This is better

Now that I've cleaned up this room a bit, it looks much better.  At least I can see everything is in a box instead of piled up in the middle of the floor.   This room was completely empty back in May of this year when my daughter and grand daughter moved into their new house.  Oh my, how things changed!

UFOs and many fabrics look much better when contained together.

Even the plastic drawer towers look better without all the STUFF piled up in front of them.

The cardboard is all sorted and ready to use for furniture and art crafts.

The other room is empty except for all my closet doors.  I'm going to paint all the closet doors before getting the handyman to rehang them for me.  This is the room I plan to start with in my organizing.

I've been playing around with colors trying to decide what I want in this room.  Of course, I've always believed it best to choose fabrics before choosing paint colors but it doesn't hurt to play around.  Just to get creative ideas going in my head. I really like this combination.  Cream color walls with white trim.  Jean gold and cinnamon accent colors.   White trim is what is in the rest of the house already. 

These are kind of nice too.   Blue walls and white trim.  Cream and cinnamon accent colors. 

I won't be buying any paint or fabric until my next shopping trip around the 15th or 16th.  Before buying anything I must decide what will be the function of this room other than a general description of storage/guest room.  What furniture will go in there?  What will be stored in the closet?  Will I do any crafts in this room?  What will be the theme of the room?  What lighting will I need?  I'll need a map of the room in order to play around with furniture ideas.   I do know the room is quite small.  If I remember right it's 7' X 8'.   Or maybe it's 8' X 9'?  The ceiling is 14' high. 

As you can see, I prefer to work from a plan.  With no looming quilting deadlines ahead of me, I can relax and enjoy the planning. 

Why show my clutter

Why am I willing to show how messy my house has become? 

Why let the world know I feel as if I'm becoming a hoarder?

Why open my house up to criticism of others when I could simply hide it behind closed doors and not show it on the internet?

Thank you Joan (How to be a housewife) for the comment you left me.  You got me thinking more about what I'm trying to explain on my blog.  I  guess I'm hoping to show other potential hoarders they are not alone.  I'm hoping to show other professional machine quilters what could happen if they let the quilting work consume their life the way I did.  Mostly it's the thing..... you are not alone.... that drives me. 

There seems to be a STUFF epidemic in America.  Ever since the end of WWII we've been told and convinced that buy, buy, buy is the way we should live.  No... that's not it.  Hmm.... We've been taught to buy cheap, buy cheap, spend, spend, spend, and make sure it's cheap enough to throw away so we can buy more.  We are a country of consumer driven economics and this leads to houses filled to the brim with STUFF.   Cheap stuff brought from other countries with people willing to work for slave wages in order to sell us cheap stuff to fill up our houses. 

When I was a child there were no mega malls or wally world stores.  Everything was made with quality and the maker was proud to sign their name on the product.  Stuff was made well enough and was just scarce enough to be cherished and handed down to the next generation with pride.   Knowing the next generation was glad to get the precious items.  A set of good china was loved and repaired when cracked or chipped.  A mother's wedding dress was packed away in tissue to be used by her daughter someday.  A bedroom set was made to last generation after generation.  Not replaced every year or two. 

These days we still want to hand things down to the next generation but the stuff we save is no longer quality...... it's junk.  We are listening to the advertisers who tell us that cheap plastic cups and tiny beenie babies are collector items.  Can anyone explain to me how cheap stuff, made by the billions, is collector items?   We've all been convinced that we must spend our money on this cheap crap that lasts only a short time then we need to buy it again, and again. 

Somewhere in time we stopped thinking about warranties as guarantees of quality.  Now days, a warranty is something to be sold to us instead of assuring us we are getting a good item.  When an item breaks we simply buy another one but we hang onto the old one just in case. 

The economy has lots of people scared too.  We hang onto STUFF from fear of the unknown.  We might need it someday.  For example; a few days ago the news was talking of higher prices on some things like flour, sugar, and cotton.  Well, as a quilter, a higher cost of cotton concerned me.  Fabric would cost more, thread would cost more, and batting would cost more.  My first reaction was that maybe I might need to order a large supply of batting to ride out the higher price.  Then I really thought about it.  I decided that the news should not be the reason for me to part with my money or have a stockpile of batting. 

In my quest to simplify my life and clear out the clutter I've come to realize there are a lot of quilters (or other people) who buy lots and lots of stuff only to become overwhelmed enough to throw away most of it and then immediately start buying more.  I don't want to live like that anymore.  I have enough!  In the past I've gotten by with very, very little.  I should be able to do it again.

I saw my Grandma Mama make do with very little but what she had was cherished and loved. Let's use quilts as an example.  She made quilts out of fabric scraps.  She even made them by machine.  What quilts she made were not finished in a couple of days so they were loved and cherished by all who got one.  These days quilts are made so fast and given away so often it's hard to cherish one quilt knowing another quilt can replace it in only a few days.  

