Spring Cleaning Tips: How to Declutter Your Sewing Studio

Hi friends!

Welcome to my day on the Spring Clean Your Studio Blog Hop!

I hope you have been following along on this month long adventure getting a sneak peep into many designers’ studios and seeing what they have done to solve a storage problem or just to clean up their space!

If you want to see the whole schedule with links to all the blogs, click here to go to my page.

My Sewing Studio: Before Decluttering

This spring, while I would love to really clean the entire studio and take everything out and start again, I just didn’t have time before this post!

So I decided to focus on the one thing that holds me back or makes me crazy… well, a lot of things make me crazy but…

What to Do with your Quilting and Sewing Projects?

I am always working on more than one project at a time. Just how I roll. I am working away on project one, and realize the deadline for project 2 is coming up, so I set 1 aside and work on 2. 

Then, I realize project 3 is calling my name. Do your projects do that? That project that is supposed to sit quietly on the shelf until you have time to work on it, suddenly starts making noise and you HAVE to start that one!!!!

Next thing I know, I have started projects everywhere, nowhere to put aside a project so ends up on the cutting table and then there is no place to cut!

OK. I need a better plan. 

The plan that says I will only work on one project at a time is not realistic. Just saying. It’s not gonna happen.

So what I need is a place for the current project that won’t affect my ability to cut, a place for projects started and on the To Do list to land until I get back to them, and a place for projects that are gonna be UFOs for a while to be stored.

How to Declutter your Sewing Studio: Current Quilting and Sewing Projects

Current project first. I tend to use the cutting table to store my current project because that is where the fabric ends up after cutting. And so it stays there. But it can get in the way. 

I could use the corner of my sewing table, but that is where Miss Luna likes to sit and watch the birds. So it would be covered in cat fur or knocked off!

She also likes to help sew some of my projects.

My cutting table is this wonderful Ikea kitchen island and it has these great big shelves. And it is where I store bits of this and that: UFOs, fabric that I have not used yet, leftover bits of backings, large rulers…. it’s a mish mash! And I think it is the perfect place to store my current project.

So, I pulled everything out of the shelves. Oh my.

I won’t show you all of it; that would just be embarrassing!

First I had to sort thru everything that was on the shelves! Next I had to decide how I wanted to store the fabrics for current projects.

These wicker baskets I had been using to just store stuff are nice- easy to grab the fabric out of and tall enough that the cats cannot climb into them when they are on the shelves!

How to Declutter your Sewing Studio: Quilting Projects on your To Do list

The rest of the baskets on the lower shelf are holding some of my current “To Do” projects that don’t have a specific deadline. I also have a few in bins on my books shelf which works for me.

How to Declutter your Sewing Studio: UFOs

So what happened to the rest projects stored on the shelves that are on the UFO list? Projects that I might someday get back to? They are boxed up and in the basement. There is only so much space in this studio and I had to clear a little room! The boxes are labeled and after I empty a few baskets, I can retrieve a few UFOs and put them into a basket on the shelf!

My Sewing Studio: After Declutter

So, here I am with a much cleaner cutting table top, a small white wooden tray for holding the current pieces that need to be sewn. My baskets hold all the current projects that are on the to do list. 

To do list is written on a white board and now the BIG question! Will I follow the to do list????

My sewing studio feels so much better.

Or should I say I feel better in my studio? A little calmer now that things are more organized. I accept that piles of stuff are gonna happen but hopefully a better plan for current projects will help me stay on track and keep the mess a little under control.

See those cute fabric bins on the floor? They are holding my ready to be quilted projects. I feel so organized!

Now if I can only keep it this way! I must remember what my father always used to say: a place for everything and everything in its place!

Thanks for visiting today. I am off to work on that first project on the to do list!

Happy quilting,

Kate