Hooked on Needles

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Sewing Room Clean-up Progress

Recall The Mess.

Now observe the transformation...


Sewing Room Clean-upThe first thing I did in my effort to achieve a clean and organized sewing room was to empty it of everything that was not furniture. I started with the cabinets. Everything was removed from the tops and the insides. All the denim I have been saving over the years is neatly folded and stacked on the lower right shelf. There is not an inch of room left for another worn out pair of jeans, so I need to do something with that project soon! My paints are on the upper left shelf, nicely fitting into a different box than they had been in before, with the bigger bottles on top.


Sewing Room Clean-upEverything was brought just outside my sewing room and put into Something Resembling Order on the ping pong table and the pool table...shhh, don't tell my husband! He really does not like his pool table being used for such things! He can't complain about the ping pong table though, since he gave it to me as a graduation gift many years ago...when HE graduated with his bachelor's degree after about 10 years of night school. He felt it was as much my effort as his and he thought I deserved something nice too. When it's not being used as my large flat space for sewing and such, I can pretty much whoop anyone who wants to challenge me. I love ping pong! Now back to business...


Sewing Room Clean-upAfter much sorting and discarding and reorganizing, I started putting things back into the cabinets in an order that made sense to me. I took Jane's advice even before she gave it, and put all my odd yarn on one shelf just at eye level with all the full skeins on the left and the partial skeins taking up the rest of that shelf.

The second shelf on the right holds all the materials for projects that are now listed on Things To Do list for 2009. Now I know where to look when it's time to start another project. I am hoping by the end of the year that shelf will be mostly empty.

The next shelf holds the remainder of the yarn I am using for the Wedding Gift Afghan so that will be used up soon too. Any leftovers will either be moved to the top shelf or will be listed for auction on ebay. Also on this shelf are projects that have been finished except for framing, such as my Daisy Cottage Needlepoint, or projects I need to decide what to do with, such as my second Pin Cushion Bag like the one I made for the Fall Into Fall Giveaway last fall.

On top of the right cabinet is that nice greenish craft tote which is now holding all the yarn that I have projects planned for, such as my Pay It Forward gifts and some baby sweaters. The section that sits in the top of that box holds all my organized knitting needles that are paired up in their original sleeves and all my circular needles. The tall cylinder next to it holds all my loose knitting needles. I'll be making a knitting needle roll to organize them better, thanks to one of Lyn's very thoughtful Pay It Forward gifts to me.

The left cabinet holds items for scrapbooking, cross stitch, beading (the M&M bag), painting, a box with all my sewing patterns, another with all my embroidery floss organized in little zip lock bags and numbered, another with buttons, and other odd crafty stuff that has all been gone through and weeded out and organized.



Sewing Room Clean-upI collected all my patterns and instructions and ideas from the four corners of the earth and weeded out about a ream's worth of paper. All the rest was neatly organized into three binders, one for knitting and crocheting patterns, one for quilting patterns and instructions, and the third for sewing, painting and other craft methods. Each pattern was put into its own top loading sheet protector and placed into the appropriate binder. All pamphlets or booklets were put into the magazine holder.


Sewing Room Clean-upThese were placed into the cabinet of my dry sink along with my pinning board on the bottom shelf and all my other craft and needlework books on the top shelf.


Sewing Room Clean-upAll my fabric was sorted and organized, and I placed all my fabric panels with matching backings into this basket. That embroidered "S" on the top is from my Irish Step Dancing embroidery example and my daughter thinks I should have it framed. I'm not so sure, but I left it there so I could think about it.


Sewing Room Clean-upAll my other fabric is in these totes underneath my table. One of them holds the fabric scrap quilt I made for my daughter which I hope to have machine quilted soon so that will quickly empty one of them. I will work on the others over time.


Sewing Room Clean-upThese are most of the containers I emptied in the process of cleaning and sorting. The two bags are going to school with my son for his teachers to use. Besides these empty containers, there were also 3 or 4 shipping boxes that were emptied and put out for recycle, and a few other containers that I used for organizing other things. Four kitchen trash bags were also filled and put out for pick-up.

This was a very cleansing (no pun intended) experience, and felt very much like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Now I know what I have and, for the most part, what I plan to do with it all. I would highly recommend this kind of Empty-Everything-and-Put-Back-Only-What-You-Really-Want kind of cleaning every now and then. I think it will make me much more productive and not nearly as wasteful.

Thanks for sticking with me on this journey to a clean and organized sewing room. I still have some work to do to finish it completely. Lots of items will be listed on ebay which in itself is a big project, and many more items will be offered here as giveaways to those who might want them. But for now, I think it's time to get back to my regularly scheduled programming. I have some needlework projects to share with you soon and will be working on some new videos too.

Happy Stitching!


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