Ok, I've gotten a little off topic, let me go back to why I'm showing the clutter in my house.  I feel as if there may be others struggling with the issue of having too much stuff like I am.  Maybe others are feeling as overwhelmed by the stuff as I've been.  Maybe if I tell my story there will be someone else who realizes they are not alone.   Would anyone else want to share their hoarding fears or stories? Write a post about your own fear or story and add it to the Mr. Linky.  (I hope I've done this right!)  Please link to the individual post and not your main blog.

Big room sized boxes

I was talking to my daughter a couple of days ago.  Rather, I was complaining about how difficult it is for me to get myself together.  I was telling her how my life seems to be so out of sinc with what I know and what I used to do.  I was telling her how the shows "Hoarding" and "Hoarding, Buried Alive" haunt me.  Most times I watch the shows and think to myself, how can they live like that?  I count my blessing that I don't have to live in a house with garbage everywhere.  Then I look around my house and I feel like I'm slowly becoming a hoarder and feel powerless to stop it. 

I feel like such a hypocrite for type-talking about all the things I do when I no longer seem to do them or get around to doing anything.  Kind of like when someone once told me.... "don't do as I do, do as I tell you to do".   Well, I don't want to be like that anymore.   If I tell someone the right thing to do, it should be because I've done it, am still doing it, and know it works. 

Reading through all my past blog posts, to create the links pages, I saw many of the organizing stuff I used to do then realized just how out of control my life has become.  Some things I've done in the past, very good things, are not being done because I can't seem to get around to doing them anymore.  Let me explain.

I've always been a very organized person.  Yet, right now my house is not organized and it got that way over and over again no matter how many times I organized it.  I've always lived frugally and know tons of ways to be thrifty.  I find myself spending money on things because I can't find the ones I already own.  I've always been a clean person.  These days I find myself throwing up my hands in frustration because I can't clean without doing something else first, then something else before that, then even something else before that.  So much so that I end up wasting time with crafty things instead.  I've always done DIY crafts of all kinds.  The crafts seem to be only an avoidance of what I really need to get done. 

Those who have been reading my blogs for awhile know how difficult it's been for me to keep my house from being overwhelmed with STUFF.  Time and time again I've cleared out things only to find my house piled up again with bags and boxes of STUFF.  There are times when I get so frustrated trying to have a neat and clean house I want to toss absolutely everything away and start all over with a completely empty house.  But.... you know what?  It would probably just get filled up with STUFF all over again.

While talking with my daughter she asked me to describe what the problem was so she could understand what my frustration was all about.  I started to explain it to her.  Light bulb moment!  DUH!  It finally dawned on me what is really causing the problem.  What I told her was.... "It's hard to organize things into pretty boxes under the bed if there's no bed.  It's really hard to group fabrics into organized dresser drawers when there isn't any dresser.  It's difficult to put craft items into nice containers on a closet shelf when there's no closet shelves.  It's hard to organize a pantry stash of groceries when there's no pantry."  You see my problem?  I do finally.  Duh!  Why did it take me so long to realize this?

It's said that all organizing starts with flat surfaces.  A shelf is a flat surface.  A drawer has a flat bottom surface.  A table is a flat surface.  A box, even one under a bed, has a flat bottom surface.  Well, gee whiz, no wonder I can't seem to get organized.  I only have one flat surface in two of my rooms and that's the floor.  Well no wonder I have bags and boxes piled up all over those rooms.  The rooms are like one big room sized box with one flat bottom.  I guess if you look at it like that, it makes sense that everything is organized in there.  Everything is organized into a bag or a box within the big room sized box.  What I really need is more flat surface dividers within the big room size boxes.  Yup, I need furniture and shelves. 

To be continued.....

Gonna get organized again

I have a quote stuck in my head but I can't remember where I heard it or read it.  The quote goes something like this..... When a person doesn't have time to get things done, they compensate by collecting the supplies instead.  I don't think it's an exact quote but close enough. 

For a frugal minded person this quote is troublesome.  Watching the shows "Hoarders" and "Hoarders, Buried Alive" doesn't help my thinking either.  If you haven't watched either of those shows you really should.  Some of the shows will gross you out with creepy crawlies and stinky gross stuff like mounds of adult diapers or science experiments all over the house.  There is some useful information on the shows if you take the time to really listen to the organizers and therapists ideas. 

Now about me.  I am a DIY, re purpose, discount bin buyer, craft maker, quilter, wanna be artist, type person.  I save things for DIY projects.  For example, instead of throwing this dish cloth away because it's starting to ravel apart,

I take it completely apart, save the string, and when I have time, I make the dish cloth again.  The only difference in remaking an old cloth and making a completely new dish cloth is the string.  I could buy more string IF I had the funds.  The frugal person in me says don't use money for string because the old string is still usable.  

Here's another example.  Plastic bags.

