I used to have a real problem with this. Fortunately I discovered a method: if I find something I want to buy, I leave the store and wait a few days. 99 percent of the time I realize I don't want it. If I go back, I am happy with the buy 100 percent of the time. I also have a rule that I will not buy anything that does not have a shelf or a drawer where it can live.

I LOVE fabric and can relate to this dilemma. Maybe sort through and give away your least favorite fabrics and vow to use up all that before you use any more?

I hear ya! My basement is full of hand me down furniture waiting for some love.

I think that happens a lot, specially to us crafters. What I do is every couple of months I go throught the material I have and if I don't get excited about any proyect to do with it, then I give it away or save for the garage sale, every 6 months.

You would think I spend every minute of my day working on an art or craft project with how many materials I have! On the plus side, I like organizing, so it's all neatly displayed so I don't look like an out-of-control hoarder!

I don't like the term "crafting hoarder"... it makes me feel like there's a problem with my bins of acrylic paint. And my plastic cases (divided, thankyouverymuch) of beads. And the old turned table legs that would make such great candlestick holders. And those boxes of fabric pieces... they just want to join together and become a quilt one day. (Some day.) Is that so wrong?!?!

:)

*raises hand and nervously glances around the room*, my name is... and i am a project hoarder.

It's bad. I have various project items/tools strewn about nearly every room of my apartment and nowhere to really store them properly. It will be interesting to see what the DSM-5 has to say about that...

Yep. Married to a stasher (don't say hoarder.) How about a 10 x 12 "bed" room full of fabric with a path to a embroidery machine?

People have started bringing me old furniture to refinish and rescue. I can't resist them, either. My basment is like a home for wayward dressers.

Guilty - cans of paint, bolts of fabric, chairs that are half done. I need to make a list, finish the work or get rid of the materials (maybe donate them so someone else can hoard them!).

A good friend, L., and I learned to knit together about 5 years ago. I never got too advanced, but since then I've made about 5 scarves and 7 baby blankets. Currently I have 2 leftover balls of yarn and yarn for a new scarf and various needles.

L.? Well she has an entire closet in her good-sized house that is FILLED with yarn, needles of all types, etc. She will just go into a yarn store and buy needles for no reason!

And how many projects has she completed?

Zero.

Makes me smile every time. Her true hobby is shopping in yarn stores, not knitting!

NOTEBOOKS. for some reason i love having them around at all times. and love new notebooks. i only buy recycled or wind power made things now, but having 10 doesnt really seem like i'm helping the environment... i am banned from buying them and have been for 2 years now. I still find unopened ones when I move!! ahhh

Oh, yes - This is me.

I have fabric stashed in a closet for a drapery project that I changed my mind on - leftover fabric from other draperies I had made a couple years back that I just know I'm going to make into a lampshade, leftover fabric from having chairs reupholstered that I just know I'm going to have pillows made from one day...
...half-used cans of paint - so many painting tools and supplies its ridiculous - tools, tools and more tools for this project and that project.
:-/

one whole bedroom devoted to crafts storage, including yarn, fabric, furniture waiting to be either stripped or reupholstered. Every time I visit this site, I mentally close the door on that room! (The rest of my house is pretty good though!)

Kate, if you're looking to get rid of that pink patterned fabric in the upper right, I'll give it a good home ;)

A fabric stash that defies description, not to mention fabric already made into curtains, drapes, what have you that I saved when I replaced them.

My own stash goes back more than 30 years, but, knowing of my "interest" my aunt sent along my grandmother's impressive stash when Grandma died. Some was uncut, and in the original fabric store bag, with sales slips. I'm guessing that $0.30/yard Italian wool crepe must date back at least to the '40s.

Recently, in an effort to use up some of the fabric (yeah, right) I've started picking up free items at our town dump to cover or reupholster (yeah, right, again).

Then there's the yarn.

Hi, I'm a furniture hoarder. We have such an obsession with side tables in our home, that we started stacking them. Which turned into a very cool "bookcase"? type thing. Spring is a very challenging time, as it is prime time for street pickins! We should probably just commit to a storage unit and open up shop to sell the refinished versions.

I have a rule that I have to finish a project before I buy more supplies. My plants ALL have to be planted before I return to the nursery, my knitted shawl has to be done before I buy more yarn...it works for me, but I always have leftovers...

