I’ve been inspired lately by the Minimalist Knitter. She has quickly become my new favorite minimalist-related blog (plus she knits, which is a double-win in my book!) Robyn has put together a little book called the Minimalist Knitter’s Handbook that really got me thinking about my own stash and its place in my goal to simplify things in and around my life.

If my ultimate goal is to downsize to much smaller house and have a simpler life then I really needed to re-evaluate the things that I dedicate a good chunk of time to… in this case, yarn. How many hours of my life have I wasted away on projects that I hated, never finished, or never even wore/used? How much money have I wasted on this hobby when I buy yarn that I’ve never even used and probably never will use? If I’m truly trying to spend my time and money on things that are truly important to me then I really need to take a look at my stash of yarn and work-in-progress projects and re-evaluate whether everything I have is truly important to me.

Now, let me be honest here. I don’t have a huge yarn stash. In fact I’m pretty sure other knitters would scoff at what I consider yarn ‘stash.’ But I have more than enough yarn to keep myself busy for a good while.

This is probably about 70-75% of what I have stashed.

Robyn’s handbook had a lot of good tips for simplifying and letting go of yarn/projects/etc, and I implemented specifically the “You can either frog it or you can finish it” idea as I went through and found those poor projects that had been cast aside, never to be finished again. Can I tell you a secret? I actually threw away three four work-in-progress (WIP) projects! I was unhappy with all four and had zero intentions of finishing them. And they weren’t even projects that had yarn worth re-using for another project. So in the trash they went! I even went as far as to clear out some of my knitting notions that were buried in my knitting basket and project bags… having all of those ‘handy’ items only made it harder for me to find the things I actually needed so out they went!

I can’t even begin to explain the feeling of relief I felt by doing that. Those projects may not have been an in-my-face-24/7 kind of thing, but just knowing I had unfinished projects cast aside was weighing me down subconsciously. I had actually admitted to myself that I hated those projects and would never finish them, and the act of throwing them away in the trash was like a breath of fresh air! And now my knitting basket is nice and neat – I’m able to find my stitch markers and scissors and darning needles easy!

It’s just a little bit of progress, but its progress nonetheless! Next up: knitting down the yarn stash (98% of what I have is yarn that I will knit with, so its time to start knitting with it instead of holding onto it for one reason or another!)