Ready to finally declutter your craft room? Discover simple, stress-free tips to organize your space and make it a creative haven you’ll love working in!

We all know what it’s like to have so much clutter in our craft room that we can’t even walk through it. Yarn, tools, patterns – all of it strewn about with no clue where anything is.

Having a craft room like that can be so stressful. That’s why it’s so important to declutter your craft room. You want to be able to focus on the crocheting rather than the digging, right?!

Many of the issues I’ll address apply to your craft space as well. Where do you sit to crochet?

For me, it’s my favorite recliner in the family room. Every morning and every evening I sit in that chair and crochet. So, it’s important that I have what I need without creating a giant cluttered mess.

In a series of upcoming blog posts, I’ll be talking about how to declutter your craft room and how to create a stress-free environment. At the end of the series, you’ll be ready for the holiday gift giving season.

Let’s get started with some simple tips that will help you declutter your craft room.

Simple Tips to Declutter Your Craft Room

Why is a messy craft room so stressful?

A messy craft space can be incredibly stressful for a number of reasons. Let’s explore some of them.

Visual Overload

Clutter creates a chaotic environment that overstimulates the brain, making it hard to focus on tasks and ideas. It’s harder to find what you need, which can lead to frustration.

Lost Time

Searching for supplies in a disorganized space wastes valuable crafting time, which can be especially stressful if you’re working on deadlines or trying to relax.

Mental Clutter

Physical mess often leads to mental clutter. The sight of unfinished projects, tangled yarn, or scattered tools can make you feel overwhelmed and guilty about not completing things.

Creativity Block

A cluttered space can stifle creativity. It becomes harder to think clearly, and the clutter can sap the inspiration you need to work on your crochet projects.

Reduced Productivity

Working in a messy space slows down productivity. You’re constantly having to rearrange or dig through items, which breaks your concentration and momentum.

Decision Fatigue

The more stuff you see around you, the more decisions your brain has to make (e.g., what to keep, what to use next). This can lead to mental exhaustion.

Loss of Joy

Crafting should be a joyful, creative process, but when surrounded by clutter, that joy can be replaced with anxiety, frustration, or even dread.

Feeling Out of Control

A messy space often makes you feel like you’re not in control of your environment, which can contribute to stress and anxiety.

You may be stressing from one or more of these reasons. That means it’s time to declutter your craft room so you can move on!

This post by Home Storage Solutions has some great tips and tricks.

Sort through your stash to declutter your craft room

Now that you know “why” it’s a problem to have a messy craft space, it’s time to tackle the clutter as you go through what’s in your craft room.

Here are some tips you can use as you sort through your stash and start to declutter your craft room.

Sort Yarn by Weight, Color, or Fiber

Your yarn stash is probably the biggest part of what you’re sorting through. It’s important to figure out how you use the yarn from your stash to see which is the best method for you.

Here are 3 things to consider:

• By Weight: Organize yarn by weight (e.g., bulky, worsted, DK) so you can easily find the right yarn for each project.
• By Color: If you work with a lot of color projects, sorting yarn by color makes it easy to coordinate.
• By Fiber: Keep similar fibers (e.g., cotton, wool, acrylic) together to help you choose the right texture for your creations.

Check in on Your Stash Regularly

Don’t just sort and leave it. As you use yarn or buy new yarn, things can get out of hand pretty quickly.

• Set aside time every few months to go through your yarn stash. Be honest about what you’ll realistically use, and let go of yarn you’ve had for ages and haven’t touched.
• Donate or de-stash yarn you don’t love anymore or that doesn’t fit with your current projects.

Separate Tools by Frequency of Use

If you’re like me, you have a LOT of hooks but just one that you use all the time. That hook should get special treatment, just like any other tools you use on the daily.

• Keep frequently used tools like hooks, scissors, and measuring tape in an easily accessible spot, like a desktop organizer or a caddy.
• Less-used items can be stored in drawers or bins. Label them so you know where everything is without digging around.