Guilty as charged. ;-)

I had to get a bunch of extra furniture to store all this crafting stuff I never use. It's so sad but at least it's not in boxes anymore. I have yarns, fabric, drawing and painting implements, general kids crafting items (glitter, glue, construction paper, crayons, etc) and no I have no kids. I'm starting to slowly let go of stuff I know I'll never use but it's difficult. I also try not to impulse buy. I'll pick things up and walk around in the store until I realize that I will never use this item and then put it back. Honestly, most of it was left overs from some project or another and the rest was inherited. At this point, unless I'm actively working on a project and need something I won't buy anything.

There was a brief period where my husband didn't trust my to enter a fabric store alone. But I have it under control now I swear!

My husband is losing his mind over my multiple-projects-at-once habit. He begged and pleaded with me to reduce it to one room at a time around the house (of course as many as I want in my own studio/office space). At least he's always pleased with the results :-)

Yarn, fabric, books and my latest finds on craigslist and etsy :)

can somone tell me how to organize all this?

I'm more or less okay when it comes to fabric (less more than more ... if that makes sense) but I am a sucker for free things in an alley. lol

I have a few pieces of furniture needing some love, a clawfoot caste iron bathtub that needs a new/vintage bathroom to live in, cans of paint, a large pile of burlap sacks that need a wash before being made into curtains and several rooms that still need a paint job. Oh, and then there's the floor that needs to be rid of the wall to wall carpeting and the kitchen that needs to be gutted.

Not to mention the Very Long List of links in my bookmarks that I will be getting to one day - from sewing toddler pants, making raised garden beds, sewing a quilt to baking that perfect loaf of bread and building an organizer for my son's play room.

Okay, I might still have a wee problem. Maybe. I'm not admitting to anything though.

guilty! i have 3 decent sized totes full of art and craft supplies - anything from paper, fabric, and paint, to plaster and dental alginate (for making casts), etching liquid, various spools of wire, spray mount, glass gravel, sandpaper, multiple adhesives ...
if a crafty apocalypse ever happens, i'm SO ready ...

Also guilty here, but on the mend. I threw away a bunch of fabric scraps the other days.

I enjoy embroidery, but I solve the stashing problem by buying online patterns and creating my own. I also never buy the exact thread color if I have something similar. It's done marvels with my overstock embroidery drawer ! (hum... big drawer still).

I try not to buy fabrics ahead of imaginary projects, but still... I seem to be weak in that department. And let's not talk about craft books, please...

Yep, ready for the crafty apocalypse, or craftocalypse, or yarnocalypse, in my case. As my sister says, I have a needle problem.

@ewg109, are wayward dressers the result of one nightstands? (Bad pun, sorry, sorry...)

This used to be me. But I called Goodwill, and had them come when I wasn't home, because I knew I couldn't watch all my stuff going out the door. They cleaned out all my project areas. I was astonished at how much I had. Sometimes I think of things I miss, but for the most part, I was DONE with projects.

Fabric, furniture, scraps of wood, left over tile ... oh it's pretty bad! I've been trying very hard lately to use or lose it and it has helped me get a lot more done, but it really hasn't cut down on the list of to-do's or taught me how to say no to sale fabric or free wood.

Guilty as charged.

I just sorted out my craft room. I build props, do bookbinding, polymer clay, electronics, and then there is the sewing. The sewing takes the bulk of the space.

I just culled out several other crafts like spinning, knitting, and crochet, that I don't do anymore. I got rid of 12 bags of fabric, to friends, and donations. I really focused on keeping what I really use.

Funny enough, with the space I feel like doing more with what I have.

As a crafter loving person from way back (realized last year that I've been sewing for over 20 years!) I recently found a wonderful way to thin my fabric/yarn/textile stash-- IBOLs! You can send boxes to needy individuals and sewing coops in northern Iraq. Please check out their website: http://ibol.wordpress.com/. Last year I sent 12 and I am hoping to send some more. It is better for your materials to get used than to languish in your cupboard or storage area....

Guilty...and now I have a name for it.

i'm a interior designer and i come upon things from clients to estate sales,flea markets etc and i had 3 of the largest storage rooms you can get so now i'm consolidating and going to sale most on ebay..my lost someone else's gain! 8-(

I could have written that post! My basement and attic are full of fabric and projects. This year I made a New Years resolution to complete at least 1 project every month. I made a list of things I would like to complete this year, and I'm trying to stick to it. This way I can at least get 12 things done. Oh yeah, I also decided that I can't buy any more craft supplies or fabric unless it's directly related to a current project. So far, I'm on track. I finally finished making dining room curtains, a curtain for my daughter's room, covered an ottoman, and with the extra time, I made some kid's short sets. I am DRIVEN! In April, I get to refinish a chair I picked up at Goodwill last summer. I'm hoping to finally make enough room in my basement to move my sewing machine back down there!

