Originally Posted by
mcwillia
The REALLY important thing is to put your stuff back into the labeled drawers when finished for the day. Taking the 10-15 minutes to tidy up daily will pay off big time......just like walking into a clean kitchen every morning. It took me a long time to develop the habit of putting things back but I no longer spend time searching for scissors or buying duplicates because the original item was "lost" in piles of other stuff. Consider hanging up pegboard. It is amazing the amount of rulers, hoops, scissors, etc can be placed on a 4x4 foot sheet of pegboard. I use a dogfood clip to keep all sewing catalogs together and hang the clip to a specific hook on the pegboard. No more searching for the latest Jo-Ann flyer.
I clean up after each project so the next one is fresh. But I'm not always working on a quilt (which could take weeks or months) so this is a great idea to tidy up at the end of the day. Great tip!
How I organize? Not being able to afford nice wood cabinets, I bought plastic drawers (when on sale at Joanns) and organize scraps by color. Also keep UFOs in plastic bins and labelled. My fabric has been stored on shelves DH put up for me and store them in plastic bins sorted by color, an area for themes (ie Christmas, etc.). BUT, I'm now switching this over to boards but still keeping on the shelves. I've bought foam core boards from the dollar store but then decided to ask at the cutting table for empty fabric boards then just cut them down.
Good luck and have fun in your new space !