Plea for Help from a Student of Chaos Theory

I mentioned my hapless attempts at organization, didn't I? Here I am with my 57th birthday on the horizon (Monday!!) and I'm still struggling with the same basic problem that vexed me at 17: I don't have an orderly bone in my body.

It feels good to say that out loud. I am not an orderly person. I don't live an orderly life. (Maybe that's why I get all itchy whenever I look at a knitting chart: it puts me in mind of uniforms and lights out and no margin for error.) If I had my way (and Goldisox wasn't my polar opposite) I would have everything I own within an arm's length: books and laptops and printers and phones and yarn and needles and magazines and pattern print-outs and cups of tea and ginger-spice cookies and DVDs and CDs and--well, you get the messy picture, right?

So here I am embarking once again on another (destined to be fruitless) quest for order and organization. I am starting small. Currently I'm listing all of my yarns in a little dime store notebook. Of course that means I have to find all of my yarn and that's proving to be a whole lot tougher than it sounds.

Remember when I found my John Adams photos in the soup tureen? Well, that's just the start of it. I have now found yarn in the vanity cabinet in the guest bathroom downstairs, in the basement, in the guest room upstairs, in the wall unit in the living room, hidden in the coffee table in the family room, in the trunk of my ancient Buick, behind the sofa, the china closet, in the other soup tureen, piled up all high and pretty in a giant wooden salad bowl, tucked safely in a wine rack. Oh yeah, and there was the runaway ball of Kureyon tucked inside a pewter vase.

See what I mean? I have a problem and it's not the one you think. I actually find it easier to deal with the chaotic craziness than try to figure out a way to establish order. What happens once I catalog everything? What in the name of EZ am I supposed to do with all of this stuff? Do I separate it according to color? According to fiber? According to weight? Do I try to cram it all into one room, one closet, under one bed? Is it really time for a (gasp) knitting room? (I'm having trouble with that one since I'm not doing half as much knitting right now as I'd like.)

How do you handle your stash? Where do you keep all of your goodies? Do you have a running list of your fiber assets? Do you keep a notebook, put them on computer, hold them close to your greedy little knitter's heart? Do you stuff them in closets or in your basement or in big Rubbermaid bins?

Where do you put it all??????

HELP!