Lest you think everything is sunshine, rainbows, and all projects put away, let me share my Honest Craft Room photo. Full disclosure though, this was taken a month ago just before the mess really, really got to me and I cleaned up.
In this photo you have:
- A broken ironing board
- A taped together pattern draped on a bag full of charity quilts needing binding
- A roll of batting for the charity quilts that doesn't fit in the closet because my own batting is in there
- Fabric pieces for a dress under construction
- Scraps and books and other ephemera simply shoved on to shelves
- Quilts under construction in block form, in bins, toppled over
- Handmade Christmas decorations from the kids, from Christmas 2013
- Tea mug that was probably from the day before
- Piles of fabric here, there, and everywhere
- A million pieces of paper, holding who knows what secrets
My room is small, but it is dedicated to my work and creativity. The entire family is welcome, but where are they supposed to sit when it looks like this?! It always gets cleaned before guests come over because it is the guest room, but I no longer think that is enough. I am incredibly grateful to have a space of my own, but I am clearly not showing it the respect it deserves.
Today, the room looks marginally better, but not great. I'm in the middle of a purge and organizational kick. My awesome quilt hangers helped, but there is so much more work to do! I'm reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up right now and it is rather inspiring, if not a bit hokey at times. Coming to this room during the process will be tough, but absolutely worth it. One of her first questions is asking you what your goal is for the space.
I want a clear space to let my creativity flow - whether that is for sewing, designing, writing, or sharing.
What about you?
Feeling inspired. After I saw your pictures of Gourmet magazine on Instagram the other day (I'm the crying one), I'm feeling a bit freer about letting my favorite issues go. Routine cleaning of my workspace is an absolute must for me. It's a small room and things can get kind of wild rather quickly.
ReplyDeleteI hate to admit it, but quite honestly the primary reason for the messy state of my sewing room is that I have too much fabric! I just can't put all of it away any longer, so it piles up here and there and everywhere. As a result, there aren't any empty surfaces left for me to work on. There are fabric piles on the ironing board and on the cutting table. And I've resorted to moving my sewing machine to the dining room table because its table got too crowded. So my room is very dysfunctional. Is that ridiculous or what?
ReplyDeleteHa! I love this pic. I can totally identify.
ReplyDeleteAlso, agreed on the organization/tidying efforts. I'm trying to get and stay in a more focused routine myself.
Can we see the Before and After together picture?
ReplyDeleteMy sewing room is quite large but my fabric is stored in our walk-in closet in another room--where my clothes should be! It's perfect because it has a door and so is protected from light. My husband and I share this closet so you can imagine how popular this makes me.
The room where I do my sewing has a bathroom in it and I have the show stall full of other fabric that is in file boxes and labelled. It is about 6 feet high and it works its way around the annoying shower head and taps.
I've read the "Tidy" book and it does offer a few helpful suggestions but you're right it is quite hokey and much of it is more suited to being single and living in Japan--of which I do neither. She suggests folding your clothes and stacking them vertically in your drawers. This is great in theory but how do you keep them standing up? Unless the drawers are always full they flop over. To fully implement this you'd have to have some sort of divider that you could adjust.
I routinely cull my fabric and give it away or donate it. The only stipulation when I give it to friends is that if they don't want it all--please also give it away--that is, don't sell it. I routinely give it one friend that keeps a lot of us and distributes the rest to her friends or other guilds. Sometimes I even give away fabric that I have just purchased! I am trying to buy more purposefully--but I just love fabric and if I see something I like I buy it. There's nothing else I can buy that brings the same satisfaction.
Storage and use is an ongoing project for me. Perhaps you could sometime solicit storage and organization from your blog readers--and lead off with your own suggestions. You seem to be well-organized and productive--we could all learn from that. Thanks Cheryl.
I too had a huge clean out of my space which is also a small room and I know feel slightly inspired to head on in and sew. I also sold over a $100 worth of my older books, magazines and fabric I no longer have a use for,at our annual Guild Trunk Sale ( we open our car trunks and sell our gently used stuff and UFO's. I also deserve a pat on the back for not purchasing from any of the other quilters. There by not adding to my stash.
ReplyDeleteI just did a major cleanup in my sewing space and when it was done I sat in a chair and just soaked it in. The zen came back as did a strong desire to create. Of course, now I'm feeling an urge to dump all my scraps on the floor to make one more slab and joking in Amanda jean's scrap vortex QAL. Wonder how disciplined I can be to create and clean up after...
ReplyDelete