That sounds like a lot of fun, OKsewglad!

I’ve been steadily chipping away at some of the things our organizer/decluttered suggested in our plan. We had to postpone the 2 six hour sessions until July/August. We rescheduled and now are set to tackle one studio space on July 31 and the other one on Aug. 12. Meanwhile I’ve been working on the rest of the house and doing some of the easy studio things. I can already see a big difference!

Rob

I went to Ikea for the first time and fell in love with the glass display cabinets. I’ve picked out a double unit for fabric that will go with the cutting cart and sewing desk we’re making.

I’m getting rid of my bookcases and most of the titles save food and lifestyle subjects. I subscribe to Scribd and the majority are there. I didn’t buy anything yesterday or feel tempted.

I caught a one day sale on Pyrex mixing and storage bowls with pastel tops. I’m tossing out the plastic ones I had. Snapware is nice but it’s too much. I’m finding more opportunities for a simple or streamlined approach.

Now that I’ve devised a capsule plan and aware of my seasonal color profile and Kibbe body type I’m ready to purge my closet. Although I’m not done yet, I can see where my decluttering and decorating efforts are heading. I’ll have my ideal space soon.

I don’t know how Marie Kondo’s slogan found its way into my vernacular. But a lot of this stuff doesn’t spark joy. I view it as an impediment to the flow and look I’m seeking. Maybe that’s a good thing.

I worked in my kitchen today and enjoy seeing the results. I need to work on the studio. Nice to see others in process too.

I have always gone through closets routinely so clothing has never been an issue...it's the fabric that has bogged me down. Right now son and family are here and I decided that instead of tossing everything into a box and putting in a pile in my sewing space, I was going to have the boxes sorted. As I was still sorting when they arrived, DIL wasn't in the house 30 minutes and saw kitchen counter with dirty dishes so she emptied and refilled the dishwasher! What a keeper she is. When they come, we tag team each other very well.

Hope to have a few minutes to work on my kit making yet tonight.

I am finishing a reorganization of my sewing space. I was frustrated with no sitting area in one part of it, so I took the opportunity to do some rearranging while my banquet tables that I use for ironing, pressing, etc were loaned out for a graduation party. The furniture has all been rearranged but not all of the boxes of fabric scraps put back on the shelves. Like Oksewglad, my fabric is bogging me down. Thankfully, the two organizations that I sew for have not been giving me many scraps lately. I have more than enough to go through. My oldest son saw my sewing area and said, "Wow Mom! You really did rearrange things." LOL!

Hopefully, I will finish cleaning up by tomorrow afternoon as I have baby shower gifts to make for a Sunday baby shower and life has a way of getting in the way.

Oh Connie...I so relate. I plan on moving the bed out of the LA room and moving my sewing into that bedroom. This will all happen after mid July. #2 GD will be here next week and that's when we will be sewing. Last night I have another kit organized..want to spend some time kitting again tonight.

I have read this thread from the beginning and found it very inspiring. We are still renovating and last year took everything out of storage (after 3 years) and moved it into the little place we bought. We are living in the RV still but just bought a bed base on Friday that has 6 count 'em six drawers underneath. It is supposed to be delivered in 9 more days and then we will move in. So, I think I have found all the fabric I have but not really sure until we get all the boxes organized. We gutted this place so there has been not a single cupboard to put anything into. Reading here about not keeping fabric you don't love or think you will use, I have sorted out about 1 apple box worth and 1 grocery bag full. I think I only have about 8 boxes which I know is small potatoes to what a lot of other quilters have but I only started quilting as we were retiring and had already bought the RV and were intending to travel full time. Years ago I found a young neighbour was learning to sew and now her brother does also so we will be giving it to them on Tuesday. They make bags and dog beds and all kinds of things so I know it will all be put to good use. They even asked for my trimmings so they could use them for stuffing. I am glad to get rid of some of my ugly colours or patterns that I don't like and with your help I now know I can do that. I don't have to keep it just because it is in my possession.

