Organizing our things. How do we do it, how to get our plethora of junk squared neatly away in tidy places so we can find it when we need it and put it back when we are done with it? I am not the greatest at giving my things homes. I have too much stuff. And I am definitely not great at putting things away when I am done with it either, but I have been working on it and getting better.
But, as a sewist of PDF patterns, how do we organize those? And I am not meaning the ones already printed. I have yet to find a system in place for those. The hanging file folders in a crate is no longer working since it won't hold all of them! I am talking about those the digital copies we all have a knack for collecting.
Just having my pdf sewing patterns stored on Google drive, in a folder is starting to get a little bit stressful. I have a lot of patterns (not nearly as many as some though) and having them in one file got too cumbersome to sift through. Then I started separating them out by the designer.
It's really nothing special. But it does help a little. Surprisingly I am familiar with most the sewing patterns I have, but of course, tend to go to the same designers for the kids and certain designers for me.
Yet I needed a better way to catalog. So I went through and wrote down all the patterns I had in google sheets. I have them listed by designer, pattern name, the type, how many times I have sewn, and whether it is woven or knit (I think I may need to fix several).
Speaking of how many times I have sewn a pattern, these numbers are crazy and I definitely need to sew from my stash...
women's patterns owned: 52
Sewn: 17
Not sewn: 35...
that's about 33% of my sewing patterns I have sewn!
Kids patterns owned: 115
Sewn: 59
Not sewn: 56...
51% have sewn.
I locked the first row so I can sort the columns in alphabetical order by any of the categories. Which I love and has been a great help!
And I love having the different tabs at the bottom. Since In my folders the kids and adults patterns are all mixed in together, this makes it easier if I am looking for something for me or for the kids.
The kids' patterns I have listed the sizes so I can sort by size too.
I saw in one of the facebooks groups someone link to this tutorial from "Attack of the Seam Ripper" on using Trello to index your sewing patterns. Now, I am a huge fan of using Trello, but this process is taking me a lot longer than the spreadsheet! I am doing it a lot more slowly. I do love that I can link to the pattern I downloaded in google drive, I can link to project plans in another Trello board as I sew, and I can link those to my blog schedule board.
I just don't know about organizing them at the moment, and I think I may end up changing the lists around. I'm just not super sure yet. But, it is neat to see them. all laid out so nicely.
There are so many different ways to organize your digital sewing patterns and to catalog them. How do you organize and catalog your sewing patterns?
"Why should I clean my room, Mommy, when your's is such a mess?"
My mouth dropped open. I'm sure a fly might have flown in, buzzed around a bit and left. Those were the words that came out of my oldest, my 6-year-old's, mouth. Sure, I might have been scream yelling at him to clean his room for the last few hours days prior to that question's utterance, just to get the house ready for guests. But, come on. Your 6, child!
How do you respond to a statement such as that? How do you combat the logic and reasoning presented to you by a 6-year-old mind? Because, it's true right? I mean, what have I shown my son besides a messy room? What kind of example am I leading?
We celebrated the baby's 1st birthday a few weeks ago. It was glorious. Funfetti cake with bright blue frosting... The kids were playing their little hearts out in the backyard... We spent the better part of a week cleaning the same parts of the house over and over again just to be ready in time.
As a friend of mine went through our master bedroom to use the bathroom (the guest bath was occupied) I cringed at the thought that she would have to traverse the tiny pathway and actually see the mess! Oh good gravy, the mess... The Mess... With all the yelling and watching and supervising, I never got to lay a finger on my own room.
How much time a day do you talk to your kids about cleaning up? I am pretty sure I tell my kids about 10 million times. Ok. Maybe not that many times. But, I'm sure it's a lot. I tell them to clean up if they want to watch tv, clean up if they want candy, clean up so they can drive their power wheel car outside, clean up for this, clean up for that. I am sure I say it 10 million times more than is absolutely necessary.
But, how often do they see you cleaning? I am pretty sure I spend most of my time standing at the sink washing the gazillion bowls they thought was necessary for breakfast. Apparently a kid needs more than one bowl for cereal in the morning. I don't understand their rationale, or how they manage to get the bowls. I place them high in the cupboard on purpose. They are ninjas... But, do they see me tidying up my own things? Not really. I leave them where I put them, set them down on the counter real fast so that I can pour a glass of milk and forget what I was doing in the 10 seconds the action of pouring milk takes. They don't see me clean.
After everyone at the birthday party went home, we were left behind to take in and absorb the shambles that only a really good birthday party leaves in it's wake. I walked into my kids' rooms and saw the mess. My son looked at me with defeat in his eyes. I just shook my head, shrugged my shoulders and gave him a hug. "did you have fun with your friends?". "yes" he told me. Then I walked to my bedroom and looked at the mess there. No one except my 1 friend went through there and it was worse than my son's room. What am I showing my son? What kind of example am I setting with my own room a mess?