I fold them into plastic bag origami.  Later, when I have time, I plan to cut them into strips for plarn.  Plarn is plastic yarn.  In that pile of plarn I see several colorful rugs or table covers or something else useful.  I also have old vcr tapes and cassette tapes wound into balls of plarn ready to use.  The frugal person in me says don't pay hard earned money for rugs or table covers when I can make them myself for free.

Here's another example,

Cardboard.  Whenever I have time, I will use this cardboard in making my cardboard furniture.  Many of these pieces have already been marked with an outline for cutting the pieces just waiting for me to find the time to put it all together.  You might see just a pile of cardboard but I see a breakfast bar, a quilting thread cabinet, chairs for visitors to sit on,  a spice jar cabinet, lamps, desk.... etc.  The frugal minded person in me says why spend money I can't afford to spend on custom made furniture when I can make it myself almost free. 

I have a quilting fabric stash, machine quilting template and tool stash, artist paint/pencil/paper supply stash, left over t-shirt fabric for making undergarments stash,  fabric dyeing supplies stash, rug making fabric and plarn stash, food storage stash, etc.  Everything a frugal minded, DIY, crafter, quilter, rug maker, wanna be artist could possibly need.  You get the idea?

Anyone who has been reading my blogs for a while knows I've often talked about my house looking like a garage.  I don't have storage space anywhere.  No garage, no basement, no outside shed, no attic space for storing stuff.  Everything must find a home inside my house.

Add to the saving of stuff to be frugal is the fact I don't have a car.  It's not like I can wake up one morning and tell myself.... today I'm gonna make a cardboard cabinet;  get into the car to find what I need to make it; then throw away what's left over after it's finished.  OR wake up and say.... today I'm going to make a rugs; then get into the car to go buy scrap fabric and old vcr tapes at the thrift store.   OR wake up and say..... today I'm gonna make bras and underwear then go to a fabric store to buy fabrics. 

I get ideas for things to make then take weeks or months gathering the supplies to actually make them.  I plan purchases around discount bin shopping on the infrequent trips I chauffeur my SIL for her shopping day.  I put out a request for my friends to save things for me that I can use to make items I need or simply want to create.... like cardboard or upholstery samples or baby food containers.  I start gathering stuff months before I actually start making things from it. 

Then there is my working schedule.  Quilting gives me money to buy the things I cannot make myself.  If I don't quilt, I don't have money to buy food or pay for utilities.  Machine quilting is not something I can load a quilt on the machine then push a button for it to get done.  It takes ME sitting there moving the machine to earn a few dollars each day.  If I'm at the machine, I'm not creating the stuff I spent so many weeks and months gathering supplies for.  Pretty soon a room that was completely empty only 4 months ago now looks like this.

To be continued......

Greeting cards organized

While I've been cleaning and organizing, I decided to take a break and send my son a birthday card.  Well shoot, the cards were such a mess I couldn't find the card I wanted to send him.  Hmm.... had I sent it already?  Last year perhaps? 

Well, heck, it's high time I got the card box organized!  I guess it might be time for me to go to the greeting card store to replenish my supplies.  I need to know what I have in the box before I can make a list of what to buy.

I sort the cards into like types first.

Before putting the cards back in the box, I check every one to see that it has the right size envelope.  Then I find some old, unused file folders to cut down and make dividers.  I just happened to have them.  If I hadn't had old file folders, I could have used cereal boxes or other food boxes cut to size.

Yes!  This should be much easier for finding the right card at the right time.  I've seen these type card boxes for sale at extremely expensive prices.... for a cardboard box.  Mine was free by using what I already have. 

Hmm..... with so many descendants and relatives it's sometimes hard to remember who has a birthday each month.  I write all birthdays down on my calendar.  Sometimes I will need a sympathy card or a thank you card or a get well card but can't get to the store to buy one..... so I keep a supply handy.  Trust me, with this box of greeting cards, I've saved myself a lot of embarrassment.  Instead of waiting a whole month for my next shopping trip to get cards, I have them right within reach.  I can mail a card out right away.

Hmm..... since I've done the greeting card file box, maybe I should orgainze my box of addresses and phone numbers too.  I never know when I might need an address or phone number in a hurry.  I think these should be in much better order.... don't you?

Honey do list

You know how some women have a "honey do" list for their significant other?  Well, I don't have a honey to give a list to so my honey do list is for myself.

I'd really like to say I've been quilting the last couple of days on the next customer quilt.  It's not happening.  I've been going through stuff in my house getting ready for a neighborhood yard sale in a few days.  It's my daughter's neighborhood, not mine.  While going through things, I kept coming across papers that really should be in one place.  Papers.... such as notes about possible blog posts, recipes I'd forgotten about, quilting ideas, warranty information, emergency preparedness thoughts, and several other types of papers.

I got increasingly disappointed in myself about papers scattered everywhere.  The more I came across papers and started stacking them in one spot; the more I realized I really should do the way I used to do many years ago.  File everything in one place. At first I told myself I needed to buy a file cabinet. 

