FlyLady Tips: How is Your Sewing or Office Storage doing?

This week would be a great time to straighten the office. Don't you think? I spent several days last week doing just that. I hadn't actually intended to declutter the sewing cabinets and office stuff (both in the same room). But when a dear friend offers you a fabulous new desk but needs it out by Saturday night, well, guess what you're doing? That's right.

One fringe benefit of this lovely desk, was that I could now have all my precious homemaking, sewing, organizing, and crafting books, plus lesson planning and devotional material in one easy to reach location. Pinch me--is it real? 

Boy, is it ever true that you have to make a mess to clean a mess! And if you want to rearrange furniture in this room...well 'mess' is an understatement. In order to get that beautiful desk into my sewing room, we had to not only re-arrange all the furniture, but also empty every piece out and re-organize it. 

Originally, we had the boys on two computer desks, which were portable tables (2 x 4') and I also had a big  folding worktable in the middle of the room. I have to tell you, that  my knees got weak and my stomach started churning just thinking of the amount of time and brain-work that would be required to make this transformation.  But oh, was it ever worth it!

Of course, I 'volun-told' (a Marine term) the boys to help. We had to unplug and reassemble THREE computers and all accompanying accessories. Yipes! The boys were just thrilled of course. "Certainly, Mother--anything you ask! Our pleasure!"  (I'll spare you the actual response. Ha!) Thank goodness, those desks and table could all be removed.

Now we had to empty both mine and Rebekah's sewing desks and give them to the boys.  One fringe benefit is that all the boys'stuff' was removed from the file cabinet under the printer, which could now be used for files. That emptied a few drawers of my desk. Which made room for patterns and Rebekah's projects. 

The worst chore was taking everything from both the huge Ikea cabinet and the 'sewing' cabinet, declutter it all and re-organize both pieces of furniture in some semblance of order.  It took half a day to do it, but now ALL our sewing stuff and ALL our office and school materials are paired down and stored properly.

And the IKEA cabinet is now full of sewing supplies and fabric. It's organized in five general divisions based on frequency of use: Quilting at the top, then craft supplies, applique, yarn, and sewing.  The lower drawers all have fabric bolts and quilting and cutting boards.

While I was at it, we converted the 'laundry sorter' shelf which we never used, to a current projects shelf. (Oh my! I think I'm in trouble. That's an awful lot of current projects. Perhaps, I don't quite understand the meaning of the word 'current'. Hmmm..)

 

Now, if only I was done.  But alas, we still needed to give Rebekah a place to sew. I had removed half the stuff from my 'desk' including my files to the little file cabinet under the printer. My computer and all the rest of the stuff was waiting in piles in the bedroom to be put into the new and larger desk. 

  

I was like a kid in a candy shop watching my dear hubby assemble the desk. I must admit that he was VERY skeptical that we would ever be able to squeeze it in. (Actually, he told me later he just did it because he loves me. What a sweetie!) When life hands you a desk...you gotta make room--and I did!   My sewing and computer are all on the same desk.  Now I can lesson plan, pay bills, sew, and blog...all at once. It's a multi-taskers' dream (or nightmare).We'll see...

Are you ready for some decluttering and re-organizing? What state is your office or sewing storage in?  I hope you are inspired to take the plunge and get rid of a few things. Let's adopt the Sidetracked Sisters' motto and "Dare to Dump It!"

Happy Homemaking!