Friday, November 2, 2012

Declutter Report No. 3

Another trunk load went to Goodwill this past week.  Thankfully, they accept computers for recycling.

Before donating the PC, I removed the hard drive, which I'll dispose of myself after taking a hammer to it.  I'm saving that task for PMS week.  ;)

Tomorrow, a friend is coming to take the futon off my hands.  Yay!  I hope she isn't revolted by the cobwebs and whatnot we'll find underneath when we move it.  I am actually looking forward to doing a thorough vacuuming once it's gone.

"Out the Door October" is officially over, since we've flipped the calendar page, but the decluttering and reorganization will continue.  I'll spare you any more photos of my rubbish, however.  You're welcome.

I'm curious:  How do you organize your fabric?  Do you have a folding system?  Stack it on shelves?  Organize it by color or fabric line?  Put it in totes or boxes?  Stash it in a closet (or under the bed)?

I ask because I just don't know where to go with it all.  I need a system, but not sure what kind.  I am an out-of-sight / out-of-mind kind of person, i.e, if I put it away, I tend to forget about it.  I am more a "piler" than a "filer," so right now my fabric is stacked wherever there is a flat surface, and that looks bad.  But I feel that I need to see it to get the creativity flowing, on the one hand, and yet being surrounded by it at all times can be overwhelming, on the other.

Please share what works for you.  If you've done a blog post of your organized space or system, leave a link.  If you feel anything but organized, feel free to share that too.  If you too are a piler, have you found a way to have your piles and file them too?

In other news, I posted photos on Flickr of a couple of recent finishes.  These will be Christmas presents, so I am "hiding" them over there, where the recipients have promised not to peek.  The rest of you can see them by clicking HERE and HERE.  Have a good weekend!

11 comments:

Ann Marie @ 16 Muddy Feet said...

I am also a out of sight, out of mind person. I have all my fabrics on open book shelves, sorted by colors like the rainbow, because that is how I use them. I am not a buy this whole line type of person so stacking by colors works. I put the half yards or more in one stack, and all the fat quarters in other stacks right next to it. A bookshelf can hold lots of fabric too. I also sort my scraps by color, and lately been cutting the scraps into usable shapes, so it is easier to to use as well without having to cut forever to get the pieces I need to use up those scraps. Here is a link where you can see what it was a year ago. http://16muddyfeet.blogspot.com/search/label/stash

Anonymous said...

I wrote a guest post for Within a Quarter Inch about how I organize my fabrics. Lots and lots of details and photos (because I can't write a short post). You can see it here.

Jenny said...

P...Im so crazy inspired by your month of declutter posts! Seriously, you must feel like you are living in a new place! I would love to do that at my house, unfortunately, I would want to start with all my kids misc. toys and stuffies that rarely get used, but are considered "precious" when it comes time to declutter!

Last year I finally refolded my stash and a few designers I kept together because I have a lot of their fabrics...d schmidt, anna maria horner....but mostly i piled them up by color and i like it better than i thought i would. i keep my solids all together too by color instead ofmixing them within the prints...

my only other piece of advise is to stop accepting large boxes of scraps from strangers!! :)

Jen BK said...

I am definitely a piler...geez! One thing that is working for me is using a "mini-bolt" system. I happen to work in a quilt/fabric shop, so I bring home empty cardboard bolts. I cut them in half and then put anything larger than a yard on a mini-bolt. I write the amount on the end and they line up neatly on a shelf....smaller pieces...well, I'm attempting to corral them in clear totes, problem is I have too much of each color and the totes won't close anymore OR fit in their shelf space. This means I have piles (the totes are buried under the piles) POO! I have found that cutting small scraps into common sizes and storing those in shoebox size totes work for me. For example, you want to do a quick tossed nine-patch, so you pull down the 5 inch square box.

Sarah Craig said...

I use Cubical shelves from Target - I think they're made by Closetmaid. If I fold my fabric yardage around my 5" wide ruler, I can put two stacks in each cubbyhole. I separate out solids, stripes and polka dots from the rest of the fabrics, too. And I can get fabric drawers in the store, or order wire bins on-line, to organize scraps or small supplies.

One other thing I do is put fabric that I've purchased for a particular project in a Starbucks paper bag - they just fit in those cubicals and will generally hold a quilt's worth of fabric. Then I put a label on the outside of the bag with the name of the project. That way I don't use that fabric for another project!

Elizabeth said...

I store my fabrics in plastic storage bins and they are stored by project. Because I have like 50 quilts in progress and about 47 more ideas with fabric for quilts. Anything that is not specifically designated for a quilt is stored in other plastic bins by color. I don't have a scrap system b/c anything small pieces left over after I finish cutting are kept with the bigger piece, usually folded inside of it so it doesn't get separated. The bins are stored all over the place; under my bed, behind the couch and I also have projects that don't have bins, stashed in bookshelves and closets. I kind of need one central sewing room and I would love to have lots of drawers like in my little sewing space. Currently I store the projects I am working on, plus miscellaneous supplies there, but would love to have enough to store everything in drawers like that. I'd love them for toys too, but I digress.

Also, good for you for all of your cleaning and clearing out. I need to work on that too.

xo -E

Vicki @ DottyJane said...

I'm impressed by your mad de-clutter skills, but I'm really impressed by your PMS planning!

Here's a blog post from my sewing room redo a couple of years ago. There might be something there of value to you.

http://dottyjanedesigns.blogspot.com/2010/11/sewing-room-makeover.html

Shay said...

“I removed the hard drive, which I'll dispose of myself after taking a hammer to it. I'm saving that task for PMS week.” You crack me up P – I wish I’d thought of keeping my old hard drives for that purpose.

I have ceiling to floor shelves along one wall of my sewing room and everything gets put on that. Yardage is folded and I have clear see through storage boxes for about half the shelves so that I can put all my yards, half yards and fat quarters into boxes but still see what I have . Naturally they are sorted by colour...yeah Im that anal.

Good on you for this decluttering effort. Its hard to start doing but I bet you feel better !

MomWaldsPlace said...

Clear buckets of fabric sorted by color. Everything in clear buckets, trims, and beads, and batting, oh my!

Off to flickr...

BendingPins.com said...

Holy crap, is there anything left in your house?? Can't wait to see the before/after reveal! :D

Pokey said...

I wish I could get a fire under me to get de-junked! I am so bushed at the end of a work day, I do good to get dinner and laundry done. Good going, Miss P! Oh, I sure like your little link peeks, lucky peoples ~
:-}pokey