My sewing room is a small bedroom that we use as a pantry and storage room. My sewing machine table is tucked in along one wall. My ironing board is on the other side of the room in front of the closet, which I cannot use. I have a cutting table in the middle , which leaves just a little room to walk around it. Over time, my table has become so cluttered, that I now only have a small corner on which to cut, plan, etc. I'm trying to think of someway in which to reduce the clutter, which does NOT include reducing my stash. Today I've looked at some organizers, such as the one at:]
What do you mean 'closet that you cannot use'? Do you mean it's full to the gills? or do you mean it's not possible to open the door because of the Important stuff standing in front of it? Could you take the door down? Might give you lots of space. We have one of those really cheap 'collapsible stackable' bookcase things in one closet and it can handle quite a load. Polly
LOL, Cindy. Yes it is. OTOH, it's much easier to climb into/onto a high up bed when you get really old. I don't know anything about that but that's what I hear. Polly
Cindy wrote> Put all your beds in the house on risers. You can shove a lot of crap under
I think those both look like good ways to get often-used tools out of the way, but still easily accessible. I really like that chair organizer. I could sure use that while sitting at the hand-quilting frame. It would be handy for clippers, thimble, reader glasses, etc.etc. I have a good-sized room, but I'm so disorganized anyway. I think open wall shelving might be good for me. I'd love to win some kind of sewing-room contest and have professionals do me a sewing-room makeover. For free, of course.
It is true Polly, because of the built in bed base I have to climb onto our bed. In a couple of years I may need DH to make a little step to get onto bed but getting out will be really easy......
I have a small room too; but, when I tidy'! there is a 'place for everything'. My salvation was to use every cubic inch of space underneath anything 'hollow' - so there are drawers and boxes under all tables (just leaving a 'cave' for my legs when I sit there). Also, don't forget the height available - I bet there is space above the highest thing you have so far, where you could put shelving. I'm know not everyone is as tall as I am, but things that you rarely use could be put on a shelf (above your head height, so that you don't run the risk of bumping your head). A corner shelf unit, placed high in the corner would be good too. You could perhaps even hang bags from the underside of the ironing board
-if it always stays up.
Just look at the space you have - all of it - and think laterally!!
I use box files a *lot*. They can be stored in easily accessible positions, eg six piled up is a nuisance, but six stacked side by side can easily be got out - and each stack takes up the same cubic space. . In message , Bev in TX writes
My sewing space is one end of the Conservatory. The 3ft wide wall at the other end has the radiator on it, and at my end a wall light, so I have no usable walls at all but lots of floor to ceiling windows!
I have a hifi stand with the tv on in my wall corner (the only power points in the room are next to it) that has 3 square shelves. Then I have a small wire trolley on wheels meant for a bathroom where my tools live and another slightly larger trolley on wheels that has 4 baskets in instead of fixed shelves. I also have a wooden tea trolley that holds plastic boxes on the shelf and which opens up into a larger table if I need extra space.
My table is a computer one which stores another wheeled table underneath. I pull it out to make a L shape and have my little iron and small cutting mat on it. There is room for a full sized ironing board, but I only get it out when I need it. Boxes with projects live under my table.
Fabric is stored in plastic boxes stacked at the other side of the room with a cloth over them.
I do major cutting out and basting in the dining room.
I had a bright idea the other day. I have no wall for a design wall, so I took the roll that I used to carry blocks to classes in (its a 36" wide cardboard tube covered in fabric with a 36" fabric flap that can be rolled round the tube). I basted some batting onto the flap (actually made it longer than the 36") and put a couple of ties on the tube and now can hang it from the curtain rail against the window. So I have a primitive design wall when needed and it all rolls away round the tube!
Sally at the Seaside~~~~~~~~~~~~~uk
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Bev > My sewing room is a small bedroom that we use as a pantry and storage
Although it is nice to be surrounded by your stash it does not all have to be in one room. Look through the rest of your house for possible places. When dividing your stash between different locations try to keep like fabrics together so you don't forget what is available. Following are a few ideas from my home to give you inspiration:
Front hall coat closet shelf: all camera equipment.
Guest Room Closet: All Christmas fabrics, felt and polar fleece.
Large decorative baskets in living room: one with small pieces of African fabrics and another with Japanese fabrics.
Large decorative basket in family room: yarn.
Closet in Mom's room: all decorator fabrics, batting and stuffing.
Armoire in Mom's room: class sample quilts both inside and stacked on top.
Space under TV in family room which former held videos: UFO's each bagged separately with complete instructions and notes of what I planned to do or at what stage the project is currently.
Bookcases in family room: quilting books.
Bed in master bedroom on risers with area covered with a bedskirt: miniature quilts (I have a larger than average collection of this size quilt)
I made a cloth cover to go over the back of my rolling office/sewing chair and I put lots of different size pockets on the back. I have a main one to hold the pattern I am working on, and I made different size pockets on THAT pocket to hold sissors and other goodies. I have a mat to put the serger on and it has a pocket hanging from it to catch the clipppings that later go into a cloth bag that will eventionally become a small pillow for the couch until they are given as gifts at Christmas. Above the SM, hanging on the wall is a cloth organizer with pockets to hold other sewing goodies. I also have a hanging wooden thing to hold regular spools of thread and I cut plastic straws in half on the dowels to extend them to hold a couple more spools of the same color. In another room I have one of the 3 plastic drawer things to hole patterns and cones of thread. If I ever get the sewing room organized better (the cloth), it will be placed in there. Barbara in SC, but now in FL for the Winter
I discovered storage space over doors. FIL studied the brain as a hobby, couldn't become the doctor he wanted to be, and had a lot of books on the subject. He put shelves in the hallway, wall to wall, above the doors. He was 6'4" so reaching them was no problem, but a light weight folding ladder stores in a narrow space. I have such a ladder as I am vertically challanged! I put such shelves up for my reference books, don't need them very often. Bonnie, in Middletown, VA
Bev, you've had lots of good ideas from the group. But it does seem to me from your responses that it us time to de a massive cleanout of the whole house./apartment.
Most of us get to this stage periodically, when we have to face up to the notion that our stuff is taking control of our space, and deal with it. It's not getting any better by itself!
All gthe best...and take a look at much of the good decluttering advice on the Web.
Lynne in Toronto (having just finished undoing my Mom's 50 years of collections, as she passed away last week.)
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