My rule of thumb is clean off my entire area with the start of a new quilt. Oh I pick up cut peices and tidy up as I go, but I have a shoe box on my table and my accessories I'm using go into that box, scisssors, threads, pins, tape measure....you get the picture. That way I can clear my table to cut and sew, but I don't have to clean up every day. And when I'm done with "that" quilt I put away everything and start all over again.