ok..your room might be a little cluttered and the shelves are too deep..but hey..thats what most of us quilters rooms look like if they are used on a daily basis. lol

If you use plastic containers, you lose a lot of space to put fabric, about half your space. It is handy to pull out a tub, but if your space is limited, you may not want to use them.

OK, don't know if this will help or not but this is what I did. I went to Menard's and got a divider that slips over the edge of shelf(in with white melamine shelfing) and put these on my shelves. These can be moved different widths to suit me. These come 3 to a pack and that helped.

Taking another break. Whenever I feel overwhelmed I think of all you wonderful guys and girls helping me.
I can't thank you enough!!
I am implementing tips from everyone :D:D

I am also realizing some things:

1.I have almost no white fabric! LOL
2. My tastes have changed a LOT over the years. I mean even stuff I bought last Spring isn't doing anything for me this Spring :D
3. I tend to get tired of a fabric after I've used it (when finding more of the same in my stash)
4. As much as I sew I still buy more fabric than I want, meaning my eyes are bigger than my actual sewing hands LOL
This experience is hopefully going to enable me to curtail the impulse spending. (No snickering) hahahaha

Lastly, thanks for the comments on my room. It is pretty and very peaceful but not the way I have it now. Working on changing that

Sue :thumbup:

can you take out the shelves and cut the width of them down. Than you could store things in there to , my close shelves are only about 12 inches wide , than i store cloth on the botton that i dont use as often, than i set my extion table in front of that part of the shelves, and my small ironing board. If you make ur shelves narrower, u can also put shelves on the sides of your closet to. Have fun playing in your sewing room.

This is so funny... But seriously, it does tend to help you realize that you don't actually NEED certain fabrics...just that you want them. It does help...it really does. If you have fabrics that you love and want to use, it makes you eager to get in your sewing room and sew!!!

And I wouldn't put my sewing machine down low on a shelf that you have to "set up" each time. Why do that? I'd leave it on top of a table and just cover it with a machine cover so it's ready in an instant to sew. (someone mentioned earlier in this thread that you might find room on a lower shelf for machines, if I remember right.)

Keep up the good work. I took on the task of folding my fabrics, but since I don't have shelving, I just use big plastic bins...organized by color--using the ruler method of folding. It was cheap, organized, and other people could help me. I actually paid two other ladies to do it since they needed money and I wanted to spend my time sewing, not folding fabric.

I love how easy it is to see the fabric in my bins after the folding project. I'm still uncovering things I need to fold, though...but also as we folded (I did a lot of it, too), I took the smaller pieces, threw them in one spot, and started cutting them into strips as per Bonnie Hunter's website to be used in scrap quilts. This gets rid of tiny odds and ends out of the boxes and gives me "great pieces for scrap quilts." :) Now I have so many 1.5" strips and 2" strips...

why not measure the hight of each shelf and then get some fibre board cut to size this can then be slid into place so seperating the shelf into narrower sections ,, now simply fold the fabric into colours and stack. you can see at a glance what you have and if arranged in rainbow colours you will also be able to see matching fabrics. hope this helps.
I do not have this problem as hubby said i can get to keep all the fabric i can hide, the only problem i now have is climbing the ladder to get into bed and adding fabric onto the bottom of the valance sheet
annie in the uk

I fold all my fabric for backings onto half bolts. Every time I go to a fabric store I ask if you have any empty bolts, that I can have for free. Almost all stores will give them to you. When I get them home I cut them up with a box cutter. you can get 4 half bolt boards from one bolt. one side is already in half, so I cut off the ends where the writing is and then cut the one solid side in half. Then take your fabric and fold in half and wrap around. If I have a nice large piece I have been measuring it first, and then adding that slip of paper on the end of the bolt. That way I can tell in an instant if I have enough for the backing of my current quilt. These mini bolts will stand in a bookcase like books are lay down on the shelves. Works for me.

Maybe you could store some books behind your fabric boards
to take up some space.

Sue it looks like your shelves are 24" wide not deep. Measure from the wall out to the edge of the shelf. the reason I'm suggesting this is because of the plastic bin on the shelf. It appears to be pushed back against the wall. I would use the plastic bins and also fold and stack some of the larger cuts. Use baskets to hold FQ, sm boxes covered in fabric, etc... You are so lucky to have so many shelves.