A home for everything

One of the tips that I provided to the local guild members the other day was that everything in your house should have a home. While this is important in your house, it's even more important in your sewing room where you probably have a whole lot more stuff and less room.

So two wise words of wisdom this morning. And I'm terribly sorry, but I don't have pictures today - there's just no time. I'm off to an all-day event today and tomorrow and well since I'm a little behind, I'm having to get some work/samples completed in the evenings. Nothing like a little pressure to get one motivated.

1. When you're in the store (or sitting in the comfort of your pj's shopping online), I want you to think twice about what you're buying. There's this movement going on out there for purging. You're supposed to hold each item in your hand and ask yourself if the item is beautiful, useful or sentimental or whatever you're supposed to ask yourself.

Well - I think you need to ask yourself that question BEFORE you buy. Seriously - what is your intention for this item? Is it useful? Is it going to make your home more comfortable/more beautiful? More importantly, I think we need to ask ourselves - WHERE will this item go? If you're buying a sweater - ask yourself if your sweater drawer can handle another sweater. If not, then perhaps you should get rid of one sweater when you buy that new one. If you're buying a book - do you intend to keep the book after you're finished reading it? If not - where will you donate that book?

We also need to make sure that we USE that item that we just purchased instead of shoving it in the closet/bookcase or bag on the floor. What's the point of buying it - if we have no intention of actually wearing/using the item? How many times have you found a BRAND NEW garment in your closet with the tags still on?

So that's the wise word of wisdom - number one. Think really hard about what you buy. I so wish that someone would have drilled that into my head when I was younger. Gosh - I bought tons of fabric just for the sake of buying it. I didn't need it, haven't used it and well - I still have it!!! I still have a T-shirt or two that are brand new as well, as well as books and I'm sure loads of other things that I technically didn't need. I wanted them, but we need to learn to curb those WANTS. They just get us into trouble. Trust me - I've curbed them big time!


2. Once you've evaluated your potential purchase and YES - you need this item and you're going to use it, you must bring that item home and immediately introduce it to its new permanent home. I'm not kidding on this one. I just spent a good part of last night and this morning trying to locate a box.

The items in the box came to me in a cardboard box. Some of the stuff was too large to fit nicely into the box and so I bought a clear plastic tub that was large enough to hold all these items. Do you think I could find that box? I didn't get that permanent home for that stuff for a couple of months and so in my mind, that stuff was located in a cardboard box at the bottom of the stairs.

Except that I knew that I had moved it, but to where and in what? I couldn't even remember what the new box looked like. I was panicking a wee bit and my brain was shutting down! OK - I'm exaggerating, but you get the picture. I thought about it and went and did something else and back down to look this morning. I had at least remembered what the container looked like. That helped a lot. I was about to give up when I remembered the location of the box. It was under the long arm!!!



This is why it's so critical that when you bring something home, you MUST put it in its proper location IMMEDIATELY. That's the place where you will always return to when looking for that item. So that's why this step is CRUCIAL.

I got more stuff yesterday that needs to be added to this box. Now I'm going to remember for sure where that box is and what it looks like.

I also needed to locate a couple of samples for today. Do you think I could find them? Nope - with the basement water issue, a few things got tossed here and there and I'm trying to find stuff every day. BUT I persevered and managed to locate the item this morning. PHEW  - I could have talked my way around the sample, but so much better to have the actual piece in hand.


Now that new temporary sewing room looks like a tornado went through. There are so many small projects just begging to be finished. We have a retreat next week (OH GOD - I'm so not ready - well I am and I'm not) so I should just throw a bunch of those small projects into my bag, with lots of sewing machine feet (for zippers and topstitching and whatever else needs to be done to them), lots of thread colors and just get it all done!!!!


Oh yes - it's a mess to be sure. Speaking of the basement and the mess, each time I go down there to find something, I look at some of the stuff that's now on display (that has been hiding for a long time behind other stuff). Well - it's time to get rid of that stuff. Some of it, I'll be asking around or taking to local guild meetings to try and get rid of, some I'll put on the blog. NONE of it is fabric at this point. But there are cute bags, totes and there's all the decorations and wrapping paper supplies. I do NOT want to put any of that back in the storage room. 

What I would like is to bring upstairs everything that I don't want. YES - put it in the dining room (this is the staging room after all), and then we'll have less stuff to deal with downstairs. Hmm - how can I add a few of those huge containers to the dining room? It's time to get this done. I'm so disgusted with myself and the huge mess I've amassed.

No this is not self-loathing - I happen to like myself quite a bit. It's just how much has accumulated without me realizing it - that's the part I'm disgusted with.

On that cheery note - it's time to hit the road.

Have a super day!!!!


Ciao!!!!