Just curious-anyone else do this?
 

Once a year I purge, sort, and reorganize my sewing room. I used to make a ton of flannel rag quilts and had a lot of flannel. Realized I hadn't made a flannel quilt in years so donated and/or gave my flannel stash to a friend. This year I went so far as to change rooms! (empty nesters with bedrooms to spare). I also have found myself picking up and putting away rulers, tools, when I finish for the night - saves me frustration cause I don't spend precious time looking for things. I also tend to forget about fabric etc if it's out of sight so I've learned to store it on open shelves. I learn something new every time I reorganize - you'd think by the end of 72 years I'd have it all together - Nope!

My dear aunt, when she was the age I am now, told me the older we get, the stronger our personality becomes! She was so right. I'm also trying to put things away...I'm tired of the clutter and not finding things. I wonder if i will ever have it together..PS just a few years younger than you.

I do a purge about once a year too. I get tired of fabric or like you said I'm done making a certain thing like rag quilts. I love donating fabric I know I won't use. Also my room is always a mess so it needs some attention at least once a year!

I don't purge yearly but often. When my sewing area gets too cluttered. A good clean out gets me on track again. Recently I have been taking a shopping bag of scraps, ufo's and yardage for the free table at Guild. I decided to rid myself of cuts and prints left over from quilts I have made. I have freed up a tote. It's fun to see what someone else makes of the pieces. Quilters are clever girls and boys.

Last winter I decided I would challenge nyself to try to find One thing every day that could be either sold, donated, recycled or thrown away. That was after doing a major purge of weaving yarns and crafting materials that had sat unused for many years. I still have too much stuff, but have found that my daily purge challenge seems to be doing a good job of helping me get rid of excess in an unstressful way. Plus, since I have to look for something to get rid of everyday, I think twice about bringing anything new into my space.

Rob

For me it is using up fabrics gathered over the years. Now when I die cut shapes I have been putting in some of the nice sized pieces to donate to a church run store in town. The pieces are too small for my smallest die to make it worth keeping. The gal that sorts through the scraps stated people who applique love the scraps she bags up to sell.
I am not saving every small piece because I have so much of the bigger fabrics to cut up.
I rarely buy new fabric, only if it is for a special quilt gift.

I try to stay neat and I put everything away like rulers, rippers, scissors, etc. as I go. When I finish a quilt top, I clean my sewing room and I take my scraps to my scrap bin. I decided I would spend a day or so at the first of each month sorting my scraps. I made that decision when it took me from the first of January until mid February to purge fabric, sort scraps and make scrappy donation quilts. I did it in March and again in April. It worked really well and I haven’t done it since. I am hopeless!

My sewing room stays pretty neat because my fabric is in another room. I store and cut my fabric in that room and while I do my best to keep it neat I seem to make stacks to be addressed. What I really need to do is stay out of fabric stores! Lol

I am also getting ready to purge fabric and duplicate stuff. I am really trying to downsize the horrifying amount of "stuff" in my sewing room so I can get back to the basics.

I'm better about putting things away at the end of the day. I rarely do a big "purge". For one thing, I mostly sew/quilt on weekends and if I spend a whole weekend "purging" then I don't get to quilt. Besides every time I toss things out, I realize I need them and have to buy more and every time I re-arrange I can't find anything. Some things are best left alone for me.

Yes, I purge yearly right around New Year’s Day. I don’t get to do much sewing in the summer months but will be anxious to get back into my sewing room right after we get home from this Scotland vacation. I clean my sewing space regularly... especially after each project. I think I’m a little OCD.

I get the strongest Urge to Purge, like a lot of people, around the New Year. I tend to do a deep clean-out then, reorganize, make new labels that give me a happy visual lift, and reclaim my space from the gremlins of chaos.

I also like to purge in an ongoing system to lessen my sense of overwhelm. So I have giveaway games for scraps, I have one person I save postage stamp size scraps for and send them when I have an envelope's worth. I have a bag hanging off my sewing desk for scraps that I'll sell for postage when I've filled it. I also have 4 trash containers (two small, two medium) around the room so I don't have an excuse to just move tiny pieces rather than trash them on the spot.

But, despite my methods, the only method that works is the one I struggle with the most: consistently tidying as I go. If I would only "put it away, not down" , my spaces would be so much more delightful.

