My fabric stash is pretty big, but fairly well organized.  My thread stash has been out of control for some time — various threads tucked away in drawers and boxes.  My old sewing machine cabinet had only one drawer and a large empty space where I was able to slip in a couple of those plastic drawer stacks, and I used that for some of my threads.  Here is a photo of the stacks inside my old cabinet.

My previous thread storage bins

Recently I purchased a new Brother Dreamweaver sewing machine and a new Koala cabinet to put it in.  My old thread storage system wasn’t going to work.  I also wanted more capacity so I could get all the thread consolidated in one place.

I checked out drawer stacks at my local sewing machine store and online but didn’t find anything suitable, since I wanted lots of skinny drawers.  Finally I found a roll around storage cart made by Stanton that works well.  Here is a photo of it:

My new thread storage cart

It is designed with a dropleaf on the left side that can be put up to make a larger work surface.  I will probably never use that feature, but it doesn’t get in my way.   The unit is 30 inches tall, 21 inches wide, and 14 inches deep.  The drawers have a slot in the sides that hold them rather than metal slides, as you can see here:

Drawers slide on side tracks

This unit came fully assembled except for the casters on the bottom; they were easy to attach with screws.  I also sanded the slots on the drawers and rubbed a little paraffin on them to make them slide smoother — they would probably have been OK without that, but I decided to do it before I filled up the cabinet.   And each drawer holds a lot of thread:

Piles of thead begging to be organized!

Someday (soon, I hope) the thread drawers will be organized and nicely divided.  I purchased some really slick custom DIY drawer dividers  from The Container Store and so far have only divided the top drawer as you see here to hold various pens and tools that I use frequently:

Custom drawer dividers from The Container Store

You can accomplish the same drawer divisions using foam core board –  there are YouTube videos explaining how to do that, as well as how to use these fancier ones.  The videos are useful for deciding which way you want to go; I watched them before deciding to purchase the ones I am using.

This storage cart was a good value compared to the drawer stacks available to match sewing room furniture — less than half the price as well as giving me the size and number of drawers I wanted — but it is still not cheap.   The  cost was about $280 .  I purchased it through Amazon so the shipping was free; here is the link to Amazon where it is available: Stanton Single Gate Leg Storage Cart, 30″Hx21″Wx14″D, WHITE.  It is also available through homedecorators.com, but was cheaper at Amazon the day I made my purchase.

One of my goals is to settle on one brand of cotton thread on one spool size so my storage is easier and occupies less space.  My goal will be to have every color of that one kind of thread and no others.  More about that subject in another post in the future!