Good solution! I did a crazy quilt out of "ugly" ties from the 70s. Once I had them gutted and washed I put them in a black plastic garbage bag, shook it out some more and pulled 10 out with my eyes closed and put them into brown paper lunch bags. Then I had to use all 10 (and only those 10) in each crazy block.
It was good for me, I came out of the exercise really feeling free. I'm usually a bit too organized for someone who works in mostly scraps and charms.
One thing I've found over the past 20+ years is no matter how hard I try to keep fabrics away from each other, they always somehow end up right next to the one I was avoiding. LOL there might only be 4 orange pieces in an entire queen size quilt but somehow they are all within a foot of each other. I've learned to let it go and accept it and that no one else but me is likely to notice.
On my current project, a top made up of sailboats each unique along with different water, I laid out my blocks and was happy with them, I think I kept them in the correct order. At least I thought they were ordered when I put on block numbers (alpha goes across, numbers go down). Even though there were only 12 blocks now that the top is completely put together I put two of the red hulled boats right next to each other, and I'm not so happy about two of the water choices next to each other either. Oh well... the old me would have taken the top apart and switched some of the blocks around. The new me figures there's always next time!