Get Rid of WIPs? – How Many Craft Projects Do You Need?

First of all: There is something called pathological hoarding (“hoarding disorder”). This is a psychological illness. People affected by it are not able to part with objects. This article contains tips for decluttering. It is explicitly not intended for people affected by hoarding disorder. They need professional and individual help that goes far beyond “Just tidy up.”

Our beloved WIPs

Does this sound familiar? You discovered a knitting or crochet pattern and knew: This will be my next project. Carefully, you selected the yarn and the needles. You even made two (!) gauge swatches and chose the nicer version.
Then you happily started knitting. It was really fun. At first the progress came quickly: the ribbing was finished, the first ball of yarn was used up, the first pattern repeat was completed.
But then things gradually slowed down. Somehow the project stopped calling out to you so loudly, and one day it fell completely silent. Now it lies in a bag on top of the cupboard, half finished, with loose yarn ends, maybe with a mistake in the pattern that can only be fixed by ripping back ten rows…
The project has become aWIP“ (englisch: (Work In Progress). In German some call them U.F.O. which means Un-Finished Object

WIPs are a frequent topic on the internet and are often viewed negatively. There are countless strategies about how to “get rid of them,” “control them,” or “finally finish them.” But before I unpack my toolbox, I want to make one thing very clear:

Don’t feel like it? So what?

Hey, of course it’s great to finish things, and of course unfinished projects nibble at our subconscious and blah blah blah…
But crafting is our hobby. We do it to relax and enjoy ourselves — not to add more to-dos to our lists or make our self-worth depend on even more numbers.
If you don’t feel like working on a project right now and would rather start a new one, do it. It’s your life and your decision. Anyone who judges you for your WIPs has a problem with themselves.

Only if you feel uncomfortable with your WIPs should you start working through them.

What helps against a flood of WIPs?

What counts as “too many”?

First you have to define for yourself how many WIPs feel comfortable and when it becomes “too many.”
Some people always work on a single project, finish it, weave in all the ends, and then start the next one. Others have dozens of started projects and feel perfectly fine about it.
If you’re unsure how many WIPs work for you, ask yourself these two questions:

• How much space do the WIPs take up?
• How many weeks, months, or years would it realistically take to finish all of them?

Are all cupboards, shelves, boxes, and baskets full of projects and there’s no space left for anything else? Then you might have too many WIPs.

Do you have so many WIPs that you literally cannot finish them in your lifetime? Then maybe it’s also too many.

In the end, only you can answer that question.

For example, I usually have 2–3 projects per craft technique. But since I practice six or seven techniques in parallel, there are probably around 20 WIPs lying around here. I feel perfectly comfortable with that number.
For me, the decisive factor is not the number of WIPs but the feeling that I have an overview.
In fact, having several WIPs is necessary for me. If I don’t feel like working on one project, there are always others I can switch to. While I’m working on one project, my brain quietly finds a solution for the mistake in another. Some projects I only work on during certain seasons. With some I’ve had an on-and-off relationship for ten years; others are finished after two weeks.

Reasons for too many WIPs

You think you have too many WIPs? Then the next step is to look at why. There are many reasons why people accumulate WIPs. Here are a few:

Physical discomfort

If you can’t continue a project because it causes pain or other discomfort, you should be careful. Sometimes you simply need different needles that glide better. You can also try working while standing instead of sitting, or improve your lighting.
It strongly depends on what kind of discomfort you are experiencing. I’m not a doctor and can’t give medical advice. But one rule always applies: Be kind to your body. Take its signals seriously and don’t force anything.
If in doubt, consult a doctor. What keeps you from knitting might also affect other areas of your life — and maybe it doesn’t have to.

Too many WIPs paralyze you

Do you have so many WIPs that you feel paralyzed? You don’t even remember everything that’s hiding there anymore? That’s actually one of the easier cases to solve. The secret: small steps. Don’t think about how many WIPs you have or how long one project will take. Just grab any project and start.

Also remind yourself what a privilege it is to have so much material available — and impose an immediate buying ban. You already have a craft store at home. You don’t need to buy or order anything. Unboxing videos, hauls, and product reviews are forbidden. No impulse purchases!
If you notice that you want to buy new material, leave the store or website, find a daisy, pick it, and look at it. If there are no daisies available, where you live, use a pebble instead. (Yes, I’m serious. Try it. It has many advantages on many levels.)

Too many creative hobbies and too much equipment

This reason is similar to the previous one. If you don’t just crochet but also craft, paint, and create mosaics, your free time might simply not be enough for everything.

