I tidy up every evening now. Even so far as to put away my cutting mat and cover my machines. My sewing 'room' is also the lower level family room... which is where our 2 cats spend their nights. I don't want cat hair, or the occasional hairball incident to take place on my sewing equipment. It only takes a few moments to pull things out, and the family room looks better on days I'm not sewing. As far as keeping fabrics for projects out...use shoebox bins with lids. They stack easily and keep things contained.

It stays pretty neat. I don’t have everything I own in my small room - some of it is on shelves in the basement. I don’t have much of a stash. I like to work on one project at a time at home. I sew at the local shop once a week and that’s where most of the piecing gets done. Mostly at home I like to FMQ on my Brother PQ1500. This is the first time I’ve had a room of my own - the last 3 years since we moved here. I don’t sew every day. My mojo comes and goes and I don’t worry about it. It’s a fun hobby for me

I put away rulers and whatever is laying on my cutting table pretty much every day, but I only do a big clean up at the end of every project. If I'm working on more than one thing, I'll stuff all the pieces of the easier-to-stuff project into a bag every day to keep them together.

Watson

At the end of the day, I straighten what's on my cutting table, throw the small scraps away, get things ready for what I want to do the next day. After I'm to the point of putting it onto the quilt frame, I'll actually vacumn the floors so when it comes off and I'm trimming and adding the binding I don't have to worry about little thread snips attaching themselves to the quilt as its usually a large one so dragging on the floor as I glue my binding on.

As Popeye says, “till I can’t stands no more!”

I'm with zozee! But I do have a question...how many of the previous respondents that clean upreligiously are retired with no other "work" commitments. It seems I squeeze sewing time in between work, my off the farm PT job and my on farm PT job.

oksewglad ~ You have a point about being retired; however, I am retired and still have a problem keeping the studio tidy. Two major issues for me are not having enough space left to put everything (yes, I need to purge), and another tidying issue I have is that once I start and get the first space cleared off, I get inspired to start something else, and off I go! One year, I resolved to tidy up after every project and it helped tremendously. Apparently it didn't become enough of a habit though. I can barely walk through the studio at the moment, and not a clean surface in the room, including the floor! Bad DJ!

I have to clean up daily as my sewing room was turned into a bedroom when my daughter and 3 granddaughters moved in. They have been here for 8 years but now looking to buying a condo. I am pretty anxious to get my fabrics out of storage and organized. I sew in the dining room so cleaning up before preparing a meal is a must. But...my dh and myself gave her and her daughters a safe place to live for awhile.

There is an old saying which goes ....a place for everything and everything in its place. I would love to have all my sewing stuff nicely arranged, but I do not have a place for everything. So....I have a tendency to move things from one table to another. When I need that table I have to push stuff aside or place it on a chair some other holding area. :)

I am in a constant sate of cleanup so someday I might get some more shelves....