Pat625

I will be moving in a few days and have finally gotten around to sorting thru and packing my quilting things..Until now I have worked from a little desk in the corner of my bedroom, with my fabric in my Hope Chest and the ex-husbands dresser..I have found boxes of assorted suipplies everywhere else in the room..I have filled a few bins with UFO's In my new house that I am moving to, she has delegated the Den for my sewing room...Any suggestions on the best way to organize and sort things out?? I am excited about all the space, but afraid I will just create the same mess I have now, but just spread out more!!

Tartan

If you are going to have lots of room, get a couple of the large wardrobes or closets with shelves and doors to move some of your stuff into. Ask yourself as you move things into your sewing room, "does this belong in my new room or into a box for the charity shop. " This is your chance to have the sewing room of your dreams, seize it.

mighty

I agree with Tartan have the room of your dreams! Keep it as organized as possible. Enjoy!!!!!!

lfstamper

Label everything as you sort...it really helps when you need to find things.

AliKat

Go through as much as you can and sort as to what you really want to finish/keep and what you are willing to donate to a guild to finish or use. Do you have duplicate tools you can also gift or donate to a guild?

When I moved I found I had waaaay to much thread. I donated it and that felt good. Also donated things I didn't want to finish, which is why they were UFO's. Most were from learning new techniques and were only for the learning process.

Sorting fabrics is you own personal choice. I prefer to keep batiks separate and then work from there. I can tell how much fabric I have in each piece by the way I folded the piece.

QuiltnNan

you might want to visit our forum at this link http://www.quiltingboard.com/mission-organization-f23/
best wishes as you resettle

SimpsonFrances

I re-organized my fabric stash with the comic boards idea talked about on this board and will never do it any other way again. I have some plastic drawer units purchased at Target for other items. I purchased a Brother label maker and labeled every drawer. In a small wooden chest of drawers I placed notions and labeled every drawer. I was fortunate to be able to use a large bedroom for my sewing area and that helped.

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.

gabeway

Lot of great ideas here but main one is starting organized helps you stay organized.

leighway

It's always tempting to take a pretty box, save it and put sewing supplies in it. That's the way you get 5 boxes with thread and you only look at one.
Take your supplies out and group them by type- needles, pins, scissors, thread, buttons, etc. This gives you an idea of how much you currently have of everything. Then go to Walmart (I like their prices for plastic storage) and purchase however many boxes you need per catagory. I find that buying the same box for all makes for neater storage.
One important thing to buy is a flat plastic box with a lid of about 8x11 or so, around $3.00 for your UFO or the current project you're working on. Put your pieces in the box and work from it. That way, at day's end, you pile all the pieces back in, put the cover on and put it away.
Find an inexpensive bookcase on which to stack all your boxes and resist the idea of cluttering it up...if you work with a system like this, it will make it easy to find your stuff and easy to keep it clean.