If you’ve been crafting for any amount of time, you’ve probably accumulated a craft stash of your own. Even if you’ve been crafting for a short while, you’ve probably got a stash.

In 2019, I started to feel like I had too much stuff that I wasn’t using. I decided to challenge myself and do an entire year of no spend - I know, it was a very long time!

I learned a few things during that year and I am sharing it all with you! If you’ve been feeling the need to cut back on your spending on craft supplies, I hope you'll read this and find it helpful to get inspired to craft with your stash.

What are the benefits of curbing your spending on craft supplies?

As crafters, we love buying craft supplies because let’s face it - there are so many pretty craft supplies and it’s hard to not want all of it.

When you buy supplies faster than you can use them, it means that a lot of our beloved craft supplies go unused and collect dust.

Instead of letting the craft supplies go unloved, it would be so much better to use them! It’s too easy to hoard all the pretty things only to store them away, forget about them, and then buy new pretty things and repeat this cycle.

Not only is it a waste of money and space but we also end up feeling guilty about letting our supplies go unused. Did you know that craft supplies have an expiration date? You’ll find this out sooner or later without meaning to. If you’ve ever found washi tape or stickers that are no longer sticky because they sat around too long, then you know what I’m talking about.

Then there's the feeling of overwhelm and feeling anxious when you’re faced with too many options. When you’re facing a giant bin of yarn of all the colors, fibers, and weights, it’s a lot more difficult to choose your supplies and start crafting!

In short, less stuff means fewer choices to make when we want to craft, having more space, saving money, and we feel good about knowing our stuff is getting the attention it deserves!

#1: It’s Better Not Knowing About the New Stuff

Temptation is the biggest obstacle when it comes to curbing our spending. To not buy new things, we need to not know about the new stuff to begin with!

This means you need to:

- unsubscribe from newsletters

- unfollow or leave Facebook groups

- unfollow or mute Instagram & Twitter accounts

- unsubscribe from Youtube channels

You know the ones. Shop accounts are the most obvious types to unfollow and unsubscribe from. The less obvious ones are the influencers and groups that post about the latest and greatest all the time. They are constantly posting haul and unboxing photos and videos.

It’s incredibly tempting when you see the unboxings and hear the crinkly bags open with shiny new items. It’s best to not even see these so make sure to unfollow, unsubscribe, and/or mute!

#2: Organize Your Supplies & See What You Already Have!

Let’s say you are currently feeling tempted to get some new yarn. First, let's see what you've already got!

4 Quick Steps to See What You’ve Got

1. Inventorying. Take out all your yarn. Yep, all of it. Make sure to grab every bag, container, and box that you have yarn stored and dump them in one large location. You can use a bed as a containing area so you can spread it all out and see exactly what you've got on hand.
2. Sorting. Now, sort it by whatever method makes sense for the craft supply you're working with. In this example, you can sort the yarns by fiber type - wools, cottons, alpaca, etc. Then sort by color and weight so you get a good overview of your inventory.
3. Exploring. Odds are you'll find something you forgot about. You may even find a half-finished project you'd love to finish someday. Get excited about these discoveries!
4. Analyzing. Once you've done this, ask yourself - do you really need that new, in this case, yarn? If you don't have it on hand and it's absolutely necessary for your next project, then by all means go buy the yarn you need for your project. Before you do that though, ask yourself if you could find a replacement. Can this knitting project be made in another weight, color, or fiber type? It’s easy to say “no, I need it” but really, just be honest with yourself!

During this process, you may be reminded of all the projects you were meaning to make with these supplies. Could you make those projects that you already have the materials for instead of starting a whole new project that you may need new supplies for?

#3: Challenge Yourself to Craft with Your Stash!

Shop your craft stash! You've got plenty of stuff that you've spent your hard-earned money on so let’s use it up!

That pretty notebook with pristine pages that you can't seem to start using? Write on the first page! Or skip the first page and write on the second page - it's an old trick that works.

Give yourself a constraint like a specific number of days so you have a start and end date to your challenge. Try to #craftwithyourstash for 30 days or one month and see how that goes. Feeling ambitious? Try doing a 100-day challenge and see how far you get with your supplies.

This challenge can be a really fun way to see what you can do with what you've got. In 30 or 100 days, you’ll start seeing a dent in your stash as well as lots of new ideas popping up. You’ll develop your creativity further and by the end of the challenge, you'll have a few finished projects that you can proudly look at and use!

#4 Search Craftic for Ideas on How to Use What You've Got

Are you stuck with trying to figure out how to use that bit of yarn or paper? Make sure to check out Craftic's Yarn, Paper, Buttons, Paint, Fabric, and Beads sections to find projects you can make with what you’ve got!

There are lots of fun projects for any skill level available on Craftic.com from covering a notebook with washi tape to crocheting a blanket with yarn leftovers.

If you make any of the projects, please tag @crafticland on social media and use the tag #craftwithyourstash!

Check out Craftic.com for tutorials on how to use the craft supplies you've already got.

For regular inspiration, make sure you're following @crafticland on Instagram. There's lots of colorful and creative inspiration on there as well as behind the scenes of what's going on at Craftic!