Have you read The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up (check out my initial review here) or ClutterFree with Kids (initial review here) or Allie Casazza's Blog? Even the multitude of the organizing/tidying/purging/cleaning facebook groups say to do the same thing when it comes to teaching your kids how to clean/tidy their own spaces. I'm sure if I search harder I could find it stated more. Lead by example. Eventually they will do it too.
Really, that's what I need to do to get my kids to clean their rooms? Lead by example? At least that's the position we are in now. The towers of boxes and books and fabric and patterns all need to get torn down, purged/cleaned/organized. No matter how long it takes, I need to clean my own stuff and my kids need to see it being done by me.
Maybe they might not clean it right away. Maybe they will find another excuse. But if I can get it under control at least I am leading by example, and they will learn through their interactions with me and my things. At least I wont hear him say "why should I if you don't."
This month I have selected 5 Days to a Clutter Free House written by Sandra Felton & Marsha Sims to share with you!
We are in a declutter movement, as it seems, right now. I know it's not just our house, but those around us as well. The amazing popularity of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up is just proof of the declutter movement. But, it hasn't entirely worked for me. I love the concept and getting everything in one category at a time. But, that is a super daunting task! I was searching for some books at my local library, (Cleaning House: A Moms Twelve-Month Experiment to Rid Her Home of Youth Entitlement & The More of Less), and came across this one instead. I figured, why not see what it suggests? I mean, 5 days is an incredible feat? Right? How could this daunting task be completed in that time frame? How could I transform my incredibly overstuffed house in just 5 days? So, as any desperate person would, I checked out the book.
The gist of the book: Get a bunch of friends and put everything that is out of place in boxes.
Label boxes by contents
Line up against the wall
Go through at your leisure
Umm... Ok...
Needless to say... I was a little disappointed.
I don't want friends seeing all the trash, junk, and everything else in my house. I don't want to have to answer question after question about what an item is and what box it should go into. And I'm not decluttering, I'm moving the mess from the tables and counter tops into boxes along the wall. How does that even count?!?
And then I thought about KonMari and the gathering of like items to go through. I have barely made it half way through KM-ing my items because of going through the house and gathering. The categories I had completed did not get removed quickly enough and managed to become re-scattered amongst my joy sparking things.
I needed a more systematic approach to gathering items, especially since I am so ready to move the baby into her room (which is still currently the craft room, 4.5 months later)... And this book gave me that approach. I'm realistic. It wont be completed in 5 days, it hasn't been completed in 5 days. But it helps. If I applied the zones a little better, it would probably help even more.
Here is the craft room before (embarrasing, I know):
I started taking out all the fabric after this, and stalled.
I told my mom about the premise of the book. One saturday afternoon she came over with some boxes and helped me get started clearing more space off the table and desk (both are going to have to be sold).
I'm still not happy about having everything in boxes. We still have things in boxes from when we moved into our house 3, almost 3.5, years ago. and the chances I actually go through them are pretty slim. But the approach has given me something to work with, and a way to group everything by category.
as of yesterday:
A nice thing about the book, it is coming from a perspective that seems to understand the trouble with staying clutter free, versus KonMari where the author has always organized, decluttered her things, and easily purged objects from her room. Especially for us crafty type people, those things do not always come naturally. "We cannot have a museum, library or store in our living spaces and still maintain a gracious, orderly, welcoming, and beautiful home." (pg 120) This is how I treat my craft supplies, something I can shop from without having to go to an actual store. It is something that is cluttering up my home and taking away from the beauty of it. I need to "make a decision not to keep everything" (pg 135) and I need to consciously understand that it is ok to get rid of things. This is the hard part with KonMari. Yes, she makes sense as well, but doesn't appeal to my own sentimentality as these authors do.
It has helped having someone here with whom to organize things. And it helps to have someone who understands the different types of craft supplies. KonMari has had me doing it alone. It hasn't worked.
I wonder if I will be able to use this for the office space, which will become the craft/office space, in the master bedroom? So much to do.
This is where the craft space is getting moved to, also super embarrassing. Those drawers at least are for fabric:
Content - eh, half of it is something I feel like I can use. I don't like all of it, but it might work well for others (1/2 check)
Organization - 2 parts. the boxing up of things and then the going through the boxes. The second part is too much for me. yes/no/maybe boxes. then go through the maybes and place into yes/no. too much sorting (1/2 check)
readability - easy enough. understandable and relate-able. repetition of certain concepts and monotonous. (1/2 check)
Conversation worthy - It started my mom and I talking, comparing the KonMari book and this one (check)
Invokes personal thought/reflection - It's getting me thinking about my habits and what I need to change in order to successfully create a beautiful living space I am not embarrassed to show to my friends.(check)
Join me on GoodReads here, I'm always on the lookout of a new book and to share with other book loving friends! tell me: How do you organize your craft supplies?
