De-Cluttering the Fabric Stash

I recently have been working on simplifying my life and de-cluttering our house. I mean, the baby doesn't have her own room for heaven's sake. The most recent de-clutter that happened was the fabric and yarn stash. I came up with a method that I felt worked really well and thought I would share it with you all.

Fabric Method

I have a lot of fabric. Well, not as much as I could, but still it felt a bit overwhelming. My method for going through the fabric was this:

 Make four piles: Scraps, Give Away, Keep, and Re-visit. As you go through fabrics, you have to move quickly. After the initial go through, you can do a second, slower, and more thoughtful one if needed.

Scraps

If they are small they go straight into the garbage. I know, you could use it for something, but will you? No. Toss it. It will feel good.
My scraps are now in a basket. I am currently working on a quilt that uses a lot of scraps, and I have plans for a second scrap quilt. After those two are completed, the remaining scraps will be processed. They will be tossed or made into layer cakes or charm squares.

Give Away

Of course, this is the pile of fabric that you are going to give away. It's fabric that you won't use, or isn't your taste anymore. It's also big enough to be usable by another person. It is NOT scraps.

Re-Visit

As you are rushing through the fabrics, you will happen on some pieces that you put in the Give Away pile and then pull out again, or in the Keep pile and then pull out again. These are fabrics that you can't really decide on in a split second. You set them aside for the second round of sorting when you can take more time to think about them.

Keep

I have rules for my keep pile. They have to have a designated project, I have to be realistic about whether I really will make that project in the next six months or less. If not, it needs to go. There are a few fabrics that were kept because I love them. They don't have a specific project, but since I will be using all the other fabrics in the next few months, I will see them a lot and be able to come up with a project for them.

If not, I will be going through the fabric again in a few months anyway.

Throughout this whole process you have to be honest, and a little ruthless. Otherwise you won't be de-stashing. You will just be sorting.

After the initial sort, I take a little more time and go through the Re-Visit pile, and the Keep pile again. This way I'm already on a roll of getting things out, and I can ride that wave and get rid of even more fabrics.

What to do with the Give Away Pile

I take my Give Away pile and photograph every fabric, or in groups depending on size. A group of fat quarters in one picture, for example. I then post these pictures on Facebook and ask for any takers. I usually am able to get rid of all my fabric this way.
Instagram is another option. I know people who de-stash by posting fabric there, usually with a price. However, if I were to post I would not ask people to buy it. The point of de-stashing is to get rid of the fabric and move it out of my house.
After posting, I wait about a week. Any remaining, unclaimed fabric heads off to Goodwill.



If you are feeling awesome about all this de-stashing, and having all that space uncluttered, go ahead and set yourself a goal. Maybe it's to complete a certain number of projects in a month. Or to not buy any new fabric for a specific amount of time (100 days anyone?).

Then pat yourself on the back, and sit back and relax at your sewing machine to use up your newly found favorite fabric that you bought five years ago.

Stash Along January: Inventory

Welcome to the first official Stash Along challenge: Inventory.

I'd first like to remind everyone of the purpose of the Stash Along. To use stash, and, if it's your intent, to reduce the amount of stash you have so there is less clutter and noise in your life.

What do I mean by Inventory? I mean knowing exactly what you have, and how much of it you have. I personally add to my stash, and add, and add. I regularly go through the stash to remind myself of what I have.

This also includes moving some stash along to other places.

So here's the challenge:

Pick a day that you have a lot of time open.

Pull out your ENTIRE stash. Take it out of it's boxes, bins, bags, and drawers. All of it must come out of storage. Pile it on a table, or the floor, or anywhere that's not it's containers.

Then go through it.

If you are the super organized type of person, catalog it. Use a notebook, a spreadsheet, whatever. Find a system that works for you: Organize by intent. Organize by size or color. If you're like me, just make a mental note that you still have that and can use it for this project or that project.

Now, don't get overwhelmed. Or maybe do. Being overwhelmed by stash is what motivated me in the first place to get this going in my life. I don't like feeling like I'm being suffocated by clutter and unfortunately my stash started to feel that way.

Don't worry! Over the next few weeks I will be publishing posts on my methods of tackling the stash. And hopefully it will help you get going! I feel like this is the best challenge for January because it will set you up to have a successful year working with your stash!

Please feel free to comment here on the blog with how it's going for you, and use the hashtags on Instagram #stashalong2017 and #stashalongjanuary so we can see how you are interpreting and tackling this challenge!

Stash Along 2017: Join Me!

I recently wrote about re-thinking my priorities, and how I'm going to focus more on my Want To than the Have To. As part of that process I starting thinking about how I could go about one of my Want To items, using up the stash.

Now, Project Leasa did a Sew My Stash challenge a couple of years ago, and I sort of participated, but not really. She chose a niche market for it and it worked for her. Me, not so much. But I liked the concept of people joining together. People all participated and encouraged each other, cheered each other on, and shared how they interpreted and executed each challenge. 

So, I decided to create a Stash Along for the year 2017. Why a Stash Along?

Stash can be materials other than fabric. It can be yarn. It could be paper craft materials. It could be paints or ribbons or whatever. A Stash Along is much more universal.

