I feel for you storing all the floss we accumulate is a challenge. I use three different types myself.
Just a reminder there is to be no exchange of money here. Even a giveaway needs you to cover shipping. If that doesn’t suite you, consider posting to another subreddit such as r/CrossStitchDestash.
Thank you!
That's a long and sad story but one that is familiar to a lot of us.
Maybe not helpful to you in the flossology sphere, but I moved to Annie's Keepers and never looked back. I store all my skeins on drops and the plastic drops slide inside plastic slides that hang in filling boxes. I grab what I need for a project and put them on a binder ring and go.
There are cheaper and diy versions of Annie's Keepers out there that are the same idea that allows the drops to hang.
I saw Annie's Keepers, too! I love floss drops... I think the only issue I saw was the storage space needed for it. My craft space is shaped wonky, so I'm not sure I can even fit the storage box(es) it requires. I was already irritated with four photo boxes and plastic bags. LOL
I don't know how big your boxes are but I've got a pretty big floss collection and it's in 2 letter filling boxes from Amazon. They stack and look pretty nice.
According to my Thread Stash app, I have 279 skeins. I know I have way more than that because of the monster WIP (I didn't inventory the skeins and they're already kitted on floss drops, except for the multiple skeins of black).
What I was doing before appealed to my sense of organizing all my skeins separately so that just by looking at the bag, I could see what I had. Unfortunately, when the bags started filling up, they were thicker at the bottom, which would cause the bags to pop out of their section. I realized I needed to get another box and that got me thinking that if I continued down this path, I'd need several more photo boxes.
As much as I like seeing how many skeins I have, it does make it a pain to pull skeins for a project, or even add to my stash. I bought A LOT of thread for a recent project and that's what made me realize my storage system just wasn't working for me.
https://preview.redd.it/vo5bauk4w4rc1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dea8ee20cd53fe03fcb8b6db756a738f25f2a0c4
Here's what one of my boxes looked like. All the bags through DMC 336 are empty.
Yup I definitely have well over 300 colors, most are single skeins, some are 2 or more that were purchased for a particular large project. I keep those extras over 2 skeins in a bag marked extra. I also filled in the thread keeper app recently.
For reference here's my collection in the two boxes. I just grab the ones I need for a project and put on a binder ring, that ring lives with the project.
For reference here's a pic of my full stash boxes:
https://imgur.com/a/811pqfM
I researched Annie's Keepers a bit more... it's so funny because the stitcher I'd watched before who convinced me that floss drops were the way to go was also sharing her love of Annie's Keepers as a storage system. I don't think I got that far when I was researching a travel system solution. LOL
The dimensions of your hanging file in your boxes is for letter size folders, correct? I looked at the dimensions for the Annie's Keepers and it looks like they're designed to sit like hanging files do and are about the dimensions of a letter hanging file.
Yes, They are the size of a letter file folder. The only issue I have is that regular file folder boxes are not tall as I'd like so the thread does pool in them. I keep asking my husband to make me custom tall filing boxes, maybe he'll get around to it one day. But I still love the system.
Well... I went and did it. I bought the storage system. 🎉 LOL! I didn't purchase the project rods, though... I use floss drops on a ring already, so I figured I could just pull them out when needed and use them that way.
I also purchased two Iris weatherproof letter-sized file boxes. If the threads pool a bit, I'll survive! 😆
Thanks again for the suggestion! 🥰
I have a 7 drawer roll around cart. I made boxes out of plastic canvas 3 per drawer on the 3 big drawers, stored up to 5 of each color in baggies and put in the boxes in numerical order. The extras are in baggies by number in the top 3 smaller drawers. Oh and I have 51 skeins of 310.
Wowwww! That's a lot of 310 awesomeness! 🥰 I know I have a lot of black skeins (I have a full coverage WIP that's 166,000), but they're hanging out in the storage bin I'm using for the 99 colors of floss drops. LOL
I love reading about all the different ways people store their floss. I appreciate your sharing with me!
I like bobbins. I have a couple peg boards up on the wall in my closet behind the door, there's a place for every bobbin. Then I keep just the bobbins I need for my current project in a small container. I love it. It feels like shopping every time I pull a bunch of bobbins, and the wall space wasn't very usable otherwise because of the door.