Umm... that's not really what I want, more stuff coming into my house.  I have too much stuff coming in and not nearly enough going out.  The balance between coming in and going out is waaaay off.  I think it was Don Ashlett that once said "A file cabinet is a way to store hidden paper junk vertically."   He's right, it's hidden vertically in folders and drawers, unseen, until it bulges at the seams.  Then there is a choice of either buying another file cabinet to hold more paper junk OR trashing as much as I can.  So, if it's gonna be trashed anyway, why store it?

In my younger days I kept a notebook of things I wanted to read regularly.  Actually, several notebooks.  I kept them sort of like scrap books.  Pasted in recipes, school function schedules, warranty information, grocery lists, and pretty poems..... that sort of thing.  That was the way women did things back then.  As my quilting career gradually overtook my personal life, the notebooks kind of fell to the wayside.

Several weeks ago, while traveling around the net, I came across some blogs that had household "binders".  Ooo, how clever!  Binders are sophisticated notebooks.  That was a gentle reminder of how it used to be for me.  I knew eventually I would make myself a household binder.  A sort of "house central" for all the information I need in one place.  I waited for school stuff to go on sale and I bought myself a couple of binders.  Going through stuff the last couple of days only got me more encouraged to actually start creating my household binder.  I had everything I needed so why not now?

With my binder in hand and lots of loose papers, I got started.  I didn't buy any dividers for the binder.  They didn't go on sale.  I'm using regular printer paper and these to make my dividers.  Umm.... both were bought from the discount bin months ago, even before I thought about making a household binder.  I do own a three hold punch too. 

Here's how my household binder looks now.  I plan to buy a monthly calendar to put reminders of things that are done only once a month or once a year.  Reminders like when the next junk day will be, when to change the batteries in clocks, when to drain the sediment from the water heater, what day guild meetings are held, when the deadline is for quilt entries, and things like that.

My binder also has my price book and my grocery list book and a tiny pen I got from the fair.  The pockets of the binder are just perfect for those. 

Well it's a start.  I've analyzed and either tossed or filed a whole stack of papers.   With a binder I can simply pull out what is no longer needed and toss it.  New stuff can go in easily.  I really like a binder better than several notebooks.  There are paper people and there are gadget people.  I prefer paper but my daughter prefers computers.  If you are a gadget person, your household notebook might be on a device of some sort. 

Gradually, I'll make it more organized.  I plan to do a post of each section as I work on those.  I believe my daughter will be interested and maybe some other readers will too.  Who knows?  Maybe someone working their way around the net will come across my blog and get a gentle reminder from me.

Started my price book

I bought one of these little note books last week.  One of the stores had them on sale for 25 cents because it's school time.  It's pocket sized so it will be easy to carry with me on shopping trips. 

The first thing I did was write in the stuff that needs to be permanent.  Then went back and started writing in the stuff that should be in pencil.  I chose my 3 favorite places to shop then added 3 more stores just to check now and then.  No, I won't be going to all the stores to check prices, I'll explain that in a moment.

I decided, for me, it's best to keep the prices based on "units of measure" instead of container prices.  Why?  Well because often the container sizes are different for different stores.  When the price is in equal amounts (like pounds) it's easy to compare prices.  But, when it comes to knowing if a 100 oz bottle of dish detergent is a better bargain than three 35 oz bottles at a different store, it becomes more difficult to check for the lowest price. 

Once my price book is made, it will be easy to maintain it.  An occasional erasing and a new price penciled in will be all it takes to keep prices current.  My price book contains one sheet for every item I found in my cabinets.  These are items I know I will purchase again when I run out.  I can add new items by making a new sheet.  Right now, my price book is not in alphabetical order.  When I'm satisfied I have a sheet for most items I buy, I plan to remove the wire spine, put the sheets in order, then put the wire back.

My price book does not have all the prices in it yet.  I will not be going on a price finding mission at several stores.  I will simply add unit prices as I find them.  For me, the easiest way is to use the sale ads I get in the Sunday paper each week.  (My thoughts about sale ads at the end of this post, please read it.)

I look through the sale ads and write the unit prices of the loss leaders into my price book along with the date.  Later, when loss leaders of the same items appear in the ad again, I can write down how long the cycle is for that item.  For example, the chicken thighs for 99 cents a pound.  In my price book the date is August 15.  The chicken thighs may remain on sale for a couple of weeks then a different loss leader takes it's place.  Next time the chicken thighs go on sale as a loss leader I can figure out an approximate length of time between.  I'll write the cycle length on the bottom of the sheet.

Why would I need to know the length of time between an item being a loss leader?  Hmm... suppose for some reason I ran out of chicken thighs.  I really don't want to buy thighs when the cost is at it's highest.  I can look in my price book to see when I may expect to see thighs as loss leaders again.  I can make plans to buy enough thighs to last until the next cycle. 

