I am sick and tired of being disorganized.
One of the things I am trying to do in my life, now that I am starting a family and hopefully becoming a role model for a young person is to stop the destructive habits of my misspent youth. Disorganization, and the resulting overshopping and chaos, is my biggest bad habit. I've fought it for years.
Some of it I can't fix. There isn't enough room in the house to have a beautiful sewing room with plenty of neat storage. As much as I would love to have the closet entirely devoted to stitching, it must also house my clothes. And some of my holiday decorations. This is life.
But, after I spent Tuesday night scrambling around the house, looking for thread to sew my ornament together, and then couldn't find it, I had to go to Joann's last night and buy more. And, of course, being of weak resolve, I bought some more Christmas fabric. And a votive candle holder. I am so annoyed with myself.
This happens quite frequently. I misplace things all the time. I think I own 3 Xacto knives, but I have no idea where two of them are, and barely keep track of the third one--it's in a candy dish in the family room, I know that much, but it was temporarily housed with a WIP til I realized how stupid an idea THAT was. And I'm forever misplacing ribbon, and beads and things of that nature. I know I can always buy more, but, really, it makes no sense. It's wasteful, and financially detrimental--at some point, the supplies start adding up, and I'd rather spend money on other things than a stupid Xacto knife because I just can't put it away.
Maybe this is why finishing anything is such an arduous, unwelcome process. Why would anyone want to risk dealing with stuff sliding, missing supplies, trips to Joann's, and general disarray. And then have to glue or sew things together? Would you?
But the question is, where to put all the goodies? I tried to put everything in the cupboard, but that doesn't work too well. Somehow, it's just not in me to open the sliding door (maybe because I put other stuff in there and it starts coming out, and I hate when that happens). But it has to be put away. Neatly.
My solution?
I'm cleaning out one of my large tins--the ones they put popcorn or Danish butter cookies in at the holidays, appropriate since I'm usually doing holiday ornaments--and putting all my finishing stuff in there. And I mean all of it. Knife, ribbons, glues, pins. ALL OF IT. (I say this like I have lots of this stuff, it's really not that much) I think this will work a lot better than shoving it in tiny tins and then trying to keep track of it all. At least it will look neater.
This is a small start. It's a good start.
7 comments:
Hope it works for you. I am so totally disorganized that it is maddening to say the least. And I've lived in the same place a long time so the accumulation factor is very high! But good luck with the effort.
Oh gosh, I remember not finding anything. About 18 months ago, I got fed up and bought some stackable interlocking drawers at Target. A coworker of mine made a platform for me with wheels to set the drawers on and I can roll it from room to room if I'm doing something labor intensive and don't want to keep getting up. I love it! I have it hidden behind my bedroom door so it's out of sight from people. When I finally get around to cleaning and purging my closets, it might even fit in one of them. It's the best investment I made. It stores all my fabric, charts, finishing items, threads, kits, etc.
My BF bought me some baskets recently since I was throwing my wip stuff on the coffee table and he was scared to spill stuff on my threads etc. So the small baskets will fit on the shelf under my coffee table for threads, scissors, tape measure, etc and the big basket is for my zippered wip bags. That sits next to my stitching spot. Now I can usually find stuff no problem!
Sorry for the rambling...hope that helps!
After my boys left home, I commandered their old chest of drawers [a lowboy with 3 wide drawers flanked on either side by 3 narrower drawers] and since one of the boys kept the matching desk but didn't want the hutch top, I centered that on the chest of drawers. The drawers contain all my scroll rods, loose charts, kits, etc. and the hutch shelves hold my books, binders, and boxes containing floss, beads, and assorted tools. I do keep a stitching tote in my living room near my stitching chair for my current rotation... but most of my stuff is stowed neatly in the boys old bedroom.
Good with the organizing. My "level" is bags and bags on stuff piled on the floor...
It is a good start. Congratulations on coming to a decision and following through with it!
Good idea for organizing. I am like you and own at least 2 of most things. Perhaps we could motivate each other in the new year to organize our stuff.
Julie
Sounds like a good idea to me!
I LOVE organizing! If you pay for my trip down, I'll come over and do the whole thing for you ;o) LOL!
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