I have been brainstorming ideas for each month, and think we can pull it off. Follow along with the hashtag #stashalong2017 on Instagram, as well as monthly tags. I plan on posting each month's challenge a week early so you can start brainstorming and planning your execution of it. Stay tuned for January's theme being posted right after Christmas. 

I hope you choose to join in!