Suppose I'm running low on toilet tissue.  I can start watching sales for a loss leader of toilet tissue.  Knowing the unit price (one roll) and the length of time before it will become a loss leader, I can plan my purchase.  One store might have the brand I prefer at .50 cents a roll but a different store might have it for .40 cents a roll.  Different packages, different roll count, but the unit cost is what I look at.

The other way I use my price book is to write down the "normal" shelf price of items that rarely make it to the status of loss leaders.  For example, Mrs Dash.  I use Mrs Dash in a lot of my cooking.  Yes, it will be on sale once in awhile but rarely as a loss leader.  I do want to know if one store consistently prices Mrs Dash a few cents lower than other stores I shop. 

Suppose I'm in Kroger and see the price of Mrs Dash.  I believe it's a good price, but I wonder to myself if it's cheaper at Meijer which will be my next stop.  I don't want to loose out on a bargain and I'm not returning to this store until the next shopping trip.  I don't want to pay what I believe is a good price only to find out Meijer has is for a better price.  Do I buy Mrs Dash at Kroger or Meijer?  I simply look in my price book to find out which store has the best price based on the last time I checked the normal price of Mrs Dash. 

Another thing I haven't written into my price book yet is my current inventory and how many I want to keep in the stockpile.  I wanted to get started writing in the prices.  I can add the have/need part later. 

I do hope I've made this post about creating a price book understandable.  It really is a valuable tool for saving money.... if you use it.  It wouldn't make much sense to go to all the trouble of creating a price comparison chart or book then not take full advantage of the information.  I prefer my price book to be portable while other people might prefer to keep the information on a computer.  The idea is to save money so create your price book in whatever way you are most likely to update consistently and compare prices before making purchases.

About those grocery ads..... let me give you one more thought before I leave this post.  Any store can put a "sale" sign on anything and have you believing you are getting a real bargain.  Sale does not always mean "bargain price", sale can also mean the item is merely "for sale".  If you have nothing to compare prices you may be happily over paying for an item week after week because you see it in a sale ad.  Sale ads are the equivalent of a "sale" sign in a store.  A price book will let you know when a sale really is a good deal and not simply for sale. 

Piler or filer

When someone says you should get organized.... what mental picture do you see?  Spare?  Minimal?  Picture perfect? Empty? Sterile?  Personally, I believe that being well organized means simply having a place for everything and everything in it's place. 

When it comes to organizing, my daughter is a piler and I'm a filer.  Even as a child my daughter would create piles of stuff in her room.  She knew exactly what was in each pile and could find whenever she wanted.  The piles would drive me crazy sometimes but I allowed her to find her own style and use it.  As long as her piles didn't become breading grounds for icky critters the piles were ok.  She never had food items or junk in her room.  Just piles of books, piles of clothes, piles of shoes, and so forth.


I, on the other hand, prefer filing my things.  By filing I mean neat little drawers and containers to fit exactly what I'm organizing.  Ideally I would love to have a house full of drawers or cabinets with areas that exactly fit everything I own and want to keep organized.  Ha! Like that would ever happen. 

Regardless of your organizing style it's important to know where everything is. Organizing is simply another word for knowing what you have, how many, and where it's stored.  This is the cheapest way to start saving money.  It keeps you from buying duplicates because you can't find the one you already own. 

Ever since the end of WW11 we've been taught to be good little consumers and buy, buy, buy.  We've been taught that our self worth is directly connected to the amount of stuff we own.  A person who gets a raise is more likely to go out and buy more stuff than they are to seek out investing options.  A person that wants to show their grandchildren how much they are loved buys them lots of toys instead of spending time at the museum.  Holidays are no longer simply to celebrate the reason.  Holidays have become excuses to buy more stuff.  Not only are we buying ourselves more stuff but we use holidays to give other people more stuff too.

The more stuff we own, the more space we need to keep it.  Everything we own requires something from us.  We must feed it, oil it, clean it, store it, and so forth.  Before long, our stuff starts to own us instead of us owning it.  We become overwhelmed and over stimulated to the point we feel we must organize.

So along comes the organizer companies.  It's a whole industry devoted to helping people own and store more stuff.  If we run out of room in our homes we can rent space in a storage facility.  I sometimes hear about people buying another house just for keeping more stuff.  To me, that's very sad.  Their stuff truly does own them.  The stuff is so important that they pay a mortgage payment to own it. 

Back when I decided to semi-retire it was with the intention of giving myself a simpler life.  A life of meaningful things instead of cold, unfeeling STUFF.  Giving up most of my income meant returning to the money saving things I did in my younger days.  Organizing is the first step for me to have my simple life.  Less income helps me avoid the temptations to buy, buy, buy.  I hope you keep me company and read my blog as I travel this journey to a simpler, happier life. 

Empty space, yippie!

Ok, I finally have my space back to myself.  I have an empty room.  In a few days I'll have another room too.  Now it's time to get my own routine back.... for now. 

