The Truth about My Stash

Well, it's a new year, and time for new beginnings. It's time I faced reality about my stash, and get it down to a reasonable level.
Here's the stash I look at all day. This is next to my knitting chair. The basket is filled to the brim with sock yarn. To the left is a bag of Wollmeise (9 skeins maybe?), Another bag with a sweater's worth of Miss Priss, and there's even some hiding under the side table to the left.

Now if this is all the yarn I owned, it wouldn't be so bad, would it? Nah. That's a tidy little stash there. But there's more. Lots more.

Over the summer we bought a new coffee table from Pottery Barn. One of its features are deep drawers--the perfect size for holding yarn. So here it is:

But wait--these drawers are double sided, so lets take a look at the other end:

And if that weren't enough (and truly, did you really think that was all?) , There's a plastic bin from my upstairs closet:
And finally, a small pile of Rowan Cork that was banished to the basement following one of the world's worst ebay transactions in history.

There. I've said it. That's all of it.

And it's way, way too much.

So here's my plan for 2008. I've added every skein of yarn onto Ravelry, and the current stash count is 113. I'd like to get that down to 80 by the end of the year. I've already destashed a pile of it on the ISO/Destash forum. I'm listing everything slightly below retail to get it moving. Even the rare indie stuff. I'm not too concerned about making tons of money, but I've already brought in over $200.

Part 2 of the plan is that I can buy new yarn only if I use a gift certificate, or if I used money I have earned by selling other stuff. I can also accept gifts of yarn. This will be easy for the first few months since I've accumulated a nice paypal balance, and I got some great gift certificates for Christmas, but those won't last all year. It's going to get rough over the summer.

Part 2 is also going to apply to purchasing books. I've got a queue of over 50 books to read that I've received from paperbackswap.com. That can easily last me the entire year.

And speaking of books,

#57 Wives behaving badly

#58 Cover the Butter

#59 Four Seasons in Rome

Which leads me to my last resolution. Read 60 books. That's up 10 from last year, but I did get to 59.

So there you have it. Three tidy resolutions that will save me money and reduce the clutter.

1. Reduce Ravelry stash from 113 to 80

2. Buy yarn only with money earned from decluttering, or as gifts,

and

3. Read 60 books.

I'm ready. Are you?