Cleaning and Organizing Takes Serious Time!

As you can tell by the picture below, my sewing cabinet is a MESS. It's basically what can happen when I don't have the time to clean things up and no space in which to put things. Being determined to reclaim my space will be harder and take longer than anticipated, but I'll be very happy with the results. Because I got my shopping done early, I had some serious time to spend, so I dove in. 

My sewing cabinet was BEYOND crazy. This is how it
looked as I started cleaning yesterday. I'll admit it's messier
than usual because I had to pull a lot out (and then pile
back in randomly) when I pulled my sewing machine
away for repair last week. This isn't going to be an
overnight project! 

I decided to tackle the books portion of the shelving first. Books are always a problem for me (as are magazines). I get them for a reason and those reasons haven't changed. In my sewing cabinet, the books and magazines are all fiber related - Sewing, Weaving, Dying, Spinning, Knitting and Crocheting. There are magazines like "Spin Off" and "Handwoven", sewing information contained in "Threads", and a variety of knitting magazines. There are books detailing secrets to fitting, the history of red or blue dyes, how to use natural dyes, and various spinning books examining the craft in minute detail. These were the books I loved and the craft I adored before my hands betrayed me. My hands are actually getting better now (new medications) and I'm hopeful that I might be able to sit at a wheel again for a pleasant time making yarn from fleece. 

But I digress ... 

The shelf I chose to tackle had printed materials, but also a bunch of old catalogs, fibre samples, correspondence with friends and spinners around the world, and old receipts. The task was to go through things thoroughly, shred items that had personal information, recycle paper that could go into the recycling, and begin pulling fabrics from the fabric stash below onto the cleared shelf. 

After three hours of cleaning, the second shelf looks quite
a bit better, and the pile to the left of my ancient tredle
sewing machine cabinet has diminished. It's quite
obvious there's still a lot to do, but it was quite a
good start to the project. I'll tackle the top shelf
next week. The bottom shelf will be the worst - lots of
smaller items that I actually need at hand. 

After three hours of work, I was actually pretty happy. I realize it doesn't look like I did much, but actually I have two full bankers boxes of books and magazines pulled. I'll have to figure out where I want to put them, but right now they are out of the way. I tossed a bunch and recycled or shredded when needed. I consolidated unspun fleece into a smaller box and unpacked and shelved a variety of fabrics - from cotton to fine silks. 

I know, it doesn't really look like much was done at all, but I'm happy. I'm already looking forward to next Wednesday when I can continue the BIG CLEAN. I want to get the fleece and fibres off that top shelf and see what I've really got up there. So, baby steps. Have a great day, stay safe, be kind, and I'll be back tomorrow.