On a Rainy Wednesday

Knowing that today would be cold and wet, thus making errands a royal pain in the kazoo... I did the errands yesterday afternoon when it was sunny and warmer.  Warmer... not warm...

The plan was to clear out the left side of the closet in the sewing/computer room and GET ORGANIZED!  Somehow, the impetus to do the errands continued when I got home so, instead of waiting until today, I started yesterday.  Thankfully, the shelves fit perfectly... as in "not an inch wiggle room" once they were both in there.

Then, the first stages of organization began...

Looks good so far... but there is a ton o' stuff on the bed in the room next door that will need dealing with today.

I discovered that I had way more fabric than I thought...  yes, the fabrics were purchased for specific projects; however, looking at it all I realized that I need to stop planning projects and get these done!  Now that everything is together instead of some in this location and some in that location and... oh wait... there's more over here... everything is in one spot where I can find it... and I won't forget that I have it!

Did take a little time to make a couple of mug rugs as a pick-me-up...

 

Both will be gifts...

Reuse/repurpose

When I started quilting, House Dragon helped by telling me all about she organizes her quilting things and I certainly used some of those ideas.  However, HD has special boxes for projects and I wasn’t sure I wanted a bunch o’ boxes, especially since the computer/sewing room is so small and already has too much in it!

My LQS, Linderella’s Quilt Works, uses beautiful translucent shopping bags and I didn’t want to throw them away. So, I started using them to store fabrics together as well as completed blocks.

…and decided to hang them up rather than stack them, since the bags tended to slide off each other.

It’s so easy to move the fabric bags on the rod and find what I’m looking for… and I like not spending money on storage.  I’d rather spend it on more fabric!

Let’s Get Organized!

In March of 2010, I decided that if I were going to be serious about the Grandbaby Quilt Project, something needed to be done with my computer/sewing room… then known as “the dumping ground” or “The Black Hole”….  things went in the room never to be seen again.  The walk space was tiny because of the clutter and all sewing supplies were impossible to get to without breaking one’s neck!  I had a beading table that was essentially inaccessible.

I broke up the project into steps because the reorganization would never happen in just one weekend…. not only would it be impossible, it would be overwhelming!   First, I tackled the beading table... where there was way more than just beading stuff...

The beading table became a cutting table.  All my beading stuff went into the new white drawer unit to the left of the table.

 Then, the Bermuda Triangle of a closet…  how embarrassing!

Just removing everything was a chore.  The guest room next door became home to all the stuff until I had a chance to sort things into categories.  (The boxes in the bottom of the closet are from grad school; two of which contain the research part of my thesis.)

 At last, the bottom of the closet was cleared!

A trip to WallyWorld for drawer storage... and then some major sorting... et voila!

What a project that turned out to be… but oh so nice afterward!   And what a difference it made to both the sewing AND finding stuff processes!   

Are you wondering if the reorganization project held up over time?   Check back tomorrow… and I promise NOT to clean up the place before I take photos!