I'm so guilty of not cleaning up after a project!!! Therefore, my sewing room is always a mess. You'd think I would learn......... :D

Our rental house sold that made us have to make an unexpected move. But I got a bigger sewing space. it was painful but when you have to touch just about everything it is a good time to purge. I have an old dresser that holds alot of stuff. I keep the things I use all the time on top or it.

I keep limits of the things I have to fit my space. When there is too much I find a place to pass things along. I am not leaving a huge mess for my daughter to have to deal with when I pass away.

I also made a spare room my sewing space, and when I moved my sewing stuff there that was the last time I purged. I do every now and then get rid of some items. A few months ago our guild had an activity where you could auction any of your items and I had a tote full of quilting gadgets, patterns, rulers, panels etc. I have tried the system of going through your fabrics and have a pile to throw, donate and keep. I end up keeping everything.

I just started to have a sewing/quilting class on Tuesdays evening in our church and decided that I will use my stash to start these ladies in this hobby..some may become addicted like I did..

At a recent retreat, the prizes were things donated by the members of the retreat. Dug through a shelf unit in the closet. Had about 20 objects. All but one received a new home.

Anyone want a floor standing round quilting/embroidery hoop?

I just reorganized my fabric stash last week. After I finished the last donation quilt for this year I decided I need to reorganize so I could see what I had. Found I used up a lot of blenders,off white, greens, navy blue, grays and such. With what I have left I will try to use it wisely. If I don't then I will be forced to buy more. LOL.

so I am not the only one? I am working on organizing my sewing room now, got a lot of work ahead of me! 3 years of not doing anything, wlrk ahead of me. I have rejoind this and whnt to get back into sewing those quilts,mugrugs, etc. my problem is when I start a project, don't finish, lay it aside and start another, and do the same thing. Guess what my son said is right, I don't focus and finish the one project befor i go to another. as for the utincils, I wanted to get a pegboard and attach the items there, Haven't done that yet, got to find the pegboard material, but I don't want to sp[end a lot on that pegboard. anyway, working on the sewing room I plan to make that table topper, and mug rug, and quilt before the end of the year!

I saw where someone got those comic book card boards (they are pretty thin) and used them to wrap up fabric. It actually works pretty well and you can get 100 of them pretty cheap on Amazon. It helped me get my fabric wrapped up and I can actually see all of my fabric on the shelf because it makes them thin and they stack on their ends.

What a great idea, find one thing every day to purge. I need to do this. I haven't bought fabric in at least a year or 6 months, because I receive others scraps as they know that I make lots of scrappy quilts for charity. I go thru the bags and discard the really unusable but sometimes I keep too much and lately I'm not attending the usual places that save the scraps because it also takes so much time sorting etc. A lot of what I do get goes into dog beds so then I spend more time making the dog beds then I would like. I am trying to get better at getting rid of stuff and saying no thank you to the scrap bags offered.

love to sew; thats an awesome idea! well that wasn't intended this past week but I did ask for fabric and all if anyone has any to give away! cool idea. yes I am ready to do my mugrugs, table toppers , and whatever else! thanks for the idea! is there a pattern for the dog bed, or is it just a pillow type thing?

i have to re-organize at least two or three times a year.
i have more fabric than makes any sense at all for one person.
i often forget what i have or where i have stuffed/stashed it. :confused:

sometimes that leads to a give-away or sell-it-off-cheap purge.
sometimes it just leads to a more organized form of chaos. lol

i have learned to keep a sack in the livingroom where I try and add a donate item per day. I do ok but I also love to buy scraps to make dog quilts with. I have too many scraps now but I do make small easy to make dog quilts that will be used in a crate after a storm. It makes me feel good and lately I am trying very hard to use up a lot of fabrics that I have but there is just something about fabric that keeps called me. I also am trying to sell one box of fabric a month, getting older and knowing I could never use what I have accumulated but it is hard to let go of it.

I don’t have the volume of resources many of you have but I do like a tidy work space. I tend to clear up after myself at the end of each day - although I don’t put everything away. I work in a spare bedroom, the door is always open and it’s the first room you look into when you go upstairs so I don’t like it looking too messy.

I’ve also got this thing about leaving my work space ready for the next time I’m in there - I hate having to put things away before I can start sewing again.

We've been building our house and living in it the whole time. It's now been about 7 years of living in construction mode. (trust me...anyone who has build their own home will attest that this is really not such a long time...lol.) I'm finally getting down to the finishing touches in my sewing/craft room, but I have so many projects going on in there, from pillows, to window shades, to furniture repairs, to picture framing, to quilts, etc. I've gotten used to the chaos. There seams to be some genius to all this madness, but it is definitely time to finish up everything and purge, purge purge! You're giving me inspiration!