Organize Unfinished Projects

We all have them, those works-in-progress that, for whatever reason, we’ve put aside. Use these tips to figure out what to do with them.

• Dedicate specific bins or project bags to store each work-in-progress (WIP) to keep everything contained and easy to grab when you’re ready to work.
• Evaluate your WIPs and decide if some projects are worth finishing. If not, frog the yarn or donate it.

I found that I needed something to help me keep track of my projects so I wrote this blog post. In that blog post, you’ll find a link to my free downloadable Progress Tracker. Let it help you keep your unfinished projects organized.

Watch our podcast episode all about how to declutter your craft room!

Go Digital with Patterns

I know this isn’t for everyone. Some of you may just want to keep those print copies and that’s OK. Either way, those patterns you’ve purchased and printed out need to be sorted.

• If you’re drowning in printed patterns, scan them (I love the app Genius Scan). Or, you can download them to your computer or favorite digital device. Store them in categorized folders (e.g., hats, blankets, accessories) so you can easily find them. This saves space and makes patterns easier to search.
• For those patterns you need to have print copies of, keep a binder or file for any physical patterns or notes you refer to often, organized by category. I use a clear sheet protector for each pattern which keeps the print copy in good shape. I can also take the pattern out of the binder without ruining the paper.

I use the app “Genius Scan” to create PDFs of my paper copies.

I love to use these sheet protectors to store my patterns in a binder.

Create a “To-Use” Basket

Set up a small basket for yarn or projects you want to use in the near future. This keeps your current focus clear and prevents overwhelm from the larger stash.

Use Ravelry or Apps for Inventory

Use platforms like Ravelry to catalog your yarn stash, projects, and patterns. This helps you track what you have and plan future projects without digging through physical supplies.

You can also create a simple spreadsheet. While I do use Excel or Numbers on my computer, I love to create a spreadsheet in Google Drive in order to have it handy when I’m away from my computer.

If you’ve never used a Google spreadsheet, here’s a how-to that will get you started.

Declutter Mindfully

Before you dive into going through your stash, have a plan. Save time with these tips:

• Ask yourself whether you still love or plan to use each item. If a tool or yarn no longer inspires you, let it go. (more on this later)
• For unfinished projects, be honest: Will you actually finish it? If not, it’s time to part ways or reuse the materials for something else.

There’s no shame in getting rid of something that you won’t use or finish. Remember, reduce, reuse, repurpose to declutter your craft room!

Set Limits for What You Keep

You only have so much space and so much time. Setting limits and being realistic will help you sort through and declutter your craft room.

• Consider setting a limit for how much yarn or how many WIPs you’ll keep at one time. This helps prevent hoarding and keeps your stash manageable.
• Use the “one in, one out” rule—if you bring in new yarn or a new project, get rid of an old one.

Label Everything

This happens to me all the time. I organize my desk or my crochet projects. At the time, where I put that object seemed logical. When it comes time to use it, though, I can’t find it for the life of me. If I had followed my own advice, I would have found what I needed immediately.

Use labels for bins, drawers, and bags to categorize everything clearly. This makes it easier to maintain organization and saves you time when looking for specific items.

You don’t have to use fancy equipment to get this done. Writing on these labels with Sharpies will do the trick. 

By sorting and organizing your yarn, tools, and patterns mindfully, you’ll create a more functional, stress-free space that encourages creativity! And, all you did was declutter your craft room.

Let’s wrap it all up!

You don’t have to be overwhelmed when you declutter your craft room. With a little planning, the right mindset, and these simple tips, you can transform your space into a well-organized, inspiring haven. 

Imagine how much easier it will be to find your supplies and how much more enjoyable your crafting sessions will become. 

So, take it one step at a time and reclaim your creative space. Your craft room deserves to be as beautiful and functional as the creations you make! Ready to get started? It’s time to declutter your craft room!