That's what I'm experiencing right now. Once again I have let my sewing room become a "dump". Before the holidays, while cleaning up for the holidays, and after the holidays, I took things that really should have been put away and just "dumped" them into the sewing room. When I open the door, I just want to close it and
run walk away. I keep telling myself and all those around me that I need to start cleaning it up. But it's one of the rooms in our house that sits above the part of the basement that is all exposed, and it's the coldest room in the house. That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it. The bottom line, however, is that I just have no idea where to start. The table is piled high with fabric, the sideboard is piled with fabric. There are boxes of fabric sitting on top of other boxes of fabric, and they are sitting on top of still more boxes of fabric. The shelves are pretty much stuffed, and I have no idea where to put it. I have been pinning ideas that I think would be a big help in the organization, but I don't know how to fit it into my little room. I read one article in which the writer said that anything that didn't fit on her shelves, was out of there. That's a great idea, but I a tight-wad and hate to throw anything away. Yet, I know that there are some pieces of fabric in there that I will never use. I'm thinking that perhaps I should begin with those large pieces that I haven't used in at least two years. If I rid the shelves of those pieces, it just might open up some spaces for the fabrics in boxes. I have an entire large shelf that is nothing but quilt magazines - magazines that I haven't looked at since I put them there 4 years ago. And, I think that they are out of there!!
There are some novelty fleece yardages that I bought to make hats for the family - I even bought the patterns. Now, the patterns are too small for the kids, and I realize now that I should have used that fleece and made some scarves to put into the Etsy store. But I think my timing is a little off, hopefully winter is drawing to an end.
So, what would you do? Where would you start? And how can I train myself to work a season ahead? I'm thinking that I need a plan, a schedule. Perhaps working 4 hours at a time in the sewing room would give me a sense of accomplishment, without feeling like I'm caged in. Maybe I could set up one day each week when I work on personal projects for myself. Is it possible that I need to get a notebook and start jotting down my ideas and my questions, and maybe then a solution will present itself. But for the time being, I'm just running in circles and it's deja vu. (all over again!)
2 comments:
DON'T THROW ANYTHING AWAY! Donate it! Sewing groups that sew for charity would love it and would think you were their fabric angel! Last year I bagged up all my quilting magazines and gave to a neighbor that quilts also, when she was finished she passed them on to someone else. Can we say recycle? ;)
I'd say to give as much away as you can to quilt groups or senior centers that may welcome those types of things for their residents to use. My sewing room seems to catch all the "junk", too, when I'm trying to declutter the rest of the house. I did get rid of many quilt magazines and some fabric....and I am soon going to get rid of several UFO's as I know I'll never finish them. I guess I'll put them in baggies with a note in each as to what they are...and maybe they will be welcomed by some other folks who sew. It is really hard to know where to begin. BUT...I know it becomes overwhelming if you try to do too much at once. I'd say, set yourself a time limit (maybe 15 or 20 minutes a day) and go in there and find as much as you can to toss away or recycle in that time period. Then...leave and go back another day (or later the same day)...but only for a short period of time. Sometimes it seems easier if you know you aren't "prisoner" in that room for hours. Good luck with it!
Post a Comment