Aaaahhhh!!! Big sigh of relief. Feeling accomplished in this decluttering department today!! I set out to get rid of 27 things. Have been working exclusively in my sewing room , from about 11 am till just now (4:20). Must be a miracle. I have never stuck to decluttering this long at one "go".

I kept track as I was going and I ended up with 32--and I'm calling it a day! My room looks and feels so much cleaner, more breathable.

I parted with: 1 sewing machine, 8 mailings (of crumbs, selvages, photo, greeting card to a friend), 1 water bottle, 1 pk stickers, 1 notebook, 5 gift bags, 1 MSQC bracelet charm, 1 mug rug UFO that I have no intention of finishing,
1 half-used sketch pad in bad shape, 1 window shade, 1 tote bag, 1 sewing box (hard to part with sentimentally but I'll get over it), 6 notions, 2 knick-knacks, and 1 CD.

Gosh, I feel good! And tired. But mostly good. :) Hallelujah!

Way to go Zo! I made 16 dozen cookies last week and family has managed to "declutter" all but 3 dozen!:D

LOL!!!

Spent the last couple of months decluttering the downstairs so we would have room for a reunion of sorts on July 7. I didn't realize how much studio stuff had migrated downstairs until I started the declutter process. Now all the downstairs rooms look great and we had plenty of seating for everyone who attended our July 7 soiree, but all the studio stuff got dumped willy nilly in my studio spaces, so I'm once again having to move things from one horizontal surface to another in order to have work surfaces available:rolleyes:. July 31 can't come soon enough- that's our first 6 hour declutter session with the decluttering team- we just have to decide whether we want to start first in my office/sewing studio/guest room, or DH's....

Rob

I have been reading this thread since the beginning and finally got inspired (thank you everyone for posting) to make my room actually work better for me.

1: I ordered 2 new bookcases so I have room for my books, etc., sadly I have to wait 6-8 weeks before I can pick them up.

2: Decided to sell my Janome 6500, my small Brother, and my Brother Embroidery machine. I sold the Janome, yay and hopefully the others will sell soon. The gal who bought my Janome also purchased all my longarm paper pantographs too, so that really cleared out some space and one less thing to advertise.

3: I converted my Koala Cabinet to a full time cutting station, purchased enough cutting mats to cover just about every inch of the top. Moved my sewing machine to a older sewing cabinet (barely fits but it’s working fine) and use that for piecing blocks. But it is flush against a wall so doesn’t work well when the time comes to join all the rows, borders etc...

4: Ordered another table for my other machine so I can set up and use that station for piecing the tops together. I can put a table behind it to deal with all the fabric when joining rows and borders etc... .

5: My next goal is to go through all 3 cupboards and massive dresser and begin to pull stuff I know I will never use and list them on Etsy. I have far too many charm packs, jelly rolls, fat quarter bundles etc.. . My tastes have changed a lot since I started quilting and I’m more of a modern quilter. I suffer from analysis paralysis, and I’m overwhelmed by too many fabrics, too many patterns and it makes me spend too much time trying to figure out what I want work on next. I would rather be quilting!

You’ve gotten a lot done, Lisa- congratulations!

Rob

I am impressed with the energy all of you have. You’re getting a lot done!

Lots of cutting going on for binding and the lurking scraps that happened when a friend and i did some paper piecing (AGH!) Organizing the cut sizes and going through bottom shelf full of books. Sort of a mix of organize and purge day. Hot here in VA!

Congrats everyone, on getting so much done!

I've been trying to purge some of my scraps by actually using them up! Today I donated several scrap quilts to the charities my quilting group supports. I had a big kitty litter bucket (empty, of course) where I stored scraps after cutting for a quilt. That bucket had gotten so full that the top wouldn't snap on anymore. So the last two days I began to deal with it. Dumped it all out on the dining room table where I sew... I weeded out all the skinnier strips and made probably 50 little log cabin blocks with them, that finished at about 5" square. Then I went through the rest of the massive pile and separated out all the strips of all sizes. All the rest I cut into mostly 2.5" squares, the size I use the most. Some bigger pieces became 3.5", 4", and 5" squares, and got stored in the stacking drawers for those size squares. The rest that were good crumb size, but not big enough to make a 2.5" square, I bagged up to give away to a friend who likes to work with crumbs. Yay! The kitty litter bucket is back under control again.

