Julienm1, what a terrific way to make a "mess with a purpose" and to reduce your stash! Forty is an impressive number.
I have no stunningly new idea for organizing. I am just trying to keep up with regularly cleaning up after myself. Example: Monday night my quilting group got the first instruction for a mystery quilt. Easy, peasy! Yeah right! Three colors light medium and dark. Light should be plain, solid or while on white for instance. Done Then I started looking for pieces for the dark that were large enough, 2.5 yards, and one that I had a medium that would go along with it.The mess began. When I was done rummaging through my stash and closet I turned around and there were stacks of fabric of every color and print all over the place. What a mess. I began returning them to their color bins and boy, did the missing mess feel good. In the end, I can sort all I want, but immediately return the unneeded to its bin. It has taken me a long time to get to this place in my organization journey but I feels good when I actually practice what I know should be happening. It is hard work, you all know it.
I guess my organization idea is to just keep at it..... and put away what is not going to be used rather than working around it.