I have controlled stash, only what will fit in my closet in the sewing room. I cant resist a great sale but been trying to curtail myself. I don't want it to get to out of control, sorry your stash didn't work out so good for you. A good reminder for all of us not to get to carried away.

While I understand how you feel, please know there are organizations who would be happy to take your fabric. The ladies I quilt with make many quilts for donation and the fabrics are mainly received through the kindness of others.

Yes, this! She wasn't just throwing it away but had a reason behind it.

I store mine in plastic bins in my studio. Before we lived in the nice house I lived in a mobile home with ten children and a DH. DH and I used our walking closet to store a bolt of batting and several big bins of fabric. We also had under the bed storage boxes and the dressers were full of fabric. I miss the just going out and shopping for fabric also. My friends and I would have so much fun going on girl dates. We still go out but it is more for $1 ice cream at McDonalds.

I store mine in plastic storage boxes and sorry for your loss

under the mattress...stored in space bags(which get opened and allowed to breathe once a month), stored in suitcases, the trunk of your car....if there is a will, there is a way!

I had problems with rodents in my previous house, then we downsized to a townhouse on the water and I have a tiny alcove in the garage that I share with laundry and dryer but it has 2 large windows and plenty of light and a great view. I bought utility cabinets and store my fabric by color or type in plastic shoe box size container. no problem with mildew nor rodents.

oh no i would cry if anything happened to my stash, when i start a new quilt i buy the fabric that moves me to make that quilt , if i have it in my stash i will use it , if i dont i go out and buy that certain fabric , or if i am just browsing thru the store and see something i lke i buy it !!

Have you ever considered the space bags, you know the kind that you suck out the air with a vacumn cleaner hose and store the bags under your bed. So sorry you had to throw away most of your stash

I have heard of people who store their stash between the mattress and box springs (this is usually to hide it from husbands). If you have a guest room, that might help.

sad to hear of the damage to your fabrics. Moths: use cedar balls and/or bay leaves to help keep them away. Mildew: use the dessicant you can find at WM ( in hardware section for drying out basements etc).
that said, i'm fortunate to have a daughter that sews for her family so the extra dressmaking fabric can always find a home. Periodically, i tell her to shop the fabric stash. I have too much fabric. My DH peeked in the sewing room when we were discussing moving a bookcase out of the living room, and suggested i downsize. i pointed out that would be like me suggesting he downsize his tools to make more room. However he does have a point. Humane societies often will take the mildewed fabric after it has been washed in bleach to use for bedding for the animals so even ruined fabric can be donated.

This is so true unless you are living in about 300 square feet for a family. Probably OP could find some space.

But for most people, think creative!

Get rid of half of your clothes and use the other half of your closet for fabric. Think RVs. Everything in one of those has storage--no space is wasted.

As to OPs original question...no, definitely not. I buy or gather as I go along--whenever or wherever I can. Without a stash, it would be difficult to sew.

I store in long, plastic boxes beneath the twin beds in my guest room. I try to only buy for each project, but I keep a hardy stash of solids for backing and sashing.

I currently have one closest stuffed to the gills, God help me if I need to find anything in there. I just purchased some plastic totes in the hopes to de-clutter the house as I do not have a sewing room either. My plan was to move some of it out to the garage but after hearing your story I would die if I lost some of my fabric. About half is for projects and the other half is because I fell in love with it.

We lived in a small apartment for a while and I had a small section of the closet that I hung my fabrics folded over on hangers. I have also used hanging shoe holders for fat quarters. There are bigger hanging shelves that work great for the larger pieces also. They don't take up a huge space in a closet but you would be surprised how much they hold.

How devastating and sad. I am heartbroken for you.

I'm a newbie so I just buy material for a quilt I want to do.

I am a newbie as well. And my plan is to buy for projects. I have very little "extra" fabric that is not going towards something.
I scrapbook as well, and have a rather large collection of supplies there. So trying not to have too much in this area.

I have a few smaller totes. 2 in my living room with fabrics. One in my hall closet with leftovers and one in my scrapping area with other leftovers. I am learning to make some smaller items so I can use up some of the leftovers. Also, my DD wants a scrappy type quilt eventually, so we are collecting for that.

Have fun picking out new stuff. :)

This. I got rid of the majority of my clothes- I had more than I needed due to not getting rid of the old stuff when I got new, and also "hand me downs" from my shopaholic mom. I now have an up-to-date wardrobe, no stress over digging for something suitable to wear, not having piles of laundry build up because I don't "have" to do laundry, etc. I'm also cleaning out the linen closet. Who really needs 10 sets of sheets? 2 will do, one on the bed, one ready to go when the first gets washed. Get rid of the stuff you don't need, and make room for the stuff that makes you happy- fabric!

Very sorry to hear about your poor fabric. I don't have a large stash and I also don't have a large sewing room but I don't have to share it. I bought the cube bookcases from Walmarts and that's how I store most of it. Have you thought about putting bedrisers (buy them at Walmarts/Kmarts for around $10) and then putting the totes on rollers under the beds. That's how I store my sweaters and sweats in my small bedroom. I had problems a few years ago with field mice and fought it for years and then said mess on it and went against DH (no longer in the picture) and got a cat. I no longer have problems with mice. My house had problems with bugs (roaches) when we bought it and then I found a solution that got rid of them with little work and every once in a while due to where we live I have to put a little more pest control out and then poof they are gone so I'm able to enjoy my house. My cat also doesn't go into my sewing room for some reason; she goes into all of the other rooms but that one. I don't know why but I like it that way. I hope things look up. I now only buy what I need but only due to financial and it's hard when I see some of the things out there on sale.

This is a really good idea. I'm redoing my bedrooms now and moving them around for when my son comes home in June plus now that my husband is no longer in the house I'm making it mine so I'm going thru all of my things that I didn't wear this past winter and they are going to the thrift store and then I'm trying on my summer stuff and what I don't like it's going. I know that after all this I'll still have way more than I need to get me thru happily and probably end up wearing things I haven't seen in a while.