I also have the same problem except all the fabric I have collected is from me - working at Joanne's, Beverly's, House of Fabrics, Fabricland, and retired Home Economics teacher, not including other fabric shops, hospice, garage sales, donations from friends, etc.

What I decided to do is start separate my fabric by color or theme and put them on shelves in my Storage Barn. I found out that I don't have enough room for all my fabric. I ended up renting an additional storage space and purchased many locking, semi-clear storage boxes and labeled them, again by color or theme. I will deal with the storage shed later.

My order of organizing is 1) my sewing room, 2) storage barn, and 3) storage unit. I was hoping to finish before summer was over but, unfortunately, too many other problems/projects happened and my sewing areas were put on the back burner.

I agree with others, one cannot do this by themself so I am calling my sewing/quilting friends. I am going to have a Organizational Party where everyone can help me. Compensation: payment of services: fabric/notions. Hopefully, I can get this done by the end of this year!

Good luck and have fun.

Love the ideas everyone is sharing! I fold mine according to the size of my shelf as well. I fold all my fat quarters to 4"x12"., 1-3 yd pieces are folded to comic book cardboard but are placed on the same shelf system. And large pieces stay on the bolt on another shelf.

Looks like my stash before I started organizing! I, too, bought comic book boards, but decided that I could get more use out of my space if I did something else.

Now I cut the selvage of of 1 edge of the fabric, fold a 1-5/8" by 2.5" inch blank address label, folded in half, around the middle of the strip of selvage, measure the fabric and write the length of the fabric on one side of the label, fold the fabric up and tie the labeled selvage around the fabric. (Depending on the length of the fabric, the selvage may be long enough for more than one tie. )

I've started doing that as the fabric comes into the house, sort of. Sometimes I forget. Haven't finished the original hoard yet, either, but everything looks neater and what is done makes it much easier to see and find fabrics. Having the length on the tie also lets me know before I unfold whether I have enough of a particular fabric for a project.

In the process of all this work, I have also kind of 'kitted' some of the fabrics together for future use. Or donations for Charity quilts at the local guilds.

Note that my technique for organizing is to grab a bunch of fabric off a shelf, out of a tub, whatever, take it in to the living room, sit down, watch tv and measure, fold, tie. it works well for me because I need to be doing something while watching tv. My measuring is an approximate number. I hold one end of the fabric in my left hand, stretch my arm out as far as it will go, pull the fabric toward my right collarbone with the right hand and that is about 1 yard. If it's more than one yard, I bring my left hand to where the right hand is, and pull the fabric out another yard until I get to the end of the fabric. Less than a yard, I assign 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 based on experienced guess work.

You are so right not to worry about ironing when organizing fabric. It'll need ironing when you actually want to use it anyway.

Looks like you have your work cut out for you. I guess you will have to take it out and start over. Good Luck!

I bring them to the local library. Friends of the Library have an annual book sale. They welcome my donation with open arms.

Yikes! Hurry up and get started.. Just start in one bin at a time and sort by color and maybe even theme. God bless, cause I could never ever sew in all that. It took awhile to get like that so just remember it will take a while to clean it up. Good luck...be patient

So, how'd ya do? Did you accomplish it before moving to Michigan? And where in Michigan?

I just hope you are doing this to help your gramma.

It sounds like you are looking at it as your inheritance before gramma is gone.

Eeeeee! Let me guess: the granddaughter is a Southerner. “Stash needs organized.” Hey, at least she’s got good intentions. BUT it doesn’t sound like she’s being very sensitive to her grandmother’s feelings. I’d say, unless the grandmother asks, or unless the entire lot is a roach-infested health hazard, leave it for such a time as she’s ASKED to organize. I bet that little grandmother knows where a lot of things are in the mix, and would be entirely upset at having someone else’s thinking shuffle any system she does have. And the granddaughter says she’s moving out of state soon? That would be awful! Then the grandmother won’t even have the recourse of asking where such-and-so is! Poor lady.

Let it go. Organize your own things before your move, and wait for your inheritance till such a time as it’s offered! That is, if you don’t want to discourage the poor owner and stifle any other plans for sewing projects she might have. Is she still sewing? Can she navigate in the heaps to work, or would she like a partial re-org at her own direction?

Life is short. Let her be the boss of her own stuff. HELP is often welcome, TYRANNY is not. I speak from experience with my own father. If the bedlam doesn’t already bother the grandmother, then most likely any superimposed organization will be lost the minute the granddaughter walks out the door...The same habits that brought the current state of things won’t magically reform themselves.

And that’s my sermon for the night!!!! (as I laugh and shake my head still!)