The Sewing Room - The Thought Process

 I have a large sewing room which is nice to have. It was redone when our basement flooded in 2019 and I love the colour we chose. When cleaned up, it is a calm and creative space for me to work in. 

In reality it is beyond my clutter threshold. What looks calm is superficial; on the outside only. What is hidden is way too much even after decluttering it several times. 

The Closet

When the doors are shut, you see nothing but when you open those doors, there is enough stuff to make my stress level go way up. The picture below was taken in August 2023. I have a bit less in there now but there still too much. 

I looked in it last week and asked myself what I really needed to keep and what I could get rid of. The money has been spent on buying it but it doesn't need to be kept. I feel like I am organizing clutter each time I tackle this closet. 

I have gone through the bins and the basket of doll's fabric. There is a lot of emotional attachment to it. I don't feel guilty about buying it, I feel guilty about not getting it sewn up into projects for sale. I was talked into starting an Etsy shop as a couple of people thought I would do well selling the doll's clothes I made. I never did it and I'm happy I didn't. With the Spousal Unit's declining health I would never had enough inventory to keep it going. But, I have the fabrics for those outfits. It is still hard to let go of them but I am going to have to do it. I need to sort them into keep, maybe, and donate piles and follow through with letting go. 

On the shelf is a tub of lace trims. I bought lots as it was hard to get those trims here. I have a large collection and know I will not use some of them. I need to sort through them and bag up what I don't want and donate them. 

It will be the same for everything on the shelf but the embroidery thread. I will keep it as I use it rather than buy more. I am slowly working my way through it. If my embroidery machine dies, I will have to decide if I want a new one or stop doing embroidery. My machine is old and parts are no longer available.

The Doll's Cubby

I bought an Ikea cubby for the doll's stuff. 

I have 13 dolls and am getting ready to downsize them. I want a wardrobe for each doll when I give it away. The 4 black tubs on the bottom row are full of doll clothes and shoes. I am also making each doll a quilt. I make, I collect, and I will have to decide who gets what. It is difficult to decide and how I will give them away. I may make a reusable grocery bag and put the doll and her wardrobe into it. Making the bag will require me buying the fabrics and interfacing for them. I need to think. 

The Fabric Stash

This is another area that I struggle with. I have given a lot of fabric to the a quilting group for charity quilts. I am talking scraps, fat quarters and yardage. 

This was taken in August 2023. The amount of fabric is a bit less but I still have too much. What do I still need and what can I let go of is the big question. The two tubs of stabilizer for embroidery will stay as I use them when I embroider items. The roll of fabric and squares are to redo the dining room chairs. The bag of stuffing is used for doll pillows and will be used to stuff a rabbit. I know I will need more stuffing. The garment fabrics need to be gone through once again. I have an idea of what I need and what to let go of. The quilting fabric is dwindling in size as I do sew it up. There is less old fabric but some new fabrics made an appearance. 

The drawer unit on the left hand side has fabric for several quilts plus batting and interfacing. That unit is suppose to hold my pared down stash and I want to keep working towards that. 

The Pressing Station

This area is not too bad considering I do a lot of pressing. 

There are a couple of items that have been put on the white table that need to be dealt with. An easy job and I will live with this area. There are no wants stored here. Just what I need. 

The Book Shelf

The book shelf looks calm and wonderful. 

I rarely look in those books and tubs. I need to think about that and donate what I don't want. The white box holds extra sewing notions and I rarely look in it. I need to deal with that. 

There is a chair beside the book shelf that I do sit in on occasion. I use to watch the TV when I was sewing and should set up the extra iPad so I can do that again. 

The Desks 

I have a desk and a table in the sewing room. The desk holds the lap top and the table holds items I think I may need. 

I need to sort through everything and downsize what I have. I also have courses I have bought from Pixie Faire to learn pattern making, couture sewing, and planning items to make. I do play around with them but I don't do a lot. I have pattern making in a tub upstairs that I am going to dismantle as I haven't looked at it for months. 

The Cutting Table

The cutting table is the hardest to keep clean. There are days it looks like this but more often than not it has projects on it. 

I have learned that I need to clean it off when I have finished the projects I have cut out. I need to deal with it right now as it has some items on it that need to be put into the donate box and some items that need to be put away or trashed. 

I have purged the drawers in this table to what I use on a regular basis. Two tubs are underneath that I put scraps into plus a few items that I make for daughter. 

The Yarn Cubby

This cubby is one that doesn't bother me too much. I think it is because I haven't added much yarn to the stash in the past 2-3 years. I buy and knit it up. I do use what is in the stash also. 

What is on top, I love. It is a group of things I found at my grandmother's house and my uncle gave them to me. I cherish them a lot. 

The tubs are not in a colour I like. I actually hate them and should replace them two at a time. I would love black ones. The yarn is sorted according to weight. Some bins are fuller than others but I know I will knit it up. I do a lot of knitting for the dolls plus socks. I don't have a lot of sock yarn as I knit many pairs a year. I have knit 7 pairs so far this year with one pair that needs yarn for the toes and another pair on the needles. 

What Do I Need To Do?

I know that the amount of stuff in the sewing room is way too much for me. I need to think with these in mind.

    Getting rid of items is not wasted money. The money was wasted when I bought them, not when I let them go. What I need to let go of will be used and valued by someone else rather than sitting on a shelf. 

    The excess stuff (called clutter) is stifling me. I need simplicity in all areas so I can breathe easily and calmly when I enter the room. Hiding it in closets and tubs does not bring me calmness. When I open the closet doors or look into those tubs, I do not have calmness. 

    Remind myself daily that this is a living space to create in and not a storage space of items I will never use. 

    I need to be able to clean up the room easily. Having less will make it easier. I know that from the areas I have decluttered hard in the past. 

I know that the amount of stuff in the sewing room is psychologically suffocating me slowly but surely. It is also stifling my creativity and my desire to buy new fabric for a project I want to make now. 

My Plan

I usually take part in decluttering the sewing room each January. The person who hosts it has you do something each day for 3 weeks. I have done that for 3 years and I am still organizing items I don't use. It is telling me that I still have hidden clutter in the sewing room. 

I am thinking of doing an area at a time and really purging it down. My thoughts will be:

    Have I looked at it in the past year? 

    Will I use it in the next 6 months?

    What will I use this for?

    Can I let part of it go and keep only a small amount?

    Will I really move forward with this project? Can someone else enjoy finishing it more than me?

    How can I store this easily and simply without it causing me to feel stressed? 

I know it is going to be hard but it is something I need to do. There is more to this journey than what meets the eye. I want to have less stuff to look after now and in the future. I don't want to feel burdened by what I have in the sewing room. 

I will add more tabs as I start my journey. It may take me a while to do as I am not going to burn out doing it. Some decisions are going to be hard, others will be easy.