In one of my lectures I make a joke that Organization is a four letter word for me. I like the idea of organization. Ok I love the idea of organization. I see pictures on Instagram of neatly organized shelves, with everything in its place – even the little knickknacks that make the space attractive. There are whole magazines dedicated to getting your virtual scattered sheep into their corral. A whole industry if you take into account stores like The Container Store, who cater to ways to get yourself together.

This has been a life long challenge for me and I’m realizing it boils down to several key points, not just one thing.

First, you will have no help of getting or staying organized if you have too much stuff for your space. Dolly Parton once famously said (when the seam of her dress split) that you can’t expect to put 10 lbs of mud in a 5 lb sack. She’s right and it applies to my sewing room too. If I have more stuff than could literally be crammed on the shelves, it is always going to spill over, there will always be piles and there will never be the sense of calm organization in my space.

Second, it does not have to be fancy or expensive to get organized, but there needs to be a system. Using boxes or containers to get little items under control can go a long way. Putting like things all together in one place rather than scattering them all throughout the space will help keep it hanging together. I have one HUGE exception to this rule in my sewing space, and that is making project boxes for on going works in progress as self sufficient as possible. That means for a particular project, everything needed in that box – the fabric, the pattern, the thread, specialty rulers, and other tools like triangle papers etc required for that project. This gets me two benefits. One, when I am sewing at home, and I only have 30 minutes, I don’t spend 25 of those minutes looking for the correct ruler, I just pull the box and get busy. Second, when I go to sew on the road (retreat or small group), I know if I grab the project box, along with my sewing machine, I will have everything I need to work on that project. It streamlines packing for the retreat as well as ensuring when I get to the retreat I haven’t forgotten a critical tool or component of the project.

Third, and possibly the most important, organizing is like laundry. It is a myth that you can get organized and then you are DONE. Organization has to be a constant and ongoing activity. Every time something is touched, it has to be put back into its spot. Everything has a place and everything in its place is a Victorian proverb and how right it is. That is the heart of organization, so it requires a new habit of putting everything back in its place when I am done using it. Even with my project boxes, when I stop working on a project, EVERYTHING needs to go back in the same box so that the next time I reach for it, it is all there ready and waiting for me. If several projects use the same tools, I will look at investing in multiples of an item if they are not expensive, so that I can have one in every box. My time is very valuable and more than one retreat has gotten sidetracked because I left something critical at home. A couple of dollars for a duplicate tool is worth it to me if it can maximize the time I sew.

Putting all these ideas into practice is an ever evolving project. I still have way too much stuff. The other day I was looking for 9 yards of a blue fabric. I can’t find it. Still haven’t found it. NINE YARDS of fabric is not a trivial amount. I am not picking it up in a handful of other things. I have no clue where it is. That tells me I have a long way to go on my push to streamline my stash and make it so that I can find things. My project boxes are setup and are working pretty well, I just need to maintain them as I work on different things through the year. I will get there, and when I do you can bet there will be a couple of photos on Instagram of that beautiful moment when it all comes together. I will probably also take a couple of photos along the way so I can #honestcraftroom my post and show that it’s not perfect all the time.