sewingpup

groan, with all this stay at home stuff, I have been changing the way I get stuff..between all the online ordering of food, cleaning supplies, and sewing supplies, I have changed the way I keep track of my spending.....so...I have spent several days changing my bookkeeping habits so...my work table in the sewing room was buryed in paper. Today I finally can make a few masks and then get on with my stitching! I have accumulated more and more scraps also but Bonnie Hunter to the rescue. In July, she will be posting her "leader ender" challenge block for the year and promised it will not be triangles...Yahh! And will have directions for two sizes....so, I will be gathering my scraps and hope to diminish the pile this following year as I work on the blocks....

beckyj

I find using "gloves in a bottle" gives my hands protection from drying out when sorting fabric or gardening. It's a blue container and i get mine at the pharmacy. Like not having to wait to heal or wear gloves..

Julienm1

I was proud when I made a huge step in reorganizing my sewing and fabric room. I do have a couple containers of fabric sitting in my sewing room. (I took over two small bedrooms when both sons moved out.) Making these scrappy baby quilts has caused more chaos in what was my some what organized sewing enviromet. I wish I had a dresser available to control the scraps.Some how opeen shelving and baskets gives my fabric the opportunity to have a party when I go to bed.

Now back to the ironing board to press these flying geese. I love to make them but hate to press them...lol

petthefabric

Yesterday, I got a layer of correspondence (about 1/3) off the desk. Some other stacks have been created of like content (quilting ideas). It's moving along. Oh, yea, filled the trash can and the file drawer will need to be sorted by dates (2019 can go to aschives).

rryder

I'm impressed, petthefabric, Getting my desk cleared off has been the hardest part of organizing my office. Then I figured out that my desk is always so messy because I leave things out so I won't forget about them. Once I realized that, I set up the tickler file for things that didn't need to be dealt with right away, but I didn't want to forget about. So far, it's helped me keep my desktop clear of everything but what is being worked on at the moment. I also set up some project folders for a couple of long term projects that were laying scattered all over my office.

Julienm1- keep at it, it takes time to figure out what works best for your particular situation- I tweak mine periodically as my storage needs change and my stash ebbs and flows depending on how I'm using it an any given time.

I spent three straight days this past week getting my Craftsy classes downloaded and moved over to my external hard drive, only to get an email the next day saying that they weren't going to shut down the site after all . Oh well. At least I've now got them if they ever do decide to shut the site down.

My next long term project involves organizing my quilting records---which I will be working on upgrading now that I've got a better printer and can get some good printed photos to put in with my inventory sheets. I'm also setting up a file cabinet drawer specifically for my quilting and art related records. Right now they're scattered willy nilly all over my office. And I have to update my art vita- which hasn't been done in a couple of years---Yikes!

Keep chipping away at it everyone!
Happy Fourth!
Rob

petthefabric

Rob, what's a tickler file and how does it work?

By the way, Now there's about 1/6 of the stuff left. Some needs to be delivered to another person. And then there's a stack of stuff that's going to take longer. The end is in sight.

rryder

Hey petthefabric,
A tickler file is set up as follows: 31 files are numbered 1 through 31 (for the days of the month). An additional 12 files are labelled Jan., Feb. etc. 1 for each month. You put them in the file drawer from front to back as follows: File for the current month, file for the current day followed by the rest of the days left in the month in order, File for the next month and the days that have already passed in the current month, rest of monthly files in order. So right now, my file drawer looks like this from front to back:

July
3,4,5,6,7,8,9-31
Aug.
1,2
Sept, Oct., Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb, March, April, May and June.

When you have something that needs to be done in a particular month down the road, you put it in the file labelled for that month. Say it's August and you've got a bill that needs to be paid next March. You put a reminder (either the bill, or a note to remind yourself in your file labelled March).

When March 1 comes around, you take everything in your March file and put it in the correct numbered file.

Each day you look at the file for that day, do whatever needs to be done and at the end of the day you move the now empty file to the next month.

At the end of the month, you move the now empty month file to the end of the line behind the month that comes before it.

I have mine set up with reminders for things that have to happen every month (like my dog's heartworm medication on the 18th) etc. And also with one time things like the paperwork that I need to fill out before a doctor's appointment next month -right now it's in the August folder and Bubba's heartworm medication reminder is in folder 18 so I will remember to do it July 18th. Before I set up my tickler file the Drs. paperwork would have been sitting in a pile with other paperwork that I was afraid to put away for fear of forgetting to do it and I would have been keeping it in my head that I needed to remember to do Bubba's heartworm medication. Some days my desk looked like a paper and mail hoarder lived there and my brain felt like a pinball machine because I was trying to mentally keep too many to do's in there at once. Now my desk is clear and I'm feeling less brain drain.

Hope that helps.
Rob

retiredteacher09

Rob: When I was working, I had a file similar to how you describe the tickler file. Now I put things on my phone calendar and add reminders.

I had been sorting a couple of fabric boxes off and on and, suddenly, it became a main priority. Lol! I knew the fabrics in the boxes were mostly children type with some under the sea, animals, sport-themed, etc, thrown in. I have a few more piles to put in bags and label and that project will be done. But now, when will I use them and for what project? 🤷‍♀️ That quandary will definitely be for another day. It’s just good to know what I have to put into a project.

Teen

Wow, Rob! Amazing system. I just have one tickler file but I have a spreadsheet that I complete each month when Bill writing... Each item is dated so I know what to expect for each month or what to pull out of tickler file. For example, I pay an irrigation fee twice a year so that item says "Next due date: 11/20) when I sit down to write Novembers bills, I pull out the irrigation invoice. Etc. Whatever works!

I designed an an inventory spreadsheet for one of hubbie's collections. Lists all the details of item and current value. Should anything, God forbid, happen to hubbie, this will be so helpful...and, of course, work is backed up on USB drive and will be updated as time goes on... This is a relief to complete..

rryder

Connie and Teen, I used the same system when I was working, only it was huge since I had a separate file drawer for each month. I called it a "suspense file", but it was the same thing-- each month's drawer had all the projects that had deadlines in that month and they were filed in order of due date. Can't believe I never thought to do that for my home office.

I put reminders on my phone with alerts, but found that that didn't prevent me from leaving all the paperwork out as I was always afraid I'd forget where I'd put it otherwise (figuring out filing categories is not my strong point and I have to admit to being a bit lazy about creating new file folder categories anyway). The tickler file is really simple once you've got it set up and it means I don't have to make new categories for things that won't be saved after they're done. Things that will be saved already have general categories that they go into in another drawer of the filing cabinet.

Teen- I bet you're glad to get that spreadsheet done- they can be time consuming to set up, but once done, well worth it.

Rob