My boyfriend thinks I need a support group for exactly this problem... looks like I just stumbled across one? ;-)

At the moment, I have several sewing projects, jewelery projects, furniture refinishing, and other home improvement projects half done. And yes, I stockpile supplies... (I've been a craftaholic my whole life, went to art school, and now I'm a designer... I'd say it's an occupational hazard, but really it's a life hazard.)

I never dream about my fantasy wedding - I just dream about my fantasy studio/craft room...

@ Mlle Kate - love "craftocalypse" !!

The thing I seem to hoard are projects themselves! I've got a very long list and just keep adding to it. I have to say, also, reading AT isn't exactly helpful in that arena. ;-0

Two thoughts.

I am more of a project category hoarder. I have a basic starter kit for embroidery, calligraphy, sewing, watercolor, bookbinding, &c. The allure of the things I could have if I made them myself only lasts long enough to spend a little money. I then promptly abandon the notion.

I read an introduction to an organization book once where the author recounted working with a crafty client. The author asked the woman the use she envisioned for a particular room abounding with craft supplies. When the crafter responded that the room was supposed to be a place where her child could play, the organizer observed, "so you have chosen to put your supplies ahead of your child." Ouch.

I gave a lot of my stash to a co-worker and it included some of my mother’s stash, possibly my grandmother’s. (Collecting a stash is hereditary.) I also cleaned out patterns that had to date back to the 60’s. The whole thing had gotten out of hand.

My co-worker took it to a shelter for teen-aged girls that was struggling on a shoe-string budget. The girls used the decades old material and patterns to make clothes, but updated the design details.

My favorite, applicable at times, acrostic SABLE (Stocked Arsenal Beyond Life Expectancy).

I got rid of nearly everything. I have two etsy shops and when I didn't want to keep up with them I was left with a bunch of materials.. Right after donating my last box of (my best) yarn for immigrant women to knit for their children, I got inspired to start knitting for my own daughter, and I had kept two sets of yarn. So for me the releasing of old supplies and projects opened up space for me to be creative again. I think with tons of projects, my mind is weighed by the options and should-do's. I still have a box of supplies for handmade toys, some wool and fabric, but only a couple of smallish boxes. I'm thinking that in a couple of years I will do some crafting with my daughter so I'm not getting rid of absolutely everything. I also made a rule I won't buy anything unless I have a specific thing in my mind for it, and no buying more until previous project is finished. I feel free :)

My name is femmebot and I horde fabric. I work at a high end fabric showroom and fabric is given to me...what's a girl to do?

I am guilty of this but what is to be done with left over fabric until I find matching fabric to use it in another project?

I have an old snowboard (among lots of other hoarded items) that I swear, one day I'm going to make into a snowboard bench.

I have lots of hobbies, so it can get bad. I instituted a rule that I can't buy more supplies than I could (conceivably) use in one week.

So...a few balls of yarn, one set of colored pencils, once set of drawing pencils, one box of willow charcoal, one tub of air-dry clay, no more than two of any color of acrylic paint (one to use, and one to open when the first runs out), etc.

I still have a lot of stuff, but at least it's a VARIETY of stuff. :) I go shopping for groceries weekly, so this way I never have long to wait even if I do chance to run out.

My name is Maggie, and I'm a little bit of a hoarder.

I stockpile old clothing items with the intention of upcycling them, something which rarely - if ever - happens. To the shock of my roommates, last week, I turned down the offer of a grocery bag full of old clothes, simply because I don't have the space.

I'm also becoming a little bit of a furniture hoarder - I have 2 trunks, an antique desk and an antique sewing table stashed at my mom's house, along with a dining table at my grandparents' cabin and a couch at my sister's. Those are just a matter of getting a bigger place, though.

The 3 bins full of old clothes, however...

Guilty!! I am not only a supply hoarder, I'm a starter kit hoarder. I just like to know how to do different crafts. So I buy all the supplies to learn something new, do it once or twice and move on. It is bad people! bad! I finally gave away my jewelry bead board (and assorted supplies).

It helped when I had to scale down my 'craft room' into a 'craft cabinet' to make room for our nursery. I just put all the junk I didn't want anymore (light box for paper embossing- check, old paper I never liked anyway - check, rubber stamps when I switched to clear ones - check!), and I got $50 for it all on Craigslist. Felt good! Now I hoard organizational supplies and baskets...

Thanks for identifying my disease.

