The poor souls who have either worked or lived with me know what an unbelievable pig I am. I can trash a room in seconds, and that is not an exaggeration. I'm not purposefully destructive - there is just some disconnect in my brain when it comes to picking up after myself. Clutter builds and builds, and it doesn't bother me in the least until I am drowning in it. My husband does more than his fair share in trying to keep the house sane. He is totally in charge of the kitchen (hooray for me), and he is great about decluttering and putting through loads of laundry. The one room he won't touch is the sewing room. He doesn't even go in there. It is that bad.
People are always willing to share pictures of their freshly organized sewing rooms with neat stacks of fabric arranged by color, and their nice clean desks awaiting the next project. Hoping to find a kindred soul (or someone even worse off so I could feel better about myself), I proposed a mini-challenge for the group. I asked them to share pictures their workspaces without any tidying and reorganizing.
The first few pics came in almost instantly. These ladies had gorgeous, serene, well-organized spaces. Sure, they had a few little "in progress" piles here and there, but definitely nothing to be ashamed of. So that got me worried - oh gosh, if I show them my space as is, they are going to have me put away (or at least removed as team captain for reasons of insanity). So I cheated a bit and removed some items that didn't belong in there anyway - coffee mugs, shoes, towels, trucks (lots of trucks), etc. I also went over the carpet really quickly with a shop-vac (a regular vacuum just wouldn't survive the debris). After the spiff-up, this was my room:
Not so bad, right? Well, what I failed to mention is that I haven't sewn in there in over a month. I've been working in our spacious dining room since before Halloween. This is what it looks like:
Again, not too horrible. Keep in mind this is a common area, and I know that anything I leave down is subject to being trashed (either by the tidy husband or the mischievous child).
Back up to the sewing room. I decided to be a little more forthcoming and show what really lurks within...
This is drawer 1 of 12. That is right, I have pictures of a dozen drawers stuffed with wads o' fabric. As I was uploading the photos, more and more images of beautiful Martha Stewart-worthy workspaces popped up in our forum. ACK! So I freaked out a little and did something drastic:
Yup, that is the bulk of my stash right there in all its glory. See anything you want? The pile started on the desk, but I ended up throwing it on the floor so I would have a folding surface. Louie enjoyed rolling around in it, and Buddy enjoyed sleeping on it.
This was Friday a.m. Since then, I have been folding, organizing, and taking stock of my stash. I'd so much rather be sewing, but I really NEEDED to do this. I'm making great progress, and it feels amazing. I'm really glad to be starting out the challenge on the right foot. It will help me so much to know exactly what I have and where it is. I usually spend so much time digging and hunting, so I think this little expenditure of time will pay off in the long run. And even though I didn't get to do any sewing, my embroidery machine was hard at work.
I did all the applique work on the Kimberbell Kids Name Pillows I am making for Del's niece and nephew. They are turning out so cute - I can't wait to show them off! And hopefully I will soon have some lovely pics of my incredibly organized sewing room to share!
1 comment:
These pics are GREAT! I think there are A LOT of us who have rooms that look just like that (probably even worse!) Mine is in need of serious attention! ;)
Kim
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