A Wreck of A Quilting Room

On more than one occasion have I bemoaned the deplorable state of my sewing space. It just isn't in me to be a neat freak, apparently. 

In analyzing this I believe the problem lies with my never putting anything away when I finish a project. I just move on to beginning the next project, and pile the old stuff up at the end of the table or in a tub on the floor. 

On top of that, because I have so many ideas and a frenetic attention span, I grab patterns or fabrics to consider various future options and, of course, these are never put away; no! Just add to the mess!

The view above is pretty much the exact view Sharon has from her table. The last time she was here, I promised her that I would have those 3 tubs plus overflow of Kaffe fabrics cleaned up and put away. Instead, I got into the patterns (see this post), and made a bigger mess by leaving the doors open and even more stuff on the floor. 

A closer view of this bit of the chaos lets you see that it would not take a whole lot of time or effort to tidy this and put it away. The top tub, above, is missing a lid which is surely buried somewhere in this room.

Now, let's turn our attention to the desk - this (above) is to my right if I'm sitting at the machine. I swear, if I pile on one more thing, it will topple over and create an even more critical situation. 

My new idea: take 15-20 minutes daily to tidy just one small area. 

One. Small. Area. 

My first tidy session dealt with the Kaffe tubs. I found the missing lid  buried in that wobbly pile on the desk; yes, my second tidy session was attacking the pile on the desk. 

The Kaffe tubs are stacked in the closet, and the doors are shut. I also returned those many bags to the closet. The items in the foreground are 4 finished quilts packaged up and ready for delivery to friends and relatives. These will disappear as I make plans to see them.

The random papers stacked here comprise much of that chaos shown up above. I need to get out all my notebooks and plastic sleeves. The papers all have proper homes when I make myself file them. And that leads to this next part.

The downside to trying to get a handle on the mess is that while tidying one area, the need to access an entirely different area is frequently necessary - and you guessed it - that area is a disaster, too.

 My filing system: 3-ring binders with specifically labeled categories. (The 'Coms1010' notebook needs to be labeled - leftover from DD2s college days.)

I will - I promise! - continue to make an effort at chaos control. I just cannot allow this dishevelment to go on any longer. I will let you know how it goes. So far, two tiny areas are looking a whole lot better!

Happy Quilting, Friends!