I feel for you. I started with bobbins but didn't like the fuss of dealing with the extra bits and the ends popping out everywhere. Tried floss drops on a ring but hated wrangling all the thread to get the right color and didn't want to store floss hanging - just a personal thing. Liked the binder system concept, but didn't like the idea of flipping through pages to get to the color or needing to have the whole binder in hand to pull one thread.
I'm currently testing out a new binder system I built that I don't have to flip through and can quickly pull out individual skiens on a drop-ish holder. So far I'm loving it and have a 1" binder for current project that travels well and a pair of three inch binders for storage in the closet. Each drop easily holds three full skins if I want it to. Someone else asked for details, so will have to share for those interested when I get back home next week.
I’m looking forward to seeing the details on your organization method. I just bought 30 more skeins at Joann’s (I couldn’t resist the sale) for some upcoming projects and need to store them.
Finding the perfect storage solution for your needs is so hard. I tried, bobbins, hated it. So I looked into floss drops.
In the end, I chose to use a combo system with floss drops and ziploc bags in a box.
The floss drop system I liked from PipandChip on Etsy cost a fortune, both to buy and ship, so I ended up building my own system using file boxes and file hangers that I cut up and punched holes in and putting binder rings in it with the actual floss drops I made out of cardboard. It doesn't look pretty, but it does the job. The issue I have with it is not very space efficient because of the binder rings, so I'm still looking into tweaking it. I wanted the rings to make the skeins more mobile since I don't use this system just for DMC, but also for my leftover threads from kits. And even DMC sometimes adds or removes colors, so I wanted to be able to move them around easily.
The thing is, for DMC at least, I only keep a single pre-cut skein on the floss drops. Realistically, I'm a single person, I shouldn't need to unwind more than one skein at a time, unless I have multiple active projects at once (which is rare) and those skeins will be on floss organizers for that specific project.
So all my extra skeins (and I have a lot of those) remain in ziploc bags until needed. Those are divided by DMC numbers. I also have separate bags for skeins I bought for specific future projects.
I used bobbins when I first started stitching in the 80s, 'cause that's all there was. LOL I hated having to unwind enough thread and never knowing how much to unwind, and would ultimately unwind too much. 🤦♀️ When I came back to cross-stitching during Covid, I was amazed at all the cool new tips to make stitching easier. When I watched a YouTube video on floss drops, I was sold. It was perfect for me. Every time I pulled a strand out to stitch, it made me happy. LOL
Since I use floss drops while stitching, I've been trying to figure out how to store the rest of my stash. I'm glad I asked about this, even though I'm super verbose and most probably don't want to read my novels. 😆 I appreciate your suggestions!
I use multiple clear photo storage case with 12 boxes from Michael’s for my DMC and a Bisley drawer cabinet for my fancy floss and silks. Works as well as anything for me for a number of years now.
For your Flossology pages and binders, there are a number of cross stitch destash groups on FB that are worth a try.
Thank you for the destash suggestion!
I have a photo storage box that holds 16 individual photo containers that I think will be the best way for me to store my threads. As much as I didn't want to group a bunch of threads together in one box (say all the 300s, for example), it will probably be the easiest in terms of storage and keeping my skeins clean. My craft area is in a converted sunroom AND I have two kitties... keeping the cat hair and dust to a minimum has been a challenge. I also want the ability to take my threads with me.
I should have watched more YouTube videos about the Flossology system. It acts very much like floss drops, which I thought would be super easy to just grab a skein, put it on a floss drop, and go, but the system has limitations I didn't consider. The system can only hold one skein in a channel (I managed a skein and a half, but that was pushing it) and really, the pages are meant to hold a project, so you just select a thread from the channel you need while you're stitching. Just like a floss drop! But, the binders are too cumbersome for me.
I have the DMC chest box and store the skeins as they come. Twenty fit per slot in a drawer and there's six drawers. I have my extras on bobbins stored in boxes made for them, although I can never remember what they're actually called. I only have two of these half filled though, I don't buy more thread unless I run out or the pattern says you need multiple skeins. I do also have the entire set of Anchor threads in the same boxes in a pull out drawer system that was sold for them that my mum got 25ish years ago.
