There are so many ways people choose to organize their "things" in the sewing/quilt studio. For me,it has worked best to put all those things where I use them. The bias makers, bias bars, ham, seam roll, etc. are with everything I use for pressing. Whateve I use when sitting at the sewing machine is in that area. Hand sewing items and magazines are by the rocker. Designing tools by the computer. The idea is to place things where you would most like to have them handy. It will not match anyone else's ideal organization but be your very own!

I love to sew clothes as well as quilt tops. Fabric trims, zippers, ribbons, elastic, lace, rick rack, glitz items, etc. are all boxed together by color. Black, white, cream, navy blue, and multi are my boxes. When I need a particular item, I can tell at once by going to the color I need. If it's not in the box, I don't have it. Has really simplified my sewing area and my mind..... ;-)

When I taught school I had the same problem. So I organized the extras by themselves. I had a metal shelf with baskets and just clearly labeled the baskets. Then if I needed the item for my project I knew where it was and didn't have to remember which category I put it with. I was a little OCD and put them in alphabetical order by name. Long things hung on s hooks.

Something I could use... organization then maybe I could find what I need. I can't find my bias makers at the moment LOL where did I put them?
Did buy a labeler (sp)? recently, took out a bookcase in an attempt to access my very small design wall better.
My room is used for classes on Mon and Thur nights, quilting and painting.
need any and all help I can get.

I was just thinking that this morning. I use to do all my sewing on the kitchen table. Made all my clothes, my kids clothes, did sewing for other people, made dolls, And started quilting with a book, cardboard, scissors, pencil, and fabric. Not that I would want to go back to that but it sure was easier to store..
As far as not buying anything new. Well I don't buy too much but I did just buy a French Curve and a one of those wheels that tell you percentages to make things bigger or smaller. (which I already don't know what I did with.. the wheel) LOL

I think the Frequency of use is a good idea.. And goodness knows I have plenty of shelves in the closet.Just need to rearrange things a little.

Wanna come to my house. LOL My room could use a little OCD..
I have stuff for sewing clothes and now i want to make my own patterns. (more stuffs) And I collect things here and there for art quilts I am going to make "someday" Every once in awhile I do other crafty things like paint small furniture pieces or boxes, make shadow boxes. etc.. It acumulates for sure
. And I have to keep it all in one 12x12 room with one wall of closets and one wall of windows .. And vents in the floor.. Those vents totally get in my way..

Organizers
 

Check out other places for neat ways to organize your stuff such as Walmart hardware dept. The large flat clear box I have contains small boxes that allows me to organize my machine feet. Each one in it own box by foot number. This came from Walmart's Hardware dept. I have a matching tool box that I use to carry what I need to the Guild sewing events. Both are purple and white and were Christmas presents. Hey they asked me what I wanted. Lowes and Harbor Freight are also a couple of sources. I use the plastic shoe boxes from the Dollar General to sort my smaller pieces of fabric by color. And I use the boxes to keep projects together.

For my collection of buttons (I also have my mother's) I use small cute jars and sort by size. You can spray paint the tops to match you sewing room or cover them with bits of fabric.

To organize my magazines, I use organizers from the stationery dept. You can make these from cereal boxes. To organize small books and mags I make organizers from pancake mix boxes. I cut them to look like the mag organiers and use spray glue and wallpaper to cover them. I found a wooden file cabinet at Goodwill for $9 to keep papers and patterns I got off the net.

And to top it off, I plan to make the wall organizer I saw on an eralier post of this thread. This would be great hanging over my machine.

Love your idea of sorting by color. I'll put that to use.

One of the recommendations for kitchen storage is to store/file the item at the point of first use. This method could work in the sewing room/studio as well. For example, if you have a pressing cloth you would store it near your iron which is where it would first be needed.

For those longer design thingies like 12" rulers and bias bars, I store mine near my sewing machine in a tall square vase (about 4" square x 10" tall) found at a thrift store. It's plastic so I'm not worried about it breaking if it tips over, but glass would be nice too--you can see through it and know what's in it at a glance. This has turned out to be one of my better storage ideas for my studio.

I use a shoe organizer than hangs on the back of my door for lots of stuff. Got it at the dollar store. I'm still organizing stuff. Think it is an ongoing process...at least for this quilter.

Such great ideas here!