Cataloguing My Yarn

So the house is still clean from the graduation/birthday party. The 12 bins of yarn have been moved to the basement (it's dry, it's clean, and it will be fine there, and safer from a cat who is becoming incontinent). I reckon that I could bring the yarn up, one bin at a time, and start cataloguing what I've got in those bins. Every now and then, when I open up a bin, I see something that I've forgotten about. Where did that come from? When did I buy it? What was I thinking about when I got it? Usually, that last question can be answered with, "It's blue, it's soft, it's my favourite colour, what's not to like?"

Now that school is done and I have the time, I've given a lot of thought to how to catalogue the yarn. Should I create a spreadsheet? Can I attach pictures to it? What would I include?
Brand; Fibre; Colour; No. of Skeins; Yardage; Place Purchased; Anticipated Project; Bin No.; Picture.

I've been getting more involoved in my Ravelry account. When I joined Ravelry it was still in beta. The only way one could post a picture was to have a Flickr or Smugmug account. I don't much like Flickr, since I don't want to pay about $25 per year to maintain the account. But Ravelry is out of beta, and one can attach a picture directly to one's account. I'm thinking that I can use Ravelry as a means for cataloguing my yarn. Maybe I'll keep a separate spreadsheet, as well. But I'll have all my yarn at my fingertips, at least digitally, when I need to know what's in the bins. If I need to make a hat for someone, I'll know what colours and fibres are available, and I'll know what bin it is in, and where to find it.

The Ravelry Stash does have some limitations, but it does allow for pictures. The spreadsheet doesn't really allow for that, so I reckon a mix of the two will work. I'll update this project in the future, since now that the yarn stash is out of sight, it seems a bit more manageable: one bin brought up at a time, instead of an overwhelming 12 bins staring at me in the other room.