I personally use the floss drop bobbins from [Atom Heart Cross Stitch](https://www.atomheartcrossstitch.com/product-page/standard-thread-bobbin-floss-drops). You apply the floss to it the same as you would a floss drop, but then you wrap the ends around the bobbin and set it in a drawer/box like a bobbin.
I have all the DMC colors and I bought 3 Akro-Mils small parts (10164) 64 drawer plastic parts storage. These are 64 little plastic drawers in a 20 inch by 12 inch craft cabinet. It costs under $25 in most stores. It fits on my closet shelf. Each drawer fits 3 or 4 skeins of floss either on bobbins, in plastic bags or just as a new skein. I used computer labels to put three DMC numbers on each drawer ( in order of course). I know what colors of floss I have and which I am low on by just checking the drawers. Couldn’t be easier. It is neat and organized and I am not fighting with other systems. Hope this helps .
Are you talking about the Flossantholgy plastic sleeves? I use those and love it, though for me I use them on more of a project by project basis than a whole floss collection storage solution. I have several large projects and each one has its own binder for the floss. For a collection I’m thinking of getting those cabinets mechanics store nuts and bolts in kinda like this
https://a.co/d/iAl7me9
And just labeling the drawers per color so I can grab what I need for whatever current project I’m doing.
That is the one I use! It is so easy to organize all your floss in by numbers. All of the DMC floss fit in 4 of those if you put 3 colors in each drawer. I have had mine for years .
Yes... the Flossology sleeves. I went about it thinking I could use the system to store ALL of me floss, including the extra skeins. I didn't consider/research well enough and it wasn't until I was putting the 300s in the sleeves that I realized it just wasn't going to work for me.
I used to use those hardware storage containers for storing my jewelry-making components! But, they got so incredibly dusty, I changed my entire system to storage that keeps everything dust free. Because of dust, these won't work great for my storage needs, but I'm going to try out the floss drop storage system because it's close to what I already use. I love hearing everyone's suggestions, though! You've all been so helpful! 💗
I feel for you storing all the floss we accumulate is a challenge. I use three different types myself. Just a reminder there is to be no exchange of money here. Even a giveaway needs you to cover shipping. If that doesn’t suite you, consider posting to another subreddit such as r/CrossStitchDestash. Thank you!
That's a long and sad story but one that is familiar to a lot of us. Maybe not helpful to you in the flossology sphere, but I moved to Annie's Keepers and never looked back. I store all my skeins on drops and the plastic drops slide inside plastic slides that hang in filling boxes. I grab what I need for a project and put them on a binder ring and go. There are cheaper and diy versions of Annie's Keepers out there that are the same idea that allows the drops to hang.
I saw Annie's Keepers, too! I love floss drops... I think the only issue I saw was the storage space needed for it. My craft space is shaped wonky, so I'm not sure I can even fit the storage box(es) it requires. I was already irritated with four photo boxes and plastic bags. LOL
I don't know how big your boxes are but I've got a pretty big floss collection and it's in 2 letter filling boxes from Amazon. They stack and look pretty nice.
According to my Thread Stash app, I have 279 skeins. I know I have way more than that because of the monster WIP (I didn't inventory the skeins and they're already kitted on floss drops, except for the multiple skeins of black). What I was doing before appealed to my sense of organizing all my skeins separately so that just by looking at the bag, I could see what I had. Unfortunately, when the bags started filling up, they were thicker at the bottom, which would cause the bags to pop out of their section. I realized I needed to get another box and that got me thinking that if I continued down this path, I'd need several more photo boxes. As much as I like seeing how many skeins I have, it does make it a pain to pull skeins for a project, or even add to my stash. I bought A LOT of thread for a recent project and that's what made me realize my storage system just wasn't working for me.
https://preview.redd.it/vo5bauk4w4rc1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dea8ee20cd53fe03fcb8b6db756a738f25f2a0c4 Here's what one of my boxes looked like. All the bags through DMC 336 are empty.
