Hi, I straighten my sewing room almost every time I use it. As soon as I start my project(s), it seems to look like a tornado hit it. I can't seem to keep it straighten up. Any suggestions? Or do I just live with it and this is the way it goes. How do I stay organized?

Honey if you find out please let me know. I am the same way.

Yes please let us all know when you discover the magically clean sewing room. It is like the rest of the house- it stays clean if you don't USE it.

Oh my god what you say is so true. Thanks all I feel a little better.

If there's a way to keep it neat and clean when I'm working on a project, I haven't found it! And since I'm always working on something, you can imagine what my sewing room always looks like!

My sewing machine is in the livingroom and it always has a project spread around! My friends don't come to see my house, they come to see me. Most of my friends want to see what I'm working on. I do put my machines etc. away for holidays.

I have determined that I thrive on choas.... and disorder...
Organize me and I can't find a thing and I get brain fog.. just afraid to touch anything and dont know where to start

My son walked in once when I was REALLY busy with a scrap quilt. I sort of mentioned the mess and cleaning up later, for next Christmas, maybe . He recommended dynamite with a little of TNT. I threw him out, not to mess with my strings..

My friends know that if they ever come over and don't see something scattered, then there is something wrong with me.

So is mine, but it's just me and the cat. As long as she can find her food bowl, she doesn't complain.

the only way i can seem to get the mess straightened out is to move! and i'm too tired of doing that, so i'm resigned to a 'messy' sewing area. at least, now, i have a room way in the back of the house that no one goes to for my sewing area. thus, i'm the only one to see it. :)

That is why we just shut the door! If I am in the middle of a project, I never clean up. I only clean up if we have company (even then, depends on who is coming :-) ) Or if I know I won't be quilting for a while.

I sew in my dining room. I have a big party every now and then just so I'm forced to clean.

That is how you keep the room neat and organized - invite someone over once a week. :)

I love the African Bolga Baskets that you see for sale at most quilt shows. I have the large ones sitting around my sewing room to hold everything I have in my hand but don't need to use right then. It's amazing how fast they fill up! I take the items out and put them up every so often. Did you know these baskets are renewable? Just soak in water once a year and let dry. The baskets are all handmade and gives the women a wage to help support their families. I use a big one to take everything I need to classes or guild. I keep on in my car to hold shopping bags and loose items. Not only are they very useful they look nicer then a plastic bin or box when sitting out.

Aside from getting yourself a quilt fairy to sprinkle her magic clean up dust I'm afraid you have smile and happily roll in your quilting mess like the rest of us :-)

My sewing room is always clean..............hahahahah
who am I kidding, I haven't seen the floor since we moved in here 5 years ago............and I am in no hurry to see it......I have way to much fabric for that...all I can say is glad I own a door!!!!!!

My sewing room is pretty neat. I straighten it every day before I walk out. I call it my happy place and if I walk in and it is messy, I am not that happy.
But, I have a large room with a place for everything.
Before we moved I had a small room that I shared. No where to put anything and it looked like a bomb went off....all of the time!

I used to tidy up in there all the time then discovered it DIDN'T MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE, the room was back to its messy state in no time at all!! What a waste of time, takes me away from sewing. Now, I make an effort every few weeks or so to tidy up fabric. I do keep a bin near my sewing machine for bits and pieces, and a glass jar for old needles etc. Other than that - forget it.

OMG....LOLOLOL

Guess I'm in good company, lol. I try to keep my sewing room clean, but doesn't often happen. I'm in the process of reorganizing right now; been doing it for at least 6 months. I have to stop to sew, though. If I just didn't sign up for swaps, etc, ......

I have the very same problem!!

Be oblivious!!!!!

Same problem!

I don't bother to waste time organising....

You have just described my entire life!! lol I did get a few areas straightened up while my machine was being serviced, which is a milestone for me :D I really just need another machine, so I won't have to do the "anxiety" cleaning.

Artists, especially quilters, live on the border between chaos and order. The only time I straighten up is when something is missing and I know its there somewhere. Sometimes its a hammer or the plumbing wrench, not just fabric, projects, and rulers!

Well I am going to see if I still have the same color carpet in my sewing room. right now it looks like a scrappy quilt in progress.

If you find the answer to this, please publish it!!! You'll make a fortune.

Me too with the two cats and two puppies. We're all perfectly happy.

Yup! Same thing happens to me. Even more so when I'm doing a scrappy quilt because I have so many scraps out at one time. This is one reason why I only sew one project at a time. I may be buying fabric for my next project and planning the net 2 projects after that, but only have one spread out all over my sewing room t a time and I don't clen the room until that project is completely finished.

Albert Einstien said that a clean desk was the sign of a dull mind....Keep the mess and enjoy the freedonm

Creative people often work in what appears to others to be a chaotic environment.Don't lose any sleep over it. I clean up between projects and try not to start another before the current one is finished.

Ok, here it goes. Leave the sewing room alone and everyone will think you are still busy sewing or quilting and they will not bother you for anything else. No matter what I do mine will always look the same.

I loved the dynamite idea. I have felt that way myself.

Three weeks ago my family came to visit for my sons graduation from High School. I had to put as much sewing stuff in a closet including fabric, the rest of the fabric had to go to the basement in oder to make room for my husband and I to sleep in there. It looks so nice I almost didn't bring it all back out but since I joined a block of the month group I am going to have to which I am happy about. I want to continue to sew no matter the mess. :)

My rule of thumb is clean off my entire area with the start of a new quilt. Oh I pick up cut peices and tidy up as I go, but I have a shoe box on my table and my accessories I'm using go into that box, scisssors, threads, pins, tape measure....you get the picture. That way I can clear my table to cut and sew, but I don't have to clean up every day. And when I'm done with "that" quilt I put away everything and start all over again.

I try to straiten up after every project I finish

Oh my, clean up? I try and I try and then...

I was a secretary for 40-plus years. Prominently displayed over my desk for most of those years was a sign that said: "A Clean Desk is the Sign of a Sick Mind." Works for my sewing room too. I clean my sewing room when I run out of a flat surface to cut fabric.

Have you ever watched Eleanor Burns toss the scraps over her shoulder onto the floor? Just imagine cleaning up after her.

I have not found that yet.