Hello,
Putting things away created the illusion that the clutter problem has been solved. Marie Kondo
It's been very hot and humid these days. I always say, the summer holiday should be extended or changed to August.
But the heat didn't stop me from continuing my mission of tidying up the konmari way.
Marie suggested in her book "the Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" to do it based on category and do it all at once for each category. This part is a little bit difficult to do, since I don't have much time.
Instead, I do little by little every few days. One subcategory at a time. The past 2 weeks, I've been busy doing KM-ing for my sewing room. The first I did was the bag hardwares and sewing notions. Those were kept all over the place, so I took out everything and kept them in one rack and labelled each containers and bottles. And next to it is all the interfacing rolls.
Fabric wise, I divided the category into several sub categories.
1. More than 2 yards
For over 2 yards of fabrics, I keep them in a saree bag with clear top which I got from Amazon. They are very handy to store fabrics.
I fold them the KM way and store them in a cupboard under my sewing table.
2. Less than 2 Yards.
For this subcategory, I divided into:
- 1 yards
- Half Yard
- Fat Quarters
- Fat Eighth
For 1 yard fabrics, I folded the KM way around 10" wide. Fold and store them vertically in back row of my fabric cupboard.
For Fat Quarter fabrics, I fold them smaller and place it in the front row. This way, I can still see the yard fabrics too.
I don't have to sort them by colors too, since you can literally see everything there.
For the Fat Eighth Fabrics, I roll and put them in a box vertically. That way, I just check them when I need just a small piece of fabrics.
The idea was from Japanese fabrics I bought from my Japan trip. Once rolled, I secure it with washi tape.
3. Fabric Strips and Scraps
For Strips, I divided into 1.5" wide , 2" - 3" , 4" - 6" . I put them in separate containers and mark each of them. For the 4-6 inches bin, I fold each fabric and store them neatly in the bin. This way, I will know at a glance which fabrics I can use.
For 1.5" bin, it's always a mess, since I open it very often for binding my wallets and small quilts. I am still thinking a better way to store them. Maybe using cards. I want something that take less space.
For scraps, the size can be varied as long as I know I won't be needing them for wallet and bag projects. And I already have buckets with cover and separated by colors. My biggest problem in here is the dust. That's why I want everything to be covered.
I have a book case which I used to store the 2 yards fabrics. For now, I use the top row to keep the solid fabrics. I plan to make a curtain for the book case. Let's see.
I'm yet to tackle the books, which I think I will do it last. But I already sorted out my paper patterns.
I keep the pattern pieces in a folder. So far I have 3 folders. I threw away any pattern pieces which I know I won't make it anymore. Since I have the digital version, I can always print them whenever I need it in the future. I used to keep the paper patterns in a saree bag and I threw away most of them. I wonder why did I keep all those trash! LOL
I used to have boxes filled with fabrics and most of them are all gone now. I still have more shoe boxes to sort out and then there are more scraps I kept under my computer table *sigh*.
In the beginning, it was difficult to decide which stuff do not spark joy anymore. But as I keep going, it is easier for me to decide. Now I have one 28" suitcase filled with my personal fabric collection which I wish to destash. Most of them I bought from my trips. I decided I will keep less than a yard for each fabrics.
What I learned so far:
- Have a clear vision of what you want to keep and how you'd like to organize your sewing room. That way you will save time organizing it. Write down your categories and subcategories.
- Deal with scraps immediately. The "I will deal with it later" will ultimately never get done.
- Storing vertically, give you a clear birds eye view of things that you have. Now I can find fabrics within minutes, which normally take 2 days!
- Do exercise (physical exercise) before embarking to KM journey. Believe me, sitting on the floor folding fabrics can break your back!! Plus exercise give you more energy!!
- I feel more inspired after clearing up some stuff! I even managed to finish 2 orders in one evening after whole day of organizing.
I still have a long way to go! So far from my sewing room alone I throw away more than 5 big bags of garbage. While from the home, we threw away 11 huge bags of useless stuff! Well, it's going to be a long journey and I am not in a hurry.
That's all for the Konmari Method update. If you think you don't need to learn about tidying up, you might consider buying her book.
Thank you for stopping by!
Happy Sewing
- Elvira-