~ C

It is a lovely idea. I work in stages. Congratulations on keeping this ritual.

At the suggestion of someone on this board, I made a list of "all" the UFOs in my possession. It was the scariest thing I have ever done. The list had them numbered and it went to 12, each one was in a tub, properly labeled but it may or may not have the instructions. They are in various stages, most of them are cut out, some started to sew, but all seem to come to an abrupt halt when something didn't turn out or fit right or was too complicated for my skill level at the time.

I say all of the UFOs but in reality I got up to 12 and had a melt down. How could I possibly have a dozen unfinished quilts? The truth is....that was not "all of them". I just gave up and walked away.

Now, about 18 months later, I have better skills and have dug out several of them and I have made progress.

As far as purging: NO. I sure can't do that. I need to feel the accomplishment of finishing, using up the fabric, not to get rid of it.

One example is Allietare. The top is done. I've made the decision not to try to get it on the long arm, my hip is starting to talk to me.[ATTACH=CONFIG]603484[/ATTACH]

It is a never ending chore! I am finished making things for the annual boutique show I participate in-the show is next week-end. So, it is time to clean out and straighten up. I plan to spend next week sorting and getting rid of stuff-one way or another. I keep things relatively neat; however, neatly stored stuff can be too much stuff. I want others to get to enjoy some of it!

This is such a difficult concept for me that I am even having trouble writing this. When I begin a purge, the next thing that happens to me is a project pops up requiring what I'm trying to purge.

I religiously try to use my stash instead of going anywhere close to any version of available fabric/notions. I try to hold fast to the idea that if I 'use it' the shelves in my sewing room will 'lose it.'

So, does anyone have a magic hug that will fix my disease and can you send it via QB? We are a year post-hurricane that hit my sewing room first. At least the live oak hit my sewing room. Thank heaven no machines were damaged - only made really 'inside and outside' dusty when the ceiling and roof came down. Even after all that, there is a need for that magic hug. No kidding.

The magic hug is knowing you are making a decision. You want to keep your things. You can do that. You can also change your mind. Do what is best for you.

Hugs to you here. Hope u get everything straightened up 💖🥰

Many hugs being sent your way.

Last summer I had a hard sale and sold all the fabric K knew I would never use. Felt so good. I am 72 as well, and frugal to a fault. I tried not to think about how much I had paid for that fabric. I was hoping that whoever bought it couldn't go pay full price for fabric.

That should say yard sale not hard sale.

I used to do this and may start again. I clean the first 15 minutes. I am motivated because I want to make something and I get to use my room after it has been freshened.

Putting items away, especially rulers is key to not hunting.

Overcoming the mentality that I "might" need something that is taking up space was a huge hurdle for me, but once I did, it was so much easier to start downsizing.

As for my quilting, to keep myself organized, once a week I spend an afternoon putting everything away where it belongs and cutting scraps. I don't like working on the same thing ever day, so I pick two or three projects to work on for the week, at least one of which has to be a UFO. My ultimate goal is to have all of my scraps in an ikea dresser I have, all of my stash and UFOs down to one bookshelf, and all of my other craft supplies combined in a second bookshelf.

As for general purpose decluttering, each month, I choose a room to declutter. I go thru every drawer and cupboard and get rid of anything I don't need/want/use. I don't stop until I have at least one good-sized box to take down to the thrift shop. At least once a year, I pull every single article of clothing I own out of the closets and drawers and purge. I get rid of anything I don't use, doesn't fit, or is stained and worn.

Slowly, but steadily, I have been working my way through the abundance of "stuff". Once in a while, I do find myself needing a particular item I got rid of, but not often enough to make me regret decluttering overall. It's slow going, but at the same time, I am amazed at how much I have gotten rid of that I just don't miss at all. That being said, there is no way I could have gotten rid of everything all at once without going into some kind of shock.

hi there.. any other opinion?

yes.. this is an awesome idea

Who’s our “ibadmin” guest? Saw the post on a couple of other posts

JJ Blaine - good for you. I for one like your style! I try to get hubby on board with my purging but that is a slow go. For example he had 30+ years of Ski magazines. After asking (begging!) several times he told me if I could sell them he'd get rid of them. Don't think he expected me to, but I sold them!!!! Purging makes me feel good, especially when I can give stuff, including fabric, to someone who can and will use it. That said, everyone should do whatever makes them happy.