Perfect fab storage. Need ideas please.
 

If you lived in a perfect quilting world, money no object, perfect sized room, qualified help available (now THAT'S important), how would you organize your stash? Or is your fabric plan perfect for you? I've read so many threads/posts on organizing and many of them show how we organize according to cost restraints, size of room, amount of fabric, etc.

This spring, or sooner, and after we either go to Goodwill or have a sale, I will be able to redo my fabric room.

So, if you could reorganize your stash, how would you do it? Open shelving? Plastic containers? Cabinets with or without windows? Pretty fabric boxes, (not for me)? Combinations of ideas? I only know I will organize by color and ruler fold my fabric. Comic boards not for me.

Remember, no restrictions.

I can't wait to hear what you would do.

Well, I already have the open shelving, fabric somewhat sorted by color, ( but still needs a better sorting), and 5 3-drawer plastic cabinets. I have different cut sizes in the drawers (6", 6 1/2", 10" squares). I have a large tote box with 2 1/2" strips, as I do a lot of log cabin and strip quilts. Sadly that's about as far as I've gotten, so don't think I'll be much help. Oh, I do agree with finding highly qualified helphttps://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images...es/biggrin.png

I don’t have a large stash so mine is easy to manage. I have an IKEA cube-like storage unit for larger fabric pieces 1/2 to 3 yard cuts by color and then an antique (decorative) shelving unit for fat quarters. I keep smaller pieces in plastic bins by color.

I buy bolts of solid colors and pre cuts of prints. It's easier to store bolts then yardage. Precuts are easy to store in baskets or stacked. A pretty sewing room that functions is my goal.

I really like the one lawyer book case I have with those glass flip down sliding out covers for the shelves. I have it against the north wall away from windows so no sunlight hits them and the glass doors keeps the dust out, yet I have a clear view of them and the doors are so easy to flip back and slide in out of the way. I think I would get more of them! I too just ruler fold all my stash of one yard or more. For the half yard cuts and the fat quarters, I have a cabinet with slide out drawers and have the fabric folded and stacked in rows in the drawers so again, I can see what I have without pulling things out. My scraps would go into clear bins on shelving units. Again sorted by color and/or size of scrap. I like being able to see what I have before I start pulling things out.

Love your ideas that work for you now. Would you change it if you could...or is your plan perfect for you? If you could, would you?

Right now my sewing room is such a mess that there is literally a little path to my sewing machine. My husband came up to tell me dinner was ready and almost tripped !
I've been going from one project to the other w/o cleaning up after. Omg, you should see it.
I have a double closet that he made shelves for, I have a bookcase floor to ceiling, a pegboard wall, etc etc.

I don't think there is a solution for me other than to clean up https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images...es/biggrin.png

I have a very large stash that’s sorted by color. The fabric is folded and stored in big plastic bins that are on shelves in a closet. The really large bins are on the floor. I don’t recommend it as it’s a real pain to lift the bins onto my rolling cart to pick out fabrics. I have the “specialty” fabrics (holiday, silks, Halloween, etc) in smaller bins so those are easier to look through. I also have the BIG problem of not cleaning up after projects, so every surface in my sewing room is pretty much stacked up with fabric.

If I could redo my storage, I’d have a drawer system where the fabrics are sorted by color. I don’t even have an idea of how much that might cost!

I started out with open bookcases but now I've changed over to over freestanding shelving as I found out when I changed to these that I had had a water leak on that wall. Luckily it didn't effect any of my fabrics but had to spray the white bookcases with bleach to kill the mold that had developed on the underside. They are now back up in the library with the books. I arrange by color unless I have a collection of the fabrics and then arrange by color within the collection. My threads are arranged on pegboard with metal hooks by order of their brand thread chart so easy to locate. I also keep my serger threads above my serger machine, my quilting threads as near the quilt machine as possible and the embroidery threads as close to the machine as possible. My regular threads are by color above the sewing machine. I like organization so want to keep things easily found and put back when done using it. Even my scraps by organized by size more so than color though. Fat Qtrs are by color in plastic shoe box containers under the cutting table. My quilts to be quilted are hung up with its backing and batting hanging right behind it .

I would purchase custom-built tall cabinets with cedar shelving and glass doors using museum glass with 99% UV protection.