I need to turn things like this....

and this.....

and this.....

back into a somewhat organized set of quilting and art storage that's not overwhelming me or my home.  At the same time I need to stay on schedule with the customer quilts.  True, I have only 4 customers right now.  Those customers are very important to me.  They are also my friends.  My quilting schedule is top priority.  The organizing is second.

Before I can organize anything, I'll need to know what it is I have, and the amount of space required for the storage.  I'm taking an idea from the show "clean sweep" and adapting it to my own organizing.  If you haven't seen that show, it's where an organizing group goes into the home of someone, who's overwhelmed with lots of stuff, and help them reclaim the space for living.  The first thing that's done on every episode is that all the stuff is carried outside and sorted into piles of like stuff.  Books in a pile, crafts in a pile, toys in a pile, and so forth.  Then everything is counted, measured, picked through for duplicates, some is discarded, some is sold in a yard sale, and so forth.  What's left over after all the sorting and discarding is then put back into a well organized space.

Realistically, I can't carry all my stuff outside like they do on the show.  If I did that, my stuff would be gone in a matter of minutes.  My neighbors would think I was being evicted.  The one empty room I have is going to act as my sorting area for now.  A little at a time, I plan to move everything into that area and go through it all.  When it's all sorted and measured I can start getting together the organizing containers and finding the space to store it.  Eventually this one room will become a living room so the stuff can't stay there forever.  Hmm.... that's the goal anyway. 

Thrift stores and dumpsters

I am haunted by the tv show "Hoarding, burried alive".  When I look around my home these days I wonder if I should sign up for a hoarder intervention.  What can I say?  I save stuff.  This is in my bedroom. 

When my daughter moved in here, my stuff got moved from other areas of my house to make room for her and Ladybug's stuff.  I put three rooms of stuff into only one room.  This area is also in my bedroom.  I feel claustrophobic when I go to bed at night.

Only two more weeks and I'll have my house back to myself again and all this stuff will go back where it belongs.  Much better organized I hope.

Someone asked me recently..... where do you put it all?  Can you be thrifty and neat at the same time? Hmm.... space, just like time and money are precious commodities.  It really is hard to be neat when my home is filled with too much stuff in too small a space.  Keeping stuff organized is a key to saving time.  Saving time is the key to saving money.  The trick is to balance everything to get the best quality of life I can. 

The next time I feel I really should purge out some of my stuff, I'm going to be sure it goes where it will be used and not just put into a landfill.  Donating to a thrift store is not much of an option anymore.  Far too many people are donating and most of it is now being sent to the landfill.  A few weeks ago I donated some sewing items to a thrift store.  I went back a couple of days later looking for something I accidently put into one of the boxes.  I figured I would just buy it back.  Guess what?  Not one single thing I donated was out in the store.  It wasn't in the back room either because the employees let me look.  I asked why?  Where could the box have gone?  I was told that 85% of the donations go straight into a dumpster.   It doesn't matter if its good stuff either. 

Yikes!  Evidently everything I donated was thrown away immediately.  What's wrong with this picture?  What does it say about us as Americans when even the thrift stores are over burdened by too much stuff?  We are too much a throw away society.  I'm doing all I can to get away from throw away stuff.  I look for quality rather than simply a low price.  Quality costs more but lasts so much longer. 

When I start putting my stuff back in it's own space I hope to get a better idea of where everything is again.  It's hard to be frugal when I can't find what I need when I need it. 

Making room

I wanted to organize this drawer.  It's been bugging me for quite a while now.  I really don't like my stuff to be this disoranized.  I decided it was time to fix the problem.  I can't believe I let it get that disorganized.

Ok, I found this at a thrift store a few days ago. 

I found this at another thrift store.

 

Still one more from another thrift store.

I washed them thoroughly and this is what I did with them.

I have very little working counter space.  I like things to be handy but at the same time I can't have a lot sitting on the counter.  The space behind my sink had a way of catching large things that needed to be washed.  That was another problem for me.  I think I've solved both problems.  When I find time I'll paint them a pretty color so they all match..... maybe.  I kind of like them as they are too.

Duh! Why didn't I think of it before?

My, my, we are growing up. As soon as a child is old enough to walk they should get their own back pack. I mean really, if they must have diapers, wipes, bottom creams, snacks, sippy cups, and toys every time they leave home.... why shouldn't they be the one to carry it?

Is this storing items at the point of use?  hee, hee, I think it is.

Why do they leave?

Yes, I've have been playing around on the computer almost all day. Taking a machine quilting break gives me enough time to reorganize my thoughts so I can write better blog posts. I noticed I lost one of my followers. I can't help but wonder..... why?

Did they get bored with my blog? Are they giving up the internet? Are they looking for something different? It's sad when someone leaves. It's like having a friend move out of state and never see them again. Hmm.... I guess I need to learn to not take things so personally when a friend decides to unsubscribe to my blog.









