Today The World's Greatest Mother-in-Law came to my house for the third or fourth time to help me clear up my "sewing room". She has always been TWGMIL but this is way above & beyond the call of duty. Backstory:
Layer 1 This room was DS#1's bedroom and when he joined the army he didn't take much. Now he is subletting a room from a friend and still doesn't have much space. Some of his stuff got dumped in boxes & lugged to the basement- (Don't look at me like that- if he wanted it packed nicely he should have done it himself.)
-and some was just shoved into the tiny closet or piled in the corner. Layer 2 I bought some sturdy wire shelves on wheels and started putting bins of fabric on the shelves & gradually added piles of fabric, partly finished projects, bags of notions & doo-dads hung over the corner posts of the shelves, some dresses that are too long for my closet, bags of wool & wool-like garments I got cheap at an auction & partially felted, patterns, and craft books. I love fabric and I always have good intentions when I buy it. Layer 3 Last fall my brother and DS#2 built me new shelves/entertainment center for my living room. the stuff from the old shelves got put.....in my "sewing room" of course. Most, but not all, was put back onto the new shelves. Layer 4 This spring DH and I got new carpet in the living room and hall, and eliminated some furniture. Some of the stuff that had to be moved was piled....in my "sewing room". I couldn't get in the door.
So... TWGMIL has been helping me an hour or two at a time to reclaim my space. She says she doesn't mind. Who am I to call the dear woman a liar? Unlike me, she is organized. Unlike me, she is persistent. Unlike me, she does not procrastinate. I now have a clear path from the doorway all the way across the 10'x12' room to the window, and it is 90% to her credit, not mine. Today I found a box of music CDs and took them back to the living room. I found a big box of DH's stuff and got him to take it to "his room/office" that was DS#2's bedroom until last year. I found a huge plastic bag full of other plastic bags o-u-t! Other things have been folded neatly & placed on the shelves. I still can't get to the closet, maybe next week, when TWGMIL comes back, but it is almost possible for me to get in unsupervised and locate more junk to discard or to relocate to it's rightful owner. Not done yet. When I am I will do a Happy Dance for that, you betcha.
Jane in NE Ohio who has been reading about your great sewing rooms & successful stash reduction, and so I have to share.