And this is now

I Love It! First all of this is due to a great deal of guts and patience on
the part of a lotof people...my husband first. He had to put up with
all and i mean every small piece being removed from the room.
It filled about an 10 x 15 foot section of living room and also
another bedroom, boxes in the unused shower and bathroom
and down the hall.He then painted the room, closets and ceiling
a warm yellow..(a freebie) and put in laminate hardwood floors...
So we started with a clean slate.
Next a young lady who is a professional organizer, had seen my messes
and still loved me said she would undertake a makeover.
She is very patience, loving (which you need when
you have to throw stuff away or give it away), and has great ideas.
http://www.simplicitybynicole.com/
and she was coming to florida for a vacation to visit my daughter!
So i got busy, emptied the room...throwing away what i really did not
need or want, opening plastic bags and boxes, grouping things
together as i took it all out.


Nicole came to an empty room, looked at what i did have in the
way of storage units and we started to move things back in.
Shortened the shelves and moved the top halves into
the closets. There are lights in the closets so it is all visible.
The angels i created were already in large totes so they went
up in the closet and are accessible when i want to work on
them....She refolded each piece of upholstery fabric and grouped
them to size. The other side of the closet is the innards for quilts
and pillows and specialty fabrics. This is still a work in
progress. The top of the shelves in the room are for laying out
instructions but i have not lost my habit of stacking.


My work table is in the center of the room. It is a very old dining room
table with an Xbrace under it. We put a board there to use for storage
of large totes both above and under. Some of those are also a work
in progress. The table affords room for both the serger and sewing
machine and cutting if necessary and lots of room to spread.
I put the ironing board by the windows and hung the thread holders
on the wall.



All of my rulers, measuring tapes, are in my tool chest. There is a
drawer full of fasteners like stick pins for quilting, curved safety pins.
A drawer for straight pins...A drawer for needles!...A drawer for cutting
tools. I now know how many scissors i have and also where they are.


So this is the room from another angle...the sewing table...breakfront
with cottons, ironing board (antique wooden). My seating is a swivel
stool...right now it works okay and i can get down easier than i can
get up! I do get a lot of light from the windows but it is shaded light
because of the canopy of oaks. Lighting is definitely another issue
we are working on. The baskets on the breakfront hold antique linens,
gloves, handkerchiefs.


Inside the breakfront is the cottons i have...mostly separated into
colored grouping. At least i can see them. The very large fabric
pieces are in the lower unit. The drawers hold the paints, glues, bags
and tissues.


The stack on the floor in front of the shelves is the t-shirts i am to be
working on...that is one of the issues of the room. I need somewhere
to put things coming in and out. I thinkthat will be easier as i get used
to the room. There is an area under the ends of the work
table that would hold items...and it is very accessible.
I use baskets to store items...like my etsy angels, rugs, and pins. I also
use XL zip-loc bags to hold UFO's so they are visible and i can grab
and go....work on for a while and put away.



This is the storage section under the table...getting rid of the cardboard...and tossing
some more will clear this out. I believe now that i can see most of the things and can reach
them I will be more apt to create and give.

From out of a mess....

This is the mess! Eight years of accumulation, stacking, saving, shopping, digging for
something and not finding it....I gave up.




I had lots of really neat things i just could not get to them or use them.


I could not reach the fabric i had put in this really neat breakfront i inherited
from my parents....
and i had used every inch of these way over my head storage shelves...but what was in
the boxes...clear but still what was in the boxes?


I had taken the doors off one closet but it really wasn't very useful...or used to its best
advantage.


And if i got real creative and dug deep enough i left piles everywhere...very depressing
and not productive at all.


Loved the tool chest my husband had given me for Christmas a few years ago but couldn't
reach it and did not use it....also the antique dresser and type tray.



My work table was not functioning well either...couldn't work on it.


I love this stash of really rich upholstery fabrics i had acquired a couple of years ago, but
could not really see what was there.


That very tall shelving unit (really two units together) i could not reach because of the
stacks in front of it....i had just about given up...and the door stayed closed and i sewed
in the living room.


I needed help.