My personal recommendation: reduce your creative hobbies and the related equipment. For example, I once owned a serger (overlock machine). Even though I like sewing, I hardly ever used it. While I can operate my normal sewing machine blindly, I had to read the manual every time for the serger and usually only achieved mediocre results. At some point I sold the machine together with the book — and it was one of the best decisions of my life. I not only gained space on my shelf but also space in my brain. Afterwards I enjoyed sewing much more again.

Wenn Du ein Hobby reduziert hast, aber immer noch zu viele WIPs hast, starte mit dem 5 Punkte WIP-weg-Plan

Too much other stress

Modern life is stressful. We work, or look for work, care for relatives, wait for trains that never arrive, don’t know what to cook, or urgently need to make an appointment at the car repair shop. There are sooo many reasons why we feel stressed. Sometimes the calm needed for crafting just disappears. Some projects can be squeezed into small time slots, but others require time, focus, and leisure. In some phases of our lives it’s better to simply let WIPs be WIPs. From my experience, it doesn’t help to force yourself to knit when life around you is chaotic. Mistakes happen quickly and only cause more stress. Other times will come.

If you don’t have the mental space for knitting but still want fewer WIPs, pick one project you really dislike. Rip it out, put the yarn away, or place it in a giveaway box on the street. Done. That can feel incredibly liberating.

The wrong projects

Maybe some of your WIPs simply don’t suit you anymore. They might be too difficult. Or your taste has evolved. Maybe the yarn is unbearably scratchy and you already know you won’t tolerate the finished piece on your skin.

Projects like this are allowed to go. Maybe that scratchy yarn would work better as an outdoor cushion cover or a shopping bag?

And now we are already in the middle of my 5-step plan to get rid of WIPs. 5 Punkte WIP-weg-Plan.

Get Rid of WIPs

You could turn yourself into a WIP manager, create a WIP inventory, and then make a plan for when you want to finish which project. Some people really enjoy that. For me personally, that’s a waste of time. If I want fewer WIPs, I simply start reducing them, because that’s the only thing that leads to the goal.

At its core, every WIP has two possible outcomes:

• finish
• frog

Sooner or later you must decide for every WIP, but you don’t have to decide for all of them at once. Just put one foot in front of the other.

Hier zeige ich Dir, was ich mit meinen WIPs mache.

For an extra boost of motivation you can join an event like Finish it February Or maybe you have friends who want to start something similar in autumn.

Sticking with it is worth it. The motivation curve of a craft project always follows the same pattern: First we’re enthusiastic, then it becomes boring or tedious, but toward the end it becomes exciting again. I always say: “Horses trot faster when heading home.” Athletes suddenly show unexpected energy in the final sprint. And we feel the same way when the second sock only needs its ribbing — then we can hardly stop.

At the end there is a huge sense of accomplishment.
Not empty talk in a meeting, but a real, tangible result created with your own hands.

A Healthy Balance

You’ve already thought about your personal comfort level of WIPs and maybe reduced some. Now you want to prevent the number from growing again.
People are different, and everyone needs their own strategy. Here’s mine.

Reducing WIPs is psychologically similar to going on a diet. You give up something that used to give you quick positive feelings (shopping, starting new projects) in favor of a larger goal. Your brain doesn’t like that very much. In the background it waits for those quick little rewards to return. After months of strictly reducing WIPs, a yo-yo effect can happen. The only way out is to offer your brain alternative rewards.

I like the idea of shopping in your own wardrobe. The foundation of the sustainability pyramid is: “Use what you have.” When we rediscover forgotten items in our closet, that’s exactly what we’re doing.

This principle also works for yarn and WIPs. Instead of wasting time on Pinterest and ending up doing nothing because I’m overwhelmed with inspiration, I go shopping among my WIPs and fall in love again with projects that once excited me. It feels like a new project — without actually starting a new project. Pretty clever, right?

I do allow myself one weakness: stash-busting projects are always allowed. I used the COVID lockdowns to reduce my yarn stash and I want it to stay as manageable as it is now. If I don’t feel like working on any of my WIPs, I look at my yarn leftovers and start something new with them.
Since the leftovers are small, the projects are manageable and finished quickly. I get the magic of a new beginning and the satisfaction of finishing soon afterwards.
A win-win-win situation!

Apart from that, I consider myself a pleasure knitter. I like beautiful wooden knitting needles and high-quality natural yarns. That alone prevents me from starting dozens of projects.
If I paid a lot of money for the yarn, I also want to use it, not let it gather dust.

Will you share your personal comfort number of WIPs in the comments?