My Stash Busting Spreadsheet

Hi guys, today's post is a little info dump about my record keeping since some of you expressed interest after reading my last post. My spreadsheet is pretty basic, so it was no trouble to take a few screen shots to show you how I record yardage in and yardage out.

First of all I have to thank my sewing friend and serial stasher in crime Katie for giving me the idea of a spreadsheet in the first place. Three years ago she send me a copy of her own excel file and I dumbed it down a bit for my own purposes.  For example Katie keeps track of sewing for individual family members and types of garments for herself.  My sewing is much more....Heather centric you might say. A simple column of patterns and fabric is enough info tracking for my uses. Which is a great thing about spreadsheets, they can be as simple or complex you want.

I use the spreadsheet program in Google docs for my sewing records because my main "computer" is actually a chromebook.  I can't install any software on it, so all applications need to be web based.  That's fine with me because being able to access the file from any location has been helpful in the past.  I started with a blank spreadsheet and added 4 tabs to it.  Those tabs are, sewing, purchases, fabric removed non-sewing and monthly total.

Not surprisingly the "Sewing tab" is where all the garments sewn during the year are logged.  I record the pattern name or number, a brief description of the fabric and the number of yards used. Each month is split out separately so that the total yardage can be tracked.

On the flip side the "Purchases tab" tracks all the fabric coming into the stash during the month. I also log any fabric gifts on this tab, but give them a red background. That way I know if a stash influx isn't something I should feel that guilty about. After all fabric gifts are always good even if they up your numbers. On this tab only a description of the fabric and the yardage acquired are recorded.

The "Fabric removed non-sewing tab" is for any fabric sold in the Etsy shop and stuff I decide to throw away. Usually it's a ton of small scraps that I either don't feel like sewing or are too small really too use. (Lillestoff is so hard to throw away.)

At the end of the month the "Monthly Total tab" is filled out so that I can easily see how I'm doing with my stash busting goals.  The sewing/fabric removed non-sewing numbers are added together and put in the "Total Removed" column.  All fabric purchases and gifts logged in the "Total Added" column.  Then I subtract the two numbers and record how much fabric has been removed/added to the stash.  Here's my entire 2015 year below. 

So that's all the details on my stash busting spreadsheet. I hope that sparked your creative juices if starting your own sewing recordkeeping is something you'd like to do in 2016.