ManiacQuilter2

I so agree but if you can't find what you are looking for, take a look and find something to purge. I have TOO MUCH fabric and I am trying to sort out the fabric I will NEVER use. I am a member of a church group of sewers so I KNOW that it will have a happy life.

MaryMo

I do some organizing, I'll never get it all sorted .... then I go looking for something and can't find it. I thought organizing meant I could find things. UGH !!!!!

lfstamper

Finally did a sale of patterns on QB but have so much more. Thanks to every one for their input....although we sound like "birds of a feather"...lol.

Prim Quilts

Good luck! I need to work on my area as well. I keep thinking I can quilt my way out of this mess, but it isn't working too well so far. Can't quilt fast enough.

sewbeadit

I have the same problem you have. We bought a new house I got a huge studio and it is now full to the gills. So now I will really have to clean and thrift stuff as I can't get to the long arm for boxes of good stuff!

lynnie

~~~~ yoo hoo, over here, yes i have that problem and now i'm making a hex quilt 3/4"
just need snippets for it. darn

JulieD

Purpleprint, I love your way of blessing others with quilting supplies, and "helping me get rid of fabrics that I really don't want to get rid of." It's easier to do, when your "stuff" is going somewhere where you know it will be appreciated!

Mousie

I struggled with this to the point of tears!
I mean that many times I cried bc I kept buying and keeping stuff and just didn't seem to know how to "let go".
I am compulsive about being organized, but over the years i had accumulated so much stuff, I was living to organize over and over and over.
Each time I would find "a better way", and would feel some pleasure and think I had made progress.
This went on endlessly and I could never understand why things didn't "feel" better.
Every high was followed by a low, when I realized that the latest change was not really better.
So back I'd go to cleaning and rearranging a growing pile of stuff.
I prayed and I prayed, but the problem was, I had no idea what I was doing wrong.
I had a very good book by a man that started his own cleaning business and explained all about the emotional reasons ppl keep stuff.
It still didn't help me understand myself and my situation.
Then I finally became desperate.
I literally began to feel that on my last day in my life, I would be cleaning and rearranging and then somebody was going to say "times up", it's time to go and you blew it.
You know what happened then?
I got mad....really mad, that my life was being stolen from me by this stuff!
I wanted to clean our computer room. It's 8x11 and was jam packed to the gills.
Not nastiness.
Oh no, it was all in totes and boxes and I knew what was in them.
They were stacked neatly and labeled ad infinitum.
I vacuumed and swept and I kept a window unblocked in case of emergency, but it was so depressing!
When it came time to get something it was not a day's work...it was at least a week or more...like putting up Christmas, and then putting it back...agonizing.
With that anger, I said, "Self...empty this room...take it ALL out, and then start putting back only what you need."
I started grabbing containers and carrying them out as fast as I am able, I did this until I was exhausted and had to rest.
Then the light bulb came on and I realized that I was looking at my stuff like:
if it's still intact and useable - keep it.
So I kept everything, bc I always took really good care of my stuff!
When I finally realized that my stuff was controlling me and I was practically never using it, I began to see the difference in need...
what do we really need? water, food, shelter, oxygen...things like that.
I hauled off four trunkloads of stuff and still hauling.
(my trunk is so big, I say you can stack bodies in there! )
I can't begin to tell you how freeing this was.
To finally learn it was my perspective about my stuff that was the problem.
I didn't NEED everything.
So it was nice stuff. So it was useful.
I'm sure the ppl that buy it from the thrift store I donate to, will be very pleased with their purchases and I have helped an organization.
(and I don't mean GW...i like to donate to ppl that really need help.)
It's not over.
I am continuing to "let go", and it has felt like a new beginning.
I have no idea why it took me into my 50's to figure this out, but you know what?
no regrets.
I don't sit around bemoaning all the years i didn't know how to let go.
It is, what it is...I'd rather celebrate the fact that my small house is getting bigger all the time.
I have more room all the time and I have many years to enjoy my new found freedom.
This may not help you, but it was worth a chance to share my personal experience.
I hope and pray you find your "mad".

MFord

Our quilting museum had $1/yard fabric for the last couple of weeks...they were finally giving it away, just to get rid of it...I brought home a lot! Today I went through it and filled up three kitchen can bags of fabric to give away - some I had just bought and some I had bought at yard sales previously. I think I'm getting to the point that my stash is big enough. And I still can't find anything to border a new quilt top that has 42 different fabrics in it!! I'm going to have to go out fabric shopping tomorrow!

Margaret F

lots2do

I sometimes catch a show out of Canada called Neat. I really enjoy the host of the show and her practical advice and kind support of the people she is helping. She says two things that really have helped me think of all of this in a different way: sometimes it's because you are delaying decisions and sometimes it's because you are having a hard time letting go of the past. We are hoping to move in Oct. of 2016 and I have a big job ahead of me. I am a saver. I have to clean out a classroom as well as a house. I do have to admit that this year it was satisfying to start using things up at school. No one is going to want all of the stuff I've saved and used over the years (at least most of the school stuff). I am hopeful that it will all go as smoothly as possible.

PS We are downsizing as well so stuff is going to have to go!