Why is it I spend so much more time cleaning and straightening out my sewing room than actually making something? It seems like I have to clean it up before I start any project. Sometimes I have to clean it and Im not even going to sew. It takes so much time to find places for all the "stuff" I drag in. Need some good ideas to fix this. :oops: :roll:

Dont drag anymore stuff in and you will only have to clean and straighten from the work you do.

You're kidding, right?

Yeah, right. Like that will ever happen! There are too many "oh, I must have that" around! LOL :-P :-P :-P

i just spent an hour cleaning up from the other day. I'm not going to sew until friday night at the earliest.

but it's all ready and waiting for me now - i cleaned it while the bf was making chili - the rooms are connected. otherwise i would have been in the living room by myself on the internet...

=)

This funny because I'm trying to straighten my sewing area pit but I think I'm making a bigger mess. I think it's time to offer out items I won't be using, maybe after Christmas.

Sometimes i clean it up so i can get going on the next project. Just looking at all the fabric makes me want to get sewing!

that's what i'm doing - cleaning my sewing areas.....I made a cutting table (pictures in a bit) and i have another couple projects to work on, but it's such a mess down there, I have to clean first :roll: :lol:

God has blessed me with the ability to look without seeing. Dust? what dust? stuff stacked every where. I don't see any stacked stuff. Dirty dishes, Where? Trust me I don't clean up between projects!:)

I keep all quilting projects, materials, supplies etc. in clear labeled bins. These are all stacked on shelves in the basement. When I start a project I gather all the needed supplies put them in a bin and that is the only bin that is in my very small sewing room. I take a few minutes at the end of the day to clean up so I am ready to begin work the next day.

No actually I wasnt kidding. She asked....I answered. It wasnt a judgment just a logical answer to her problem.

You either have time to sew or you have time to organize the stuff you dragged in and the other unfinished stuff.

I have to move stuff back and forth from the ironing & cutting table to the sewing table. Ugh. I have too much else to do and not enough room to get truly organized.

let me know when a real solution arises 4 u--maybe it will work 4 me 2! i sure would like to look w/o seeing....hmmmmm

I'm the same way but I think it's just part of the creative process for me. Kind of like rehearsing before you actually perform in the play...
Anyway, that works for me more than trying not to bring more supplies in although that suggestion was very practical.
:)lots2do

-------------- I do NOT have that problem-------------

I find when I straighten things up in my surroundings, it clears up my mind, if that is possible. Now I have done the surrounding pieces of furniture loaded with sewing/quilting items. The table I sew on is pretty cluttered, want to clean it up and finish the table mat I am working on. Next week, when I am ready to start something new or finish something not so new, it will all be new looking and orderly. I find it works for me. On that note, I am heading downstairs now, I have 4 hours to get it all together.

I have this problem also, another is: Can't stand a dirty house. I have temporary solved this problem by giving the house a good cleaning once a week, and Vacumm twice a week. The sewing room, once a day. I spend more time in the Sewing room than anywhere else and hate to waste time looking for what I need. I'm by myself now, DH passed, Kids are grown, it's just me and my 2 Yorkies, they are in my sewing room with me daily. As long as I can find my supplies for the sewing room I'm happy. When I have Company, the other part is clean, always buying something new for the Sewing Room, yesterday, a chalk PEN. Not sure how it works, but I'll find some use for it, hopefully for drawing a quilt design on my g.grandson "I spy" quilt.

Have you noticed? No matter how big our sewing area/room is, we always manage to fill it to the walls and then some. I just knew when I moved into my BIG room with all my storage cabinets/drawers etc., I wouldn't have the mess anymore. My problem.......when I'm working on a project, I pull everything out I want to look at but don't put the unused away. Is that a wonky in my brain?

Yeah RIGHT. LOL

Back to my old adage I tell my grandkids. "If you don't want to clean up a mess, don't make a mess." I try so hard to put things back in their rightful place right away so I can find it when I need it again, and I try to only get out things that apply to the project I am currently working on. Notice I said TRY.

I straightened my sewing room yesterday, it was a mess, but with company coming in today for Thanksgiving, figured I had better straighten everything up, now tomorrow, I will probably find time to get back in there and sew. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I am with you there. All my stuff is in plastic bins on book cases, labeled. When I am finished choosing my material, they go right back to the shelf.

