About every 2 weeks I get an urge to organize, clean, purge and sort! When I have spent all day doing all of that I can't find anything!

My thoughts as well!!!!!! You can't start to reorganize if you have no where to put the stuff. I pull it all out too! If you are lucky enough to have your own sewing room you can just shut the door when you are done for the day. I don't. So when I pull it all out it motivates me to get it all put back away so it isn't all over the bedroom!

I have moved my sewing room from my guest room into my family room so I have literally touched everything again. I had rolled my material on coroplast boards previously and have them behind glass doors. The material is easy to see and easily accessible. My smaller folds are in a shelf that was intended for shoes. Both groups of fabrics are color coded and it looks beautiful. I don't like to dig for something when I'm looking for it. Everything is easy to get to. The closet was shelved (it's one thats under a staircase) and peg board was hung on one wall for scissors, rulers, only things used when sewing. Everything has a marked area-I like to use the boxes from Ikea. On the outside it's easy to label. Notions, quilt patterns, scraps, crumbs, thread etc.

I have become very organized over the years and having my sewing room organized has brought me so much pleasure! I'm working on a friend's sewing room now and I've been told I should hire myself out to organize sewing rooms. Boy, I would LOVE that as a career! Set aside time every day to work on organizing and do a little at a time. But stick to it! Here's how I keep organized. I started buying plastic project cases (ArtBin flat boxes with handles) one at a time, every week with a JoAnn's coupon or a few when they'd have 50% off plastic storage. These stack nicely and I use them for all my UFOs. I have 18 of these and believe me, they are all full! I can grab one and take it with me when I travel or sew with friends. Next, I bought clear plastic drawers that stack for all my fabric scraps that are cut into different size strips and squares. I have three sets of three drawers, so nine drawers of scraps. Cutting my scraps took a long time, but I kept a basket on my cutting table and cut a few every day. Next, I stole a wire shelf from my bathroom that holds baskets and all those odds and ends go in the baskets. I have a basket of zippers, men's ties for a future quilt, orphan blocks leftover from other projects, etc. Also, I bought a canvas hanging shelf that hangs in the closet from the rod that also holds misc. items. I use lots of zip lock bags for small or loose things. I have a small plastic drawer set on my sewing machine cabinet that holds pens and pencils, tape measures, my bobbin box, post-it notes, pins, snips, etc. - small things that I use all the time. I use a lot of plastic baskets on every surface for things that I use there, like one on my cutting table for my rotary cutters, one for small scraps as I cut, one on my sewing machine cabinet for small squares or triangles that I use as leaders and enders (which makes another quilt as I sew on other projects.) I have three tall bookcases, one for quilt books, two for fabric. I have all my patterns that I've pulled from magazines over the years, inspiration pictures, etc. in page protectors and put in large 3-ring binders, filed by type (baby quilts, stars, curved, log cabin, 9-patch, 4-patch, etc.) My fabric is sorted by style first, (homespuns, 30's, civil war, florals, borders, baby, flannel, batiks, xmas, etc.) and the rest by color. All are folded to the same size, stacked on shelves. I have a separate small shelf that hangs on the wall for my fat quarters. I keep batting, ironing board, my travel case for my sewing machine, hoops, etc. in a closet. And I keep a tv tray next to my sewing machine cabinet to hold my radio and stuff for my current project. The most important thing for me is having a place for everything, using plastic baskets, boxes and drawers so I can see everything and I know exactly where to find things. Good luck!

Hey. I have recently reorganized and moved my entire sewing room. I found that if I rewarded my self with time quilting following a organizing session and kept the times limited it worked well for me. I bought plastic bins for my WIPs and for my stash. I have one area that stores the bins of WIPs which contain fabric, pattern, thread, etc for the project and another area in which the smaller fabric cuts are kept in bins. Larger cuts are kept folded on a shelf. I have a bookcase for binders, books and such and several different sized rolling carts for supplies. That way for instance my embroidery stuff can be rolled close to the machine when I need it and stored under my cutting table when not in use. Easy to access and easy to put away. I will also say that my enjoyment of quilting has taken off since sorting and organizing and that I have had a spurt of new projects finished. Best of luck.

The most important thing I have learned to do is LABEL every box, bin, tub, package, drawer and tote.

All the suggestions are great. I had to move my sewing room out of my guest room and am moving into a converted shed. I have bins of fabric and "stuff" in every closet of my house, under beds, and stacked in corners. My goal is to have a well organized "Quilting shop" of my very own. Thanks for all the tips!!

Do you vacation in Minnesota by any chance hmmm????
I'd gladly supply the coffee, hot chocolate, tea, pop, and goodies..I had to sit down and rest after just reading how you get organized! LOL Good for you, I have such good intentions and then......

I have found that keeping one container beside the sewing machine with packaged ufos is great. I am more likely to reach for them than something new. The container holds more than one project, so when I get bored, I switch. It also creates a limit - if it is full, I need to finish/purge something to create space for a new project. When switching projects, make a quick note of where I left off in a pattern and put all the pieces/pattern in a plastic sack and into the bin for later.

I buy the see through shoe plastic containers at the family dollar store some times I have found the for .50 to 1.00 each and thats so much cheaper than the storage boards and i'm on oxygen so every thing gets covered in a fine dust along with the normal dust and I don't go around dusting all the time so this storage system is the way for me to go. If you stack the material you can see each color you have. ty, Tommye