I'm a fairly new quilter starting to build a stash. Lately, I've gotten into the habit of scanning fabrics as I bring them home. I save a jpeg file of each one in a "Fabric" folder I made in "My Documents". It's easy to do and very convenient to be able to browse the files without having to physically go through my stash. I can print full-scale paper copies of fabrics to cut and play around with when I'm in the designing stages and I don't have to cut into the fabrics I love until I'm more sure how I want to proceed.