Bneighbor

Today is a declutter day for my sewing room. I have an old desk and chair that I am donating to a young mother who is working out of her house. She has nothing, as she came from a very bad situation. I also have a bag of nice clothes to donate to her. Let's face it, IF I ever am a size 6-8, I would want new clothes....donate what is hold a grudge against me.
My goal is to spend all day in there after we deliver the desk. I have my plans listed on the door along with dream pictures (many from here). This will not be a weekend project since we have lived here 10 years and the last 5 I have felt unhappy about the room. Everyone stuck their stuff in there...well last week a truckload of other people's stuff was pulled from the room. I called the people and said it is on the porch and trash day is tuesday...if you want it before then you better be here Monday night.
Why do we "collect" then regret?

tezell0801

I feel you pain. I am purging my scrap booking stuff this week. Wow, I have a lot of stuff I will not use. Hard to part with it knowing how much i spent on it, but I need the room and someone needs this stuff. On my third day of cleaing my craft room to make more room for sewing!

Lori S

This subject reminds me of a similar situation. My Mom did grow up in the depression.. and could not bring herself to ged rid of any thing that had potential use . I went to help her get ready for new carpet in her sewing room...and the contents was overwhelming. She kept saying "just move it .. I'll go through it later". I finally convinced her that she had help now and maybe a few things could be "repurposed to other needy sewers"... and we could create the sewing room she dreamed of. Two SUV full trips to the GoodWill, we still had a MORE than ample stash. It was interesting that she had the current purchaces on the outer perimeter , and there was stuff taking up useful effiecient space that had been there for more years than I can remember , on the valuable shelf space. So the predominant image when you walked in was the old .. and the new was not at all visable
When I asked her what fabrics she really wanted to sew she was clear .. it was the newer fabrics. The old was just mucking up the space, and there was a pronouced weight/guilt that these fabrics if purged was an admission of failure and reckless waste. The only emotional way for her to release was the concept that she had an abundance that should be shared with those who had not had the good fortune to have such a stash.
When the room was put back together after new carpet , my sister and I spent two days creating the best possible space . She was overjoyed and brought to tears at the "new" room . It was a very visable relief , and there is a renewed joy in her sewing.
My point to this tale is ... do what it takes to rid the weights so that your creativity and joy in your craft can fly!
Just a note: I keep looking at the photos of board members Goodwill "finds" thinking I will see the drop offs I made... and seeing the delight that they were able to have this orphaned goodies at a affordable price.

nygal

Keep what you want and donate the rest or even throw some away if you think no one will have any use for it. I have limited myself to no more than two quilt projects at one time. I do the same with knitting and counted cross stitch projects. That way I find I finish them and can move on to the next project and be happy.

wolph33

a good purge helps the closets and the soul

kapatt

I came to the same conclusion a few years ago. I have the tendency to hold onto everything, even things I don't like simply because I might need them later on. I finally decided that I wasn't going to let "things" have control over me. If I don't like something, I will put it away for a few months and then pull it out again to look at it with fresh eyes. If I still don't like it, I'll throw it out or I will give it away if I think it will be of value to someone else. It is a very "freeing" feeling to not let our projects control us.

Deborahlees

Love your mind set....when my mother and father died and I cleaned out their house, I had a horrorable time getting rid of stuff. Of course I saved ALL her fabric. Four house/city moves latter I really started looking at those boxes, and went thru them, I was still working full time and had not gotten 'that deep' into my quilting. I had 30 boxes of avacado green, orange, lime green etc fabric that I knew I would never ever use or want to use....found a local group of older ladies that made charity quilts and donated them all....Had 6 boxes of quilting magazines, went to local quilt shop to pass on......after I was all done I felt so good, those items no longer owned me....I knew where my mother was and she was not in those boxes.....
About once a year I like to go thru my entire sewing studio top to bottom end to end and weed out my 'stuff', will I ever make the expensive pattern, probably not (sell it on ebay) did I get every thing I wanted from these magazines (go to local quilt store) and finally my fabric...a stack to be made into charity quilts or charity pillowcase...and a stack to Goodwill/Salvation Army for someone to find and use up.....
After all have to make room for new fabric.....

GrannieAnnie

The contents of my sewing room are in every room of the house, getting sorted and thinned out. Well, not too much thinning yet. I've got crochet books, quilt magazines, cross stitch books that I will NEVER have the time to look at much less use. But so far, I've not gotten rid of much good stuff.

You seem to be progressing much better than I am.

kay carlson

Thank you, dear Friends, for sharing your heartfelt thoughts......

I feel encouraged, empowered, enthusiastic!

I actually want to finish organizing the upstairs closet today - we went out of town on the spur of the moment yesterday.

With this in mind, I can treat myself to spend time having fun in the sewing area. :-)

With my own situation under control, I will be able to face and complete another task that has gone on too long.

Piecefully yours,
Kay Susan

nannyrick

I think you have given all of us the "go ahead" and get rid of all the "stuff" we cling to.
Thanks for the push.