YARN. I've got two chests stuffed full of yarn, which, if I unraveled it and tied it all together, would wrap around the earth a few times. My goal this year is not to buy any more yarn, and be creative with the stock I have. Its proven to be a little difficult, but I don't think I can justify buying another piece of furniture to hold it all!

I am a craft/scrapbooking/art supply hoarder. There, I said it. I do actually use the stuff, though, and I have the space for it. I just really need to stop watching crafty youtube videos because I always see some new thing I "have" to have.

I like a lot of craft hobbies, so I have a lot of craft materials. I am only allocated certain baskets and bins in my small apartment and only when one of these has room, can I start to add more items to them.

I'll have you know that I could stop buying fabric if I wanted to.

I just don't want to. :)

Yes - I love yarn, fabric and all sorts of needlework and am fortunate to have a craft room that I can't reorganize to my satisfaction. BUT, a wise woman in England told me not to worry. If you keep adding to your stash while you're still working, you won't have to worry about buying stuff to do when you're retired and on a fixed income. I love that logic!

The place where 'living with less' has hit me is with crafting and decorating.

Enough already; five years of internet education has given me bookmarks and inspiration images for a thousand lives I'll never live.

So I wiped my hard drive, put my shelter magazines on Freecycle this week (so hard to do that!), and applied the same rule to shelter sites as fabric stores: I go in for specific projects.

Which totally explains why I'm here today! I can quit whenever I want!

"home for wayward dressers"! :)

Yes, I admit it, I have TOO MUCH STUFF. (At least it's mostly neatly stored out of the way, accessible but out of sight...)

Ethnic fabrics and embroideries from flea markets (I have some gorgeous authentic ikats, some hand painted Indian panels with deities trimmed with sequins, mudcloth, tourist grade kimonos, etc...) Piles and piles. (OK, to be more specific, about 7 piles about 18 inches wide and 16-18 inches deep, on utility shelves.)

Polymer clay and every tool imaginable, including a dedicated convection oven, food processor, pasta machine, and buffing wheel...

Beads (about 1.5 cubic feet if all dumped into the appropriate container.)

Jewelry findings and tools.

A partial closet full of illustration board, stretched canvases, fomecore board, and other "fine art" supplies.

(I used to teach art. It's impossible to pass up a bargain on things I know are otherwise expensive, if I might want them someday!) (It's also a sickness!!)

I have a completely ridiculous yarn stash. I could not buy yarn for the next 10 years and still have enough to work on constantly. Let me not even mention the fiber and spinning accoutrements. Or the cross stitch materials. Or the recently acquired quilt kit. Sigh. I wish I had a better way to organize these things. Mainly so that they could be attractive and displayed instead of just a messy pile or shoved into space bags.

my husband and I are both suckers for a refinishing or upcycling project. we have a room in the basement that we refer to as the 'furniture room'. that's a bad sign...

Guess I thought my scrapbooking phase would last longer than all of, oh, two months. Same with the knitting phase. And the pillow-case-making phase.

On the bright side, I haven't bought a single crafty thing in over a year and if I ever DO have motivation one rainy day, there's ten projects at the ready!

In my "nesting phase" of pregnancy, I managed to purge many long-time-ago started projects, many, many bags of clothes meant for repurposing, and many spoiled craft supplies (paints, glues and such have a lifetime, you know)
Then I measured and took a photo of all my fabrics, neatly folded and put them in clear bags. One by one I packed six shelves full to the brim.
Six shelves! OMG!
I decided that it is nice to finally put all my fabrics on one place, and it will stay that way.
That was six months ago, and I can proudly say that it did. I purchased some new fabrics, for immediate needs of a project or if there was a "hole" in my shelves that is big enough to be occupied with it.
Similar things happened to other supplies. Some of them went to a trash can, some to my daughter kindergarten group, some to crafty friends. All that left I organized in appropriate containers, and filled another six shelves. That left one shelf empty to (finally!) become a home for my sewing machines.
The only thing that is now out of control is that I, like nccata, am keeping a neverending list of "I want to do" projects...
Crafting is not a curable thing...

This is me to a T. My mom cave is where I keep my collection. What can I say... I love to be surrounded by beautiful things.

I have just...obscene...amounts of yarn and fabric. Rather than beat myself over the head for it, I decided to think of it as smart planning. When the zombies come, I'll be the one with all the supplies to keep people in clothes for years and years *mwahahahahaha*

fragglefemme -

I love that I'm not the only person here who evaluates purchasing decisions with zombies as a factor. ^_^