My turn on the Spring Clean Your Studio Blog Hop 2021

Hey folks…. OMG. It’s been seven years that I have been running this blog hop, and it’s crazy that this year my studio looks SO DIFFERENT.

Let’s take a trip down memory lane and see how even clean, my studio was just a HOT MESS.

So here’s the TEA. For the past 13 years in this house, I stuffed EVERY single sewing thing into this room and the crazy closet in the corner there. Like many other people, I have things I bought or was given over the years that I haven’t touched since I moved them into this room.

One of the amazing things about my husband Charlie is his lack of attachment to things. Don’t get me wrong, he owns things, and has dear items to him personally, but generally he doesn’t put his attachment in the thing, but in the memories around the thing. He lives a very non cluttered life, and well…. It’s safe to say that I do NOT. I’m super attached to THINGS. Not just my own things, but things that were important to other people. (I collect other people’s collections, after all…) I love my things. But there is a point where I have to admit something.

I have too much stuff.

This closet was supposed to be “clean”. This was what it looked like “tidy”.

Enter the pandemic.

Like many people who are sick to death of their four walls during quarantine in 2020, my rooms felt so overstuffed that I had to do something DRASTIC and fast. So I moved my sewing table. And it was an INSTANT mistake! I hated it!

Enter the Great Room Rearrange of 2021.

It had to go somewhere and into our home library it went:

God bless my patient husband.

With a new clean slate, and an arrangement I now am happy with, this pile of stuff has to do one of two things:

-Go back in the room.
or
-Go away.

I made the decision to make 99% of it go away. I took out close to 50 lbs of fabric, cleaned every single closet item out, and put only back what I could thoughtfully use.

Now, I still have my fun inspiration stuff on my walls, so those look the same, but I can tell you this room feels SO MUCH BIGGER when it’s literally the same square footage with all of the same major furniture pieces.

And that closet?

This closet may not very different or less cluttered to you, but TRUST ME, it’s 10000% different to me. Not only is everything boxed, but half of the stuff that was in here was removed.

Where did it all go?

The library held the stuff as I spent weeks evaluating if I keep it or let it go. I sold some, I’ve got some put aside for giveaways, and I also just gave a bunch of things away to people in my neighborhood. Yarn, fabric, tools, you name it…. And I haven’t ever really felt better! It went to people who could USE it. Because I certainly wasn’t.

Folks… this was all inside a supposedly CLEAN studio! I will admit that it took a lot of hard work to do this. It was hard. It got worse before it got better, and it’s nearly all gone. There’s a few more things I still plan to sell on my “Destash” Instagram account.

So yeah. I took the Spring Clean Your Studio Challenge to the limit this year!

Please do me a favor, and visit every single one of these amazing people’s blogs and if you can, tell them how much you enjoy them!

March 29 – Raylee Bielenberg – http://sunflowerstitcheries.com
March 30 – Jen Frost – http://faithandfabricdesign.com
March 31 – Tara Gebhardt – https://quiltspluslove.com/quilt-stories
April 1 – Becca Fenstermaker – http://prettypiney.com/blog
April 2 – Leanne Parsons – http://www.devotedquilter.com
April 3 – Rebecca Lidstrom – http://Www.studiorquilts.com/blog
April 4 – Amy Bradley – http://purplepineapplestudio.com
April 5 – Sue Griffiths – https://www.duckcreekmountainquilting.com
April 6 – Kate Starcher – http://katiemaequilts.com/blog
April 7 – Tammy Silvers – https://tamarinis.typepad.com/
April 8 – Jessica Caldwell – http://Www.desertbloomquilting.com
April 9 – Monika Fritschi Henry – https://www.pennyspoolquilts.com/blogs/news
April 10 – Sara D Flynn – https://www.offbeatquilts.com/blog
April 11 – Bobbie Gentili – http://geekybobbin.com
April 12 – Cheryl Sleboda – http://blog.Muppin.com