It's a Start

I started my cleaning yesterday by folding all those boxes of fabric and all the pieces that I had laying around everywhere.  Looked for my book on organizing sewing rooms, but couldn't find that -- and I'm not kidding.  How disastrous is it to lose your organizing book?!!  Bubby got his Make A Wish pool yesterday, so we quit what we were doing and took the stuff to make burgers to Mary's.  And I talked to Mary, who also gave me some good advice.  She's not a sewer, but a scrapper.  Her first tidbit of advice was to only touch something once.  In my case, that wasn't possible since I had to fold it first and then decide where to put it.  Her second bit of advice was that she doesn't keep paper pieces smaller than a half sheet of paper.Again, it wasn't something that really applied to sewing, but I took it to heart, and applied it to my own situation.  All the fabric has been folded, and sorted by color.  And as I put it away, I straightened that pile on the shelf.  Two shelves are done, and one is left to go.  The shelves that hold the novelty fabrics, which you didn't see in the photos, are in pretty good shape and I will straighten them up as I put the novelty fabrics away. I do a lot of applique, and use a lot of small pieces.  So Mary suggested that I put them in clear plastic shoe boxes, using the colors of the rainbow for labels -- Red, orange, yellow in one box, and green, blue and violet in another.  I think that might work.   I appreciate all the suggestions that you have posted, and will try to put them to good use.   I think I need a nagging mother to remind me to put things away when I'm done with them.

Yesterday, Rod and I went through some of the things in the closet.  Mom had an entire dishpan filled with old magazines.   They went to the trash.  Another box had pieces for a seasonal night light, but the night light was MIA.  They are now gone.  Today, Mom came for dinner and took the rest of the clothes out of the closet.  So we did make some progress.

Today, Rod bought a new storm door for the back door as the entire bottom panel was out of the old one.  He and Jimmy and George put it on this afternoon and it looks so nice.  We kept Bubby and Krissy while Jimmy and Mary were at Jim's softball games.  After the door was installed, Rod and the girls made club sandwiches for everyone for dinner.  Rod used to make them when he was a short order cook, and the kids have always loved them.  So, when they find out that Daddy is making club sandwiches, they all accept our invitation to dinner.  It was a great weekend, and I hate to see Monday come.  But this week, the cleaning and re-organizing continues.  And when it's all neat and tidy, I'll post new photos.