July 27, 2018

Creative Spaces Blog Hop – Week Three – Organizing Tips

Organized is such a relative term. What’s organized for one may make little sense to another, or even feel like chaos. It depends on the person’s point of view, personality, etc. Take my desk for example. My desk usually looks like a tornado just hit it, but I can (usually 🙂 ) find what I need. The key to that hot mess is that I keep all the important things in specific places and not just thrown about–the way it may appear to some.

I feel like that is a key part to being organized: finding a comfort zone for yourself and having a specific spot for the essentials or important things.

And just a side note: There was a study done that showed working in a cluttered environment promoted creativity over those who were in a tidy room. Those subjects came up with more creative solutions and original ideas. It showed other things, such as the subjects who were working in a tidy environment made healthier snack choices and other less important findings 😉 So when you’re worried about the clutter and mess you are making while sewing up a storm, remember it’s part of the creative process—or it may just spark that next brilliant idea.

Don’t get me wrong, I feel a need to be organized. I do love for things to be organized and despise searching for hours. Or having to just to pop over to the store for a tool you can’t find and need for a project. I’m just trying to be realistic. I’m not able to keep things tidy for long when I sew.

I took a class at my local quilt shop a couple years ago. It was focused on being organized. And I even have several books, DIY organizational type books. After feeling badly about not being more organized, I came to some conclusions.

1. It must work for you.

First of all: Do what works for you. For me, that starts with grouping my tools, fabrics, and supplies into levels of necessity.

Level 1: something I use every time I sew.

Level 2: a specialty tool that helps speed up the sewing.

Level 3: used occasionally.

2. Everyone has their own comfort level for clutter and organization.

Own it! Whatever it may be … it’s your style, your level of comfort, and what works for you. Don’t beat yourself up about not being a neat freak like Suzy or container queen like Jane. Spend time creating with a clear mind by doing what works for you and not comparing yourself to what works for others.

3. It’s extremely helpful to have a place for every thing, and everything in its place.

Whether it gets put in its place while creating is irrelevant. But after a project is finished, put everything back in its place, clean off the cutting table completely, and sewing table should be uncluttered. This will help reduce the chance of playing “guess where I put the thing I absolutely need right now or I can’t sew this project” game.

I clean the lint from the bobbin area of my machine at this time as well. It tends to build up otherwise. (remember, I focus on the important things. Taking care of my machines is crucial–they are my partners in crime.)

To get a better idea, I’ll share a little of my controlled chaos.

I love bathroom, cosmetics, and office organizers. I use them to store my Level 1 stuff. These are made for organizing other things, but I find they work great for my sewing supplies and tools … much better than the ones designed for sewing rooms.

I even use a kitchen utensil bucket for some things I feel are more level 2 and 3 stuff, but I can’t seem to find a better place for–such as the knitting needles (I don’t knit, but use them in sewing).

These are office drawer trays I found on clearance. I grabbed all they had. I love how the smaller size fits right in front of my machine. It allows me to drop things or exchange a presser foot without things being placed on the table–which will eventually be pushed onto the floor or possibly lost.

These little office drawer trays are stackable and heavy weight, so they work great.

I separate my machine needles into type: one tray for ball point needles, universal, quilting, etc.. Stack em up and place them into a drawer. Next to the needles are my machine stitch cards. They need to be kept safe and these trays are the ideal size for them.

The elastic is an essential level 2. I hate searching for elastic, so I buy an obscene amount when I buy it. The back up stash is stored in the boxes (yes, I buy elastic, velcro, and other supplies by the box or roll– I hate going to the store for a notion and leaving with a whole lot of other stuff I didn’t need). It’s so easy to store and stay organized when you just buy the lot.

The larger office drawer tray is the perfect size for the cutting table. It’s a working tray — meaning, I place all the things that that I’m using in it instead of on the cutting table while working. It keeps the table clutter-free and manageable.

The pink and metal buckets are for organizing as well. The pink is a flower pot or vase. I picked it up at a garage sale. Any scrap large enough to use (we’ll discuss my hoarding of scraps in a later post) goes in there, to be dealt with later.

The metal was an office container from my mom. When she moved out of the state, she gave me a bunch of boxes to deal with for her. She had a ton of office supplies and these were among them. They’re pretty heavy weight, so they don’t slide around easily. I love them for thread catchers and have one at each of the key places: ironing board, cutting table, and sewing table. Keeps me a bit tidier, which is a way of staying organized.

I love how my bobbin organizer fits on top it, so I can still toss threads in and have the bobbins handy.

I used to have a wall in which all my large rulers were hung up, but I’m not there, yet. I do have have the smaller ones all together inside a drawer of that drawer unit thing (the one pictured above). It’s a craft or office drawer unit. It’s wooden and a great compact size: narrow and short, so it doesn’t take over the room.

My sewing basket sits on top of it perfectly. My basket is filled with all sorts of supplies–more like a traveling sewing room. I take it to every class I teach, so I hopefully will have what my students may need.

I have these little snap containers inside to keep the supplies organized. Students know they can go to my basket and easily find what they need.

The empty pill container is a great way to store broken or dull pins and needles. Once it’s full, I can just toss the whole bottle more safely.

So that’s a little about I keep organized amid my madness that I’m calling my creative process.

Be sure to check the other designers’ blog posts on organization. I’ve been getting some great ideas from their posts to further my quest for happy chaos!

~Erin