I know the feeling all to well *sighs* It can be a bit of an embrassment too - being where I have customers that come to my home 'studio' to drop off their quilts. I usually have a quilt loaded on the machine, many lined up under it & boxes of in come'n quilts that I got through the mail that need to have invoices done up & then put in bins under the machine. My system works well for me, but sometimes the work load is bigger than the space I have... I KNOW! Maybe I can get hubby to finish the other half of the basement so I can have more room!!!!!

AND THEN there's my personal projects; of which I usually have a dozen in the works w/nothing but the customer quilts getting completed. I only got one baby quilt, a table runner & a schlep bag done in 2010 - how sad is that!

oO and what about all those toys that have wandered down in to my work shop...

I try sooooo hard to put things away as I use them, but some how things usually look like a bomb went off. The worse part is ALL that thread gathering on my carpet! (I wonder how many miles of thread I throw away on a weekly basis.) Sometimes just run'n the vacuum makes the entire work area feel more organized lol

And the rest of the house!?! 4-get-it! Just another never ending bother! If I ever get my business equipment paid off, I'm gonna hire someone to come once a week (or at least every other week) lol

Thankfully my OCD isn't what it use to be lol Most of the time I can live w/the condition of it all. Occassionally I have to stop everything & just clean/pick it up. I'm not the cleanest/neatest but I know I'm not the dirtiest/messiest of them all either.

(I wonder how much straightening up I could have accomplished if I wasn't here lol)

Totally. I have spent more time organizing my fabrics than actually sewing. Housework is never ending and sewing with a messy room/house makes me feel very guilty. Wish I could afford a maid, but I would be afraid I would teach her to quilt instead of having her clean. :cry:

With Thanksgiving coming this week, I did some cutting, but put it away till later and cleaned off the top of my sewing table. I will reward myself with sewing Friday and Saturday. Don't do the Black Friday sales usually.

Gee, could you come to my house (but I live in OH)?

HAHAHA! Sewing PIT! Yes, THAT'S what I have! Love it! Now I feel better knowing someone else has one, too!

Bless you for being so organized. I don't have much room but I still have a mess no matter how hard I try to keep things together

I'm thinking if you have enough stuff stacked every where it protects your carpet. Ain't so?

Your responses make me feel better. I know I am not alone. I like an organized, effecient sewing room but I also like "cutesy. I have notions, etc. in everything from large baskets, (plastic bins are behind closet doors) to vintage salt shakers (beads) and syrup pitchers. It looks cute but I have a hard time finding stuff after I put it away so I need to make an inventory list and post it on the wall.

I work well in a messy room. I just make higher piles.

It'll NEVER be right...NEVER. There is NO solution.........because, you see, the GREMLINS come in and mess it up.....no matter how often you clean or when you clean, they're watching. When they see you turn your back, they mess it up!!!! Oh, but they ARE nice -- you see, at my house, the gremlins always bring in new fabric...no, I don't buy it...the gremlins do!!! just wish they'd quit using my checking account!!!!!!!!! ;)


That's my story and I'm sticking to it. :thumbup:

I had a friend help me and we got through a lot of stuff - What I didn't want she had first dibs and then it was donated to a school for the mentally challenged for crafts. I feel much better

This is what I have been doing for three days moving things around in my sewing room. If I ever get done doing this I might get my Quilts done
I keep trying to make the room bigger and just doesnt work!

So I know what you are saying

I straighted up my sewing room "The Shop" earlier this week because DS is coming in and I want him to take pictures of it so I can post them on here. He is a semi-professional photographer.

you got gremlins, i got the little people~~

I love it!

a messy sewing room is a happy sewing room.maybe my happy room.lol

God blessed me with being a pilot, I pile it everywhere. :-P

When you find out, let me know! :thumbup:
I finally moved my machine into the living room and don't worry about what the sew-cave looks like. It's destined to need some help on a daily basis.
there is hardly a day goes by that I am not messing and gauming in there, but eventually I get on with something.
My oldest agrees with me, it really doesn't matter how much i do or don't produce as long as I am enjoying myself. I like the way I taught her to think, LOL! ;)