Organizing My Craft Room

My craft room had gotten very messy the past few months. We stationed my sewing table in the family room so I've been working on my projects there. My craft room soon became a storage space. I finally got around to organizing it last weekend and removed the gardening stuff that accumulated on my table (former dresser, now cutting table). 

I asked our decluttering coach to skip the craft room since I want to organize my supplies myself. I organized my fabric stash by "category". I'm the only one who understands how it's categorized, haha. I remember where I could find each fabric. Sometimes I just sit in front of the cabinet and look at the fabric for inspiration. 

I know there are better ways to organize my fabric stash. I just sorted them and folded them to fit my cabinet. I recently joined a "quilting/sewing room" group to learn how others organize their rooms. I learned that a lot of quilters use comic book boards to store their fabric. Apparently, fabric fits the board perfectly when you fold it.

I took a look at my stash and realized the best approach I could take is to do it by section. My boys won't allow me to stay in there until the wee hours of the morning (haha). Miggy even reminded me not to do so much when he saw me folding some fabric yesterday. Here's what I have so far folded.

And here's the fabric I'll be using for my next project:

I realized I have a threshhold for mess. I can tolerate some, but when it piles up I have a hard time thinking. My sewing table in the family room is also messy. I use the table for sewing, pulmo rehab, writing and sorting through Mom's stuff. It's been cumbersome to measure and cut fabric on it. I cleared my sewing room so I could also work there as needed. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Home on Mondays: We Hired a Coach to Help Us Declutter

It's been almost 15 months since we moved in our new home. We suspended unpacking all our boxes because we didn't have storage. We only got to install proper cabinets after 12 months. Works on the house was extended though since some serious issues needed to be addressed. 

Merging two households is hard. We decided to get help from a decluttering coach because it was too overwhelming. It was also very stressful to see towers of boxes in our living room. We haven't invited anyone over because it's ugly to look at. 

Our architect introduced us to Ally Canita. She is the founder of Align Your Home and has been working with us for a few months now. The journey started with some introspection on where we our in our lives. She advised it will help us while we sort through our things. True enough, we were able to donate 7 boxes of books, clothing and kitchen stuff just before Christmas.

After we finished addressing the issues, we finally had our first 2-day session to deal with the boxes. Ally and her team sorted the boxes, cleared out space for storage and organized our kitchen. I had been working on organizing our kitchen since we got back in February. It was helpful to have Ally's expertise since she was able to put in a system in the kitchen. I just told them how I moved around in the kitchen and then they took care of organizing it. 

There were more boxes and bags behind the counter before Ally's team organized the kitchen.
It was a huge mess! (*Backsplash being replaced).

The contents of the boxes were sorted out. They found 7 boxes of bags (hand bags, eco-bags and travel bags)! They reduced it to three boxes after categorizing the bags.  This is where I really trimmed down. Kept only a few bags that would fit in my closet. I even let go of bags that had sentimental value for me. I knew I wouldn't use them anymore and knowing where I am in my life made it easier to let go. After some overnight sorting, we sent out 7 boxes for donation. 

The journey isn't over yet. Sorting items takes a lot of time. We sort in the evenings when it's not so hot. It's going to take time to finish. We will have another round with Ally to organize the items we decide to keep. At least the kitchen is now organized. Ally said we'll finalize how it was organized when they come back. Just need to see first if we're comfortable where everything has been placed. Still a long way to go for the rest of the house. 

#BeKind #StaySafe