Is your craft stash bursting at the seams, but you have a hard time letting go because you see a potential project in just about any item – even things other people might consider junk?

Do you have a habit of stocking up on craft supplies simply because they could be useful down the road?

You’re not alone! As a fellow craft supplies enthusiast, I’ve put together this post on how to declutter your craft supplies. These tips should help when you’re the type of person who sees the crafting possibilities in everything!

Too Many Craft Supplies? Why You Should Declutter Them

When you’re a crafty and creative person at heart, it’s hard to think there could ever be such a thing as too many craft supplies! But there are definitely many perks to decluttering your stash.

1 – You can save money. You know what you have in your craft stash and won’t end up buying duplicates that might be hiding in clutter.

2 – You can find what you need. And this will help you save time and money. For those people who save random things just in case, you have to remember that it does you no good if you can’t find it when the time to use it occurs.

3 – You open space for NEW ideas. When you declutter things that aren’t special or that you really won’t put to use, you gain the space to try something new. If knitting isn’t for you, get rid of the knitting supplies and make room for a new outlet instead.

4 – You save physical space. You know we love a calm and decluttered craft room. When there’s breathing room, there’s room to be creative, think, and work.

5 – You can be more creative! When you have fewer supplies, you might find more uses for what you actually have. It’ll force you to get your creative juices flowing. You might create your best work because of it!

How to Declutter Your Craft Supplies

Step 1: Gather

You’ll want to gather all of your craft supplies and put them in one place where you can see everything. While you could do this project in sections, that generally only works when you have a fairly organized craft stash already.

Step 2: Sort

Once you have everything gathered, sort your craft supplies by category so you can really see what you own, and how much of it. This will make it easier to spot unnecessary duplicates or areas where you simply have too much of something you never use!

Step 3: Decide what stays and what goes

This is the fun part! Ok, well, maybe fun isn’t the word you will use… at least at first 🙂

Do the easy decluttering first by removing items:

• that are duplicates (or triplets, etc.).
• that are dried up, worn out, or unusable.
• that you simply don’t like.

Move on to more difficult decluttering by doing the following:

1 – Evaluate how much you enjoy the activity. How much do you really enjoy painting, and actually do it? If that’s not your preferred craft outlet, let those bottles of paint and brushes go to a better home.

2 – Take note of how long the supplies have gone unused. If you bought a bag of fancy, fuzzy yarn to make a scarf – that’s totally fine to keep. But if you’ve had that bag sitting in your craft stash for over 3 years, chances are it’s not going to happen.

For anything sitting longer than 6 months unused, either make plans and put it to use or get rid of it ASAP.

3 – Confine what you can keep to a limited physical space. When you give yourself a physical boundary for what you can keep, you tend to choose things that you really love instead of things that are nice to have.

Depending on the space you have available for crafting, this space could be a plastic storage bin, or an entire closet.

Letting Go of Craft Supplies: How to Make It Easier

Send them to a better place.

• Donate your excess craft supplies.
• Gift the supplies to someone who will enjoy them and use them more.
• Sell or return unused supplies. (Getting money tends to ease some of the stress.)
• Recycle what can be recycled.

Know there will always be more.

Yes, more often than not, you’ll be able to replace the thing you decluttered if you decide you actually need it down the road. And if you can’t replace it identically, you might just find something even better.

Let’s repeat that: You might just find something even better.

When you’re a person who sees the crafting possibility in just about anything, this is an important mantra to help you let go.

Those leftover fabric scraps, bottle caps, discounted glitter paint pens, or even a broken disco ball found outside on trash day (guilty!) might be just the types of things you could use in a number of imaginary-yet-totally-possible future projects.

But if they are going unused in your stash and causing clutter issues, it’s important to remember that letting go of them isn’t the end of your crafting.

Be more of an active crafter than craft supply hoarder.

What good is hoarding craft supplies if the sheer volume of stock stifles your ability to be crafty and creative? Or if the majority of it is going unused?

Some people tend to mistake the collecting of supplies as crafting itself when that is clearly not the case. If you focus more on being an actual crafter, it may be easier to let go of the clutter.

Tips for Maintaining a Clutter-Free Craft Stash

1 – Regularly go through supplies. As with any decluttering project, the key to maintaining that clutter-free vibe is to set a regular date on the calendar when you go through this process again.

2 – Don’t buy more until what you have is used up. Again, this can help you get really creative with what’s in the craft stash!

3 – Don’t buy or store supplies unless you have a clear plan to use them. That includes buying stock that’s on sale! If you don’t have a project for it, don’t bring it home.

4 – Give a timeframe to use or toss. We recommend 6 months as a good amount of time.

Related Read: Decluttered Craft Room: Before & Afters!

Get more decluttering help:

The Step-by-Step Decluttering print book can help you take control of your home for good. Best of all – it’s free! Just pay shipping, and we’ll deliver it to your door!

What tips do you have for decluttering your craft supplies?