Well anyway, I came across some of my frugal quilting thoughts when I was putting my tickler file together. Here's what I used.

Next I got out all the bits and pieces of paper and sorted them into categories.

Whew! A couple of hours later and my memory tickler is all organized.

Ok, now if only, if only, I can keep up with the organized habit of my tickler file. It's very tempting to just start jotting down notes and sticking them someplace. I decided to get rid of the little note pads and place file cards all over the house. If it's written on a card it will be easier to file it.

Keeping or getting rid of books

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For some people owning books is the same thing as owning knowledge. Some people feel that if they throw the book away or give it to someone else they are giving away their knowledge. It doesn't matter if they read the book or not. To quote an organizing book I read once.... "I don't want someone else to have all that knowledge. I paid for it and I want to keep it." I can't remember who the author was but it was what one of his customers said to him when he mentioned they should get rid of many of their books.

You see, I read books to put the knowledge into my head.... where it belongs. Books are just printed words on paper. Unless you get the words into your mind, where you can access them quickly, they remain just words printed on paper.

When you buy a book it's because something within the printed pages interested you. You buy the book to read and digest the contents. After that, what does it do for you if you let it set and gather dust? If you buy a book and find you go to it often for reference; then, by all means, count it as one of your treasures.

The act of physically owning a small library of books gives some quilters a sense of security. It reinforces that they are quilters (or toppers). Think about this: will a pinwheel block be any different if it's created in a different way? A pinwheel is still a pinwheel whether it's made by cutting one piece at a time, rotary cutting several pieces at a time, stack & whack style, paper pieced, or hand pieced. It all ends up as a pinwheel. All books that have pinwheel blocks are still pinwheels.... the only difference is the technique used. If you buy a book and learn the technique you shouldn't need the book anymore. You have transferred the knowledge from the book to your mind.

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I prefer to pass along my books to someone else. Maybe they can earn money from selling them or maybe they want to learn the techniques. It really doesn't matter to me because I've gotten what I need from the books.

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Right now I'm more interested in getting my creativity back. What do I mean? You know how when your sewing room starts to get a little out of order you don't pay much attention? Then it starts to snowball on you. The chaos spreads and before you know it you can't find a darn thing. Well, the reverse is true too. When you start to clean... it can snowball as well. You clean one area which makes the area next to it look awful so you clean that area too. And repeat and repeat.

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Its very hard to create when you get an idea then go on a search for just the right reference book or fabric or pattern only to give up because you simply can't find it among the chaos. A person can be very, very creative when they know exactly where things are, can go right to them to use, then put them back for the next time.

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Over the last 2 or 3 years my house has gotten totally chaotic. It's just not me! Since my retirement (or sabbatical) started I've been on a mission to bring order and creativity back. I'm organizing for the space I have.... not trying to create organizing space where there is none. In other words, I want to keep the number of books I own confined to the space I decide is for my books. Now that I have gotten them down to the right number to fit my shelves..... it will be one book in.....one book out. I can't fit 300 books into shelf space for 100 books. Physically impossible. Get another book shelf? No place to put it. The other space is reserved for fabrics or templates or whatever occupies the space next to the bookshelf. I cannot physically fit 1000 cubic feet of storage into a 300 cubic feet of space. (not the actual space sizes or numbers but illustrates my point)

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By paring down all my stuff (and getting it where it's easily accessible) I'm much more likely to use it rather than become frustrated because I know I have something and just can't find it. I'm planning to do the same thing with all my other quilting stuff. I'll talk more about that in another post. I have to get back to the studio for now.

Store at the point of use

This might seem like a small obvious thing; but, you would be surprised how many won't have thought of it. Items should be stored as close as possible to the place where it will be used. For example: these slow cooker liners.





What better place to store them than inside the slow cooker? You can't get any closer to the point of use than that.

Now these will always be where I need them. I won't have to go on a seek and find mission in order use them. When I use all of the discontinued liners I bought; hopefully, there will be another brand I can buy. If not I will have to clean the slow cooker the old fashioned way. Baking soda and elbow grease.

So is it a garage or a home?

You've probably read me type talking about how my house always feels like a garage. I've said many times that my house is filled to the max with STUFF. You've read me say that every available space holds something that I believe to be useful, or that I paid good money for, or someone special gave to me. Am I right?

Well this morning I stood looking at the next bunch of stuff to sort and re organize and got to thinking.... if this house is a garage..... where is my home? Where is the place where my family and friends can gather? Where do I go to relax from a day of machine quilting? Where are the photos of my hugh family of kids, grand-kids, and great-grand-kids? Where am I in this garage? Where are the things that show who I am? Not just a professional quilter but a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother and a friend to many. Where's my personality in this place?




Next I had to ask myself..... is what make me, me really in the boxes at the bottom of all this stuff? What I mean is.... are all the things that make a house a home really stored away in my closets and under beds or even inside a cabinet? In my case, yes. I don't have a single picture or nick nack anywhere. It's all in boxes.