Feels good doesn't it, SBG? I need to do this again, but I don't always get blocks made the same day.

Way to go, biz! That’s a ton of progress. Aren’t those lil log cabins cute? Time consuming but darling.

They sure are! Now what will I do with them?

This week end I decided to try a new method of making the children's medical face masks I make for charity. I'm cutting out lots & lots of the 4 different sizes & then when I'm ready to make them all I have to do is start sewing. I'm storing the cut out pieces in a clear plastic box with dividers between the different sizes so it's easy to grab a size I want to sew & just go. Cutting them out is the most time consuming part of the process so I think this will help me.

Where did you get a pattern? I will ask the hospitals around here to see if they would like some and then make them.

ka9sdn, here is the pattern that I use. I contacted Craft Passion to see if it was o.k. to use their pattern for the charity that I send them to & they said "yes". I make 4 sizes & reduced the small pattern slightly to fit babies. No hospital in my area would take them but I found an organization in Massachusetts that would & they distribute them to hospitals up there.

https://www.craftpassion.com/face-ma...ing-pattern/2/

As I contemplate how to make my LA space my sewing space I evaluated what I have. One of the pluses of this room is the WIC. But it's filled with fabric..fabric I have not used in years. I used to go to craft shows (35 years ago) selling machine appliqued items. One of my best sellers was children's sweatshirts made from scratch and embellished with cute designs. By color blocking I was able to make the most of my yardage. Believe it or not I still had scraps from this endeavor. I have sorted the smalls and cut them in wash cloth sized rags from MrOk and son to use in the barn. Each cow's teats are individually cleaned and wiped dry before milkers are attached. My cleaning is their boon as sweatshirt fabric make excellent barn towels!

So the idea is to clean out the WIC and rid it of fabric I won't use...single knit fabrics are next on the list. I have 3 shelves of a 30" wide steel shelf cleaned off! The yardage I hope to use as backings to kids charity quilts. Right now 13 yo has a piece of sweatshirt fleece on the LA with the fleece side on the outside. Will be soft to the touch.

Back to the closet! I have a feeling this will be a long term project.

Way to go oksewglad! Great use of the sweatshirt fabric! I wished I lived closer because Bundles of Love uses the knits for making newborn T-shirt’s, gowns, and sleepers. Oh, well. I know you will find a good home for them.

DGS and I just finished unpacking 35 boxes in the garage (we moved 5 years ago and surgery and illness has kept me from getting into the boxes). We finally found my thread and serger (all were boxes labeled books and packed by movers - and there was a token book in each box...). We took 20 bags of stuff to the charity drop off, donated yarn to some boy scout projects, took 7 boxes of outdated records to a shredding event and organized the rest. We have about 15 boxes to go. I am going to add shelves to the garage to hold the totes of fabric that occupy the other side of the garage. I have new, smaller and more useful tables for my sewing room but it is so small that I have to practically empty the room to get the old tables out and put the new ones in -- a slow project because DGS (he's 16) tells me I have to inspect everything before I move it and I want take things out in an organized manner :o. I have to finish before school starts because then I loose my help.

Thanks for this bit of info, Connie! I live about 30 miles from 2 different BOL groups and will check into this. Tahnks again...G

I'm impressed by those who are actively organizing their stash and/or space. I've worked a little bit on bathroom drawers, purging old stuff. I haven't cleaned out enough, but it has to be done for now. I'm teaching another week of summer camp this week so house work slides down in importance. (It's not high on my list, anyway!)

Quiltnlady: Way to go! Thankful for your grandson.

oksewglad: I thought you were close to the Rochester BOLC. :)

Actually that one is farther away. I have written down contact info for them. Again, thanks for the suggestion.