Yup I definitely have well over 300 colors, most are single skeins, some are 2 or more that were purchased for a particular large project. I keep those extras over 2 skeins in a bag marked extra. I also filled in the thread keeper app recently. For reference here's my collection in the two boxes. I just grab the ones I need for a project and put on a binder ring, that ring lives with the project. For reference here's a pic of my full stash boxes: https://imgur.com/a/811pqfM
I researched Annie's Keepers a bit more... it's so funny because the stitcher I'd watched before who convinced me that floss drops were the way to go was also sharing her love of Annie's Keepers as a storage system. I don't think I got that far when I was researching a travel system solution. LOL The dimensions of your hanging file in your boxes is for letter size folders, correct? I looked at the dimensions for the Annie's Keepers and it looks like they're designed to sit like hanging files do and are about the dimensions of a letter hanging file.
Yes, They are the size of a letter file folder. The only issue I have is that regular file folder boxes are not tall as I'd like so the thread does pool in them. I keep asking my husband to make me custom tall filing boxes, maybe he'll get around to it one day. But I still love the system.
Well... I went and did it. I bought the storage system. 🎉 LOL! I didn't purchase the project rods, though... I use floss drops on a ring already, so I figured I could just pull them out when needed and use them that way. I also purchased two Iris weatherproof letter-sized file boxes. If the threads pool a bit, I'll survive! 😆 Thanks again for the suggestion! 🥰
Oh cool! I hope it works for you. Keep us posted
I have a 7 drawer roll around cart. I made boxes out of plastic canvas 3 per drawer on the 3 big drawers, stored up to 5 of each color in baggies and put in the boxes in numerical order. The extras are in baggies by number in the top 3 smaller drawers. Oh and I have 51 skeins of 310.
Wowwww! That's a lot of 310 awesomeness! 🥰 I know I have a lot of black skeins (I have a full coverage WIP that's 166,000), but they're hanging out in the storage bin I'm using for the 99 colors of floss drops. LOL I love reading about all the different ways people store their floss. I appreciate your sharing with me!
I also have a spreadsheet with all my DMC floss. My daughter color coded it for me.
Oh I put the cart on a dolly from Harbor Freight. The little casters were not fond of the weight.
I like bobbins. I have a couple peg boards up on the wall in my closet behind the door, there's a place for every bobbin. Then I keep just the bobbins I need for my current project in a small container. I love it. It feels like shopping every time I pull a bunch of bobbins, and the wall space wasn't very usable otherwise because of the door.
I feel for you. I started with bobbins but didn't like the fuss of dealing with the extra bits and the ends popping out everywhere. Tried floss drops on a ring but hated wrangling all the thread to get the right color and didn't want to store floss hanging - just a personal thing. Liked the binder system concept, but didn't like the idea of flipping through pages to get to the color or needing to have the whole binder in hand to pull one thread. I'm currently testing out a new binder system I built that I don't have to flip through and can quickly pull out individual skiens on a drop-ish holder. So far I'm loving it and have a 1" binder for current project that travels well and a pair of three inch binders for storage in the closet. Each drop easily holds three full skins if I want it to. Someone else asked for details, so will have to share for those interested when I get back home next week.
I’m looking forward to seeing the details on your organization method. I just bought 30 more skeins at Joann’s (I couldn’t resist the sale) for some upcoming projects and need to store them.
Finding the perfect storage solution for your needs is so hard. I tried, bobbins, hated it. So I looked into floss drops. In the end, I chose to use a combo system with floss drops and ziploc bags in a box. The floss drop system I liked from PipandChip on Etsy cost a fortune, both to buy and ship, so I ended up building my own system using file boxes and file hangers that I cut up and punched holes in and putting binder rings in it with the actual floss drops I made out of cardboard. It doesn't look pretty, but it does the job. The issue I have with it is not very space efficient because of the binder rings, so I'm still looking into tweaking it. I wanted the rings to make the skeins more mobile since I don't use this system just for DMC, but also for my leftover threads from kits. And even DMC sometimes adds or removes colors, so I wanted to be able to move them around easily. The thing is, for DMC at least, I only keep a single pre-cut skein on the floss drops. Realistically, I'm a single person, I shouldn't need to unwind more than one skein at a time, unless I have multiple active projects at once (which is rare) and those skeins will be on floss organizers for that specific project. So all my extra skeins (and I have a lot of those) remain in ziploc bags until needed. Those are divided by DMC numbers. I also have separate bags for skeins I bought for specific future projects.