Could this be a carry over from my childhood? When I was a child I rarely unpacked more than a few clothes because I knew very soon I would be shipped off to another relative or orphanage. If I didn't unpack then I felt no attachment when leaving. It hurt less.

When my daughter and I moved into this house I kept every memory I could find a place to hide it. For heavens sake, I have every school paper she ever brought home.... including some from college. The same with my other kids.... all the papers from their childhood. Not to mention some favorite toys, pretty rocks they brought to show me, dried weeds they gave me as flowers, my son's wood carving attempts, inherited items from the people I remember but my kids don't, and photos of trees, flowers, and buildings I saw on vacations many years ago.

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Also there are fabrics that have been given to me or I bought at one time or another. Bunches and bunches of fabrics; depending on what design phase I was going through at the time. I have gizmos and gadgets I collected from every bunch of quilting stuff donated by the fabric fairies.

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Why can't I get rid of it? The stuff I don't or won't use in the near future? Why can't I get rid of the excess of craft related items that are just too much? Why do I hesitate throwing away a good piece of cardboard or a pretty piece of fabric even though it could easily be replaced?

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Perhaps because everything has a some value to me. Value gives me an excuse to keep everything. For example: Someone gave it to me and I don't want to hurt their feelings if I toss it. It belonged to someone I remember fondly and want to honor their memory. It belongs to someone else and I can't get rid of it without their permission. I might need it someday if we have a world catastrophe. The biggest excuse of all.... it cost me money and if I throw it away it's like saying the money was wasted.

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At some point I've got to unpack my real life and get rid of the STUFF that's taken over my happiness. It's time for me to move the garage out of my house and make this my home. Gosh, I've lived here for over twenty years, I think it's high time I made it a real home and stopped living as if I'll be leaving it soon. My real life needs to come out of the boxes in the closet and from under the beds.

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Why don't I just rent a storage space to put it all? Well think about it. As a society we gather STUFF and then need organizer stuff to store it. We get a bigger house so we can buy and store more stuff and buy more organizer containers. When we can't buy a bigger house we try to pack 5 rooms of stuff into one room so we can make more room for more stuff. An off site storage facility is like buying another piece of real estate so we can pack it with more stuff.

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I've decided it's time to unpack my life and stay awhile. There are people reading my blogs that might recognize something I'm moving out of my garage. To them I say.... I'm sorry, but I need my life back. I don't want this to be one big studio or storage facility. I want my family and friends to be welcome.... without me being embarrassed by the piles of STUFF.

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Most readers know my daughter and grand-daughter are moving back home this fall. Over the next few weeks I will be going through everything in my house to make room for them to live here. I don't want my grand-daughter with memories of NaNa's house being only boxes of stuff stacked everywhere. It should be a place of comfort and fond remembrances of me. The cookies we will bake together and the games we will play on the floor and any other memories we can create together. The same goes for all my other grands. I want their memories of Granny's house to be warm and comforting instead of cramped and strange.

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I want their memories of me to be like that of a happy Christmas song...... over the hills and through the woods to grandmother's house we go..... laughing all the way.

Twiddle my thumbs or clean something?

Almost everyone has plastic containers. Sometimes the containers are stored in a cabinet hap hazardly. The door is opened and things come tumbling out. Some plastics are stacked inside others requiring several steps to put it away after use. Take out the front stacks to put something in a stack at the back then replace the other stacks in front. Too much trouble to get it all back into the cabinet so things just kind of get tossed in and the door shut quickly.

This was the problem I had. My plastic wasn't stored in a wall cabinet though. It was stored inside a cabinet I use for an island in the kitchen. Well yesterday, I had a few minutes away from the machine as I watched food on the stove. Not wanting to just stand there twiddling my thumbs between stirrings, I cleaned out a drawer that held dog food and one that held dog treats. The food and treats were for my furkid that passed away last Christmas. It was high time I got rid of it. I bagged it up for the local dog shelter. A volunteer will pick it up today. The tiny furkid's food is so small it can fit into one small container.

After I washed out the drawers I decided to use them for my plastic containers. I tossed all the old butter tubs and the fast food glasses. What's left is a nice assortment that fit nicely....



into two drawers.

Nothing stacked inside another. Each size will be easy to get and easy to put back. I used a household bungee cord in each drawer to hold the lids. One small hole drilled on each side to hold the ends. The tops for one size containers wouldn't fit inside the bungee cord. Too tall.

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If I ever win the lottery.... or get chosen for one of those home makeover shows... I'm going to be sure my kitchen has nothing but drawer cabinets! Hmm.... how does someone get chosen for those shows anyway? Is there a fairy out there somewhere that peeks inside homes? Do friends have to recommend someone?

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This was only a small step toward getting my house re organized but it felt so good. As I said before, sometimes organizing is a result of simply cleaning. Cleaning out the old dog food resulted in organized plastic containers. Thirty minutes is all it took.