Y'all are motivating me . I need it because I'm worn out from painting the full bathroom upstairs while hubby was away 4 days. (Wanted to surprise him as well as not be "supervised"--ahem:) .)

We are having a family reunion and some of his kinfolk (love that word) are staying with us starting Aug 5 or 6 through 11. I always see a punch list to do when "company" is coming. One of the couples will get the queen bed in my my sewing room. Thankfully i've been tidying and purging a little at a time so I'm not feeling overwhelmed (yet).

Nothing like having company to give us motivation, zo! I was waiting for company to go, before I started my task. My home has been a swinging door since mid June when we left for a week and have company in the house while we were gone...seriously it was only my sister...but man we've had someone here ever since until last Friday!

I did some organizing this week that wasn't exactly voluntary. I hang a lot of yardage in the closet in my sewing room. I guess I hung too much and the rod came down! I had to take all the fabric on hangers into the guest room and lay it on the bed. I decided to pack some in boxes since I had no idea how long it would be until my husband could put the rod up. I did a bit of sorting and tossed out a kitchen trash bag full of fabrics. I also discovered that I have a lot of nice rayons. I used to use rayon a lot for clothing but I mostly don't wear that type of clothing anymore so I've decided to replace some of my pajama pants that are wearing out with rayon ones! I made some before out of rayon and they're wonderful to sleep in. I packed the rayons in a box and plan to make a few pairs of pj pants out of them when I finish the quilt I'm doing for my husband.

Oh that's a great idea, cashs_mom! I too have some outdated rayons. Rayon is a a natural cellulose fiber so it breathes. It does like to shrink though, so I'm sure you have prewashed it.

I’m in the home stretch now. We have charity bins in the building and I’m adding clothes and a few kitchen items. I’ve tackled both closets in my room and gone through the linens. I expected to purge a lot of clothes only to discover it matches my color analysis. I had to get rid of one piece. Since I’m going to Toastmasters I’ve decided to keep the dress slacks.

The spice jars I purchased were too small. I’m exchanging them for a larger size and replacing the spring top Ikea jars with slender ones from Weck.

I'm currently in a huge mess! I have 4 projects going at once (I never learn!) and can't find a thing. So today I may just pick it all up. I'd much rather sew but oh well...........
And my Mookie man jumps into my chair the minute we enter the sewing room so I guess today will be his lucky day haha

Today I am starting the deep clean of my sewing room/biggest guest room. I started by taking pictures of the whole room, then of sections to work on in 15-minute increments. That's the best way I've found to stay focused.
I take pictures after each 15 minutes to see my progress.

As soon as I (or my son can help me) figure out how to get my phone to (once again) give me the option of file size before I send the pictures to my email, I'll upload them. Right now the files are too big. I'm not sure why the option disappeared. All I know is I'm tired and I've only been at this cleaning thing an hour and 15 minutes. Oy.

Rest, zo and get the steam pumped up again...I know what you mean!

I found more energy after a short break. So the sum of my progress today included

-making the bed and dusting the headboard
=clearing off my ironing table, putting things where they go
-washing all the ironing table covers (long overdue task)
-decluttering the floor under the table, preparing it to vacuum
-decluttering my sewing table, and underneath it
- cleared out 1/2 the stuff under the bed--and found my 10 year anniversary wedding band that had gone missing!!!
-taking the curtains down to wash
- finally reorganized my pegboard which I've been procrastinating for 2 years. Crazy it only took about 40 minutes to reconfigure the things on it. My goal was to organize the rulers by size , to reduce my frustration of having to move so many different ones to get to the one I really want. And of course, I had to make new labels for the fun of it!

Zozee--wow---you've been really working! I love the idea of taking pictures regularly so you are motivated.

I made a pair of pj pants out of rayon years ago. I wore them until they practically fell apart. They were so soft and comfy and not too warm for the hot climate here. Thanks for the washing reminder. Rayons do shrink. A lot!

Zozee: Way to go! I’m sure glad you found your anniversary band.