I have been brainstorming ideas for each month, and think we can pull it off. Follow along with the hashtag #stashalong2017 on Instagram, as well as monthly tags. I plan on posting each month's challenge a week early so you can start brainstorming and planning your execution of it. Stay tuned for January's theme being posted right after Christmas. 

I hope you choose to join in! 

Priorities

I've had quite a few life changes in the past five months or so. And when you have life changes, you start to re-think a lot of things. For me, I've been thinking about what my priorities need to be, even though this is the first time I've labelled them as such.

I've been trying to rid our lives of clutter, physical and mental clutter. So I've given away a lot of my fabric and even quite a bit of yarn. (I will write about the process in the coming weeks.) I have been through my clothes multiple times as well as some other odds and ends around the house and donated them to  Goodwill.

While all this physical clutter moving out has helped me a lot, I still felt there was too much clutter in my life. There's too much asking for my time, attention, and energy. I keep putting things off or ignoring them because I have all this other stuff screaming for my attention that other people asked me to do.

I realized, I have a lot of Want To-s, and they aren't happening because I keep saying yes to other things. That commitment turns those things into Have To-s. And I don't like that I don't get to do any of my Want To-s.

So, I've decided. I closed the Etsy shop. I plan on this being temporary, but wouldn't mind it becoming permanent. I've given away the inventory, after keeping a few items for myself and my baby (3 items, only 3). A few partially finished items will be finished and then... I'm not sure what will happen to them after that. And that's fine.

I will be finishing up the two custom orders I have in process currently. And then, no more.

I will knit and sew what I want to. Not what someone else asked me for. Not what I think might do well in the shop. What I want to, for me and my family.

And I feel really good about this decision.

BTW

We made something: 

Plant Propagation: An Update

Over a year ago I posted about some plants I was attempting to propagate. I recently realized it would probably be nice to update all of you on the plants, and how successful (or not) the experiment has been.

Firstly, I didn’t realize it’s been over a year since I propagated them. Otherwise I would have updated in July when it was only a year since I began the experiment.

The Devil’s Ivy:

This was the plant that I liked the color of, but didn’t know what it was exactly. After a couple of months, I looked it up and found out it’s Devil’s Ivy, a common houseplant but not safe if you have pets that like to chew on plants.

I feel this plant is by far the most successful of the group. I eventually broke it into two, one for home and one for my classroom. However, I’m on leave this year so they both are at home with me. One got left outside on the porch (because we have one now!) a little too long and got sunburned.  It’s still alive though, and when I did my repotting it got a new pot, and is currently living in the spare room (which I call my office in my head). It’s not as sunny in there and should give this plant a chance to revive itself.

The other is on top of our bookshelf in the living room. It’s a good spot, I think, because it’s out of the reach of children and husbands. Plus, it’s vines are starting to grow really well, and I think it will look nice when they get long enough to drape down the shelf a bit.

The Baby Jade:

This one barely survived the classroom last year. I realized that a child was picking on this one. Literally. I never caught the child in the act, but after class I would find the leaves with little crescent fingernail marks on it. I decided to rescue it and take it home.

Once home it recovered and in the past few months, since we moved, it has really thrived. I realized that it perhaps wasn’t propagating like the mother plant because it was in such a small container. 

When I repotted it, I gave it a larger pot, and buried it a little deeper, in the hopes that it would become more stable. It was so tall in the small pot that it started to lean and I was worried it would break in half and I would no longer have a Baby Jade.

The Succulents:

The succulents unfortunately did not survive the classroom. They were the same as the Baby Jade, I kept finding them with fingernail marks on the leaves. For whatever reason they never really took root either.

 The Spider Plants:

These did really well too. Until we moved. When we moved I decided that these could live outside, since most Spider Plants I’ve seen do well outside in partial sun. Our porch only gets afternoon sun, so it seemed like they would be ok.

And they were. Sort of. It looks like they’ve been picked on by birds or bugs or something. I’m not sure.

Being honest here, these poor plants got pretty neglected being outside this summer. So that’s probably why. It was a long, super-hot summer and those plants needed to be watered more than they got over the summer. They would have done better if they had been watered better, I think.

Anyway. I repotted them when I repotted everything else.  I also cleared off some items from the porch so the plants are more prominent and I won’t forget to water them as much because they aren’t hidden. They already are recovering beautifully,

A New One- Pink Bromeliad:

I made John get me this pink bromeliad about a month ago. Maybe more.

It started to die, unfortunately. And after some research I discovered that it’s putting out pups, so the mother plant starts to die. With the re-potting I did, I got this one a new pot. I pulled off some pups and threw them away. One got saved though and put in it’s own pot. The mother plant is in a new pot with new soil as well.

I was told that bromeliads are easy care so hopefully at least the mother plant survives. Because John said if I kill it, we aren’t allowed to have pets or children. 

Finished Object Roll Call: October 2016

Knitting/Crocheting

A custom ordered hat for a cute little girl: 

Skeins Out for the month: 4

Skeins in: 8 (unfortunately I ran out of white to finish the Christmas stocking order)

Sewing

The BCLogCabin Swap Quilt top

And Two Fleece Blankets, possibly for Project Linus. 

If you'd like to see the FO's in progress, as they are completed, and some other random bits and pieces of life, follow me on Instagram!I also do GIVEAWAYS on Facebook.  You should go 'like' the page, be sure to be following it too! 
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