I have two sewing centers in my home. Retired so home most days, one of my sewing centers is in our living room, utilizing three tables - 2 fold up tables - one table holds a box with 24 partitions (DH fishing box) for all thread/thread heaven, frixion markers, crayons, inktense pencils pens/pencils, stitch rippers, needles/theader/, thimble, tape measure, , DMC thread, tweezes, nailpencil, nailfile, paint and brushes, glue , and SewEz Sewing Table with three different tops, I can use as a light table, or as just a table - to do my applique work or with my sewing machine, having a magnitier lamp, and a floor Ott lamp with a small table attached to the lamp, I took out my comfy chair and use an office chair in its' place, the 2nd fold up table, holds fabrics, patterns and collection of applique pieces, etc., and a garbage can and finally the fireplace and Big Screen TV... and this is where DH spends his evenings.
Then I have a fairly large bedroom that we converted into a sewing/quilting room, and that is where I spend time taking a break from the applique quilt project in the living room, and I always seem to have one of those on the go. I keep a tub under my sewing table for those projects that need finishing. At today, there is a table runner(going to make into lap quilt), 3 wallhangings (PP that I was doing incorrectly - and the third one is going to be perfect...LOL), and a quilt that just needs the mitered corners tweaked.
I just go from room to room and work on everything a little bit - probably about an hour each project, so it doesn't take long to deal with the UFO's, and there are always more in the tub to start....I clean up these areas at least once per week..I find it too overwhelming if I leave the mess behind for too long.