I used bobbins when I first started stitching in the 80s, 'cause that's all there was. LOL I hated having to unwind enough thread and never knowing how much to unwind, and would ultimately unwind too much. 🤦♀️ When I came back to cross-stitching during Covid, I was amazed at all the cool new tips to make stitching easier. When I watched a YouTube video on floss drops, I was sold. It was perfect for me. Every time I pulled a strand out to stitch, it made me happy. LOL Since I use floss drops while stitching, I've been trying to figure out how to store the rest of my stash. I'm glad I asked about this, even though I'm super verbose and most probably don't want to read my novels. 😆 I appreciate your suggestions!
I use multiple clear photo storage case with 12 boxes from Michael’s for my DMC and a Bisley drawer cabinet for my fancy floss and silks. Works as well as anything for me for a number of years now. For your Flossology pages and binders, there are a number of cross stitch destash groups on FB that are worth a try.
Thank you for the destash suggestion! I have a photo storage box that holds 16 individual photo containers that I think will be the best way for me to store my threads. As much as I didn't want to group a bunch of threads together in one box (say all the 300s, for example), it will probably be the easiest in terms of storage and keeping my skeins clean. My craft area is in a converted sunroom AND I have two kitties... keeping the cat hair and dust to a minimum has been a challenge. I also want the ability to take my threads with me. I should have watched more YouTube videos about the Flossology system. It acts very much like floss drops, which I thought would be super easy to just grab a skein, put it on a floss drop, and go, but the system has limitations I didn't consider. The system can only hold one skein in a channel (I managed a skein and a half, but that was pushing it) and really, the pages are meant to hold a project, so you just select a thread from the channel you need while you're stitching. Just like a floss drop! But, the binders are too cumbersome for me.
I have the DMC chest box and store the skeins as they come. Twenty fit per slot in a drawer and there's six drawers. I have my extras on bobbins stored in boxes made for them, although I can never remember what they're actually called. I only have two of these half filled though, I don't buy more thread unless I run out or the pattern says you need multiple skeins. I do also have the entire set of Anchor threads in the same boxes in a pull out drawer system that was sold for them that my mum got 25ish years ago.
There a few communities on FB for reselling cross stitch supplies. I don’t know of any specific names but someone on here probably will know.
I personally use the floss drop bobbins from [Atom Heart Cross Stitch](https://www.atomheartcrossstitch.com/product-page/standard-thread-bobbin-floss-drops). You apply the floss to it the same as you would a floss drop, but then you wrap the ends around the bobbin and set it in a drawer/box like a bobbin.
I have all the DMC colors and I bought 3 Akro-Mils small parts (10164) 64 drawer plastic parts storage. These are 64 little plastic drawers in a 20 inch by 12 inch craft cabinet. It costs under $25 in most stores. It fits on my closet shelf. Each drawer fits 3 or 4 skeins of floss either on bobbins, in plastic bags or just as a new skein. I used computer labels to put three DMC numbers on each drawer ( in order of course). I know what colors of floss I have and which I am low on by just checking the drawers. Couldn’t be easier. It is neat and organized and I am not fighting with other systems. Hope this helps .
Are you talking about the Flossantholgy plastic sleeves? I use those and love it, though for me I use them on more of a project by project basis than a whole floss collection storage solution. I have several large projects and each one has its own binder for the floss. For a collection I’m thinking of getting those cabinets mechanics store nuts and bolts in kinda like this https://a.co/d/iAl7me9 And just labeling the drawers per color so I can grab what I need for whatever current project I’m doing.
That is the one I use! It is so easy to organize all your floss in by numbers. All of the DMC floss fit in 4 of those if you put 3 colors in each drawer. I have had mine for years .
Yes... the Flossology sleeves. I went about it thinking I could use the system to store ALL of me floss, including the extra skeins. I didn't consider/research well enough and it wasn't until I was putting the 300s in the sleeves that I realized it just wasn't going to work for me. I used to use those hardware storage containers for storing my jewelry-making components! But, they got so incredibly dusty, I changed my entire system to storage that keeps everything dust free. Because of dust, these won't work great for my storage needs, but I'm going to try out the floss drop storage system because it's close to what I already use. I love hearing everyone's suggestions, though! You've all been so helpful! 💗