Yard Sale Complete!

Well- we held the yard sale today. Most of the leftovers went to Good will. Some of the legos went to a grade-school Lego club. The weather wasn't as hot as it has been-- but still hot enough that we didn't get much traffic between 11:30 and 2:30. Best hour was 10 to 11am.

It was fun to sell what yarn I did. Everyone seemed to appreciate the choices and the prices! I still have quite a bit left and will take my time with the rest.

In the process of gathering it up, I found that I have organized it a bit better now. I had lots of small organizer boxes before. Now, they are grouped by type and in plastic sacks, which are in turn in larger boxes-- similar to the storage for the business.

I'll be able to re-organize a bit in the home office and have some more room.

This vacation has been tiring though! Looking forward to a "real" vacation later this month.

De-stashing

Its been quite a while since I've posted here. The mailroom idea has worked out wonderfully!

We're in the process now of cleaning out the boy's rooms and having a yard sale with all of the toys they no longer want (they're in high school and college now). They get to keep the cash thats generated. We'll see how that goes. Then we'll paint the bedrooms and I know they are looking forward to a bit more clutter-free space.

In that same vein, I've decided to add yarn to the sale. I'll let the couple of local yahoo-list groups know and advertise a bit on Ravelry. Then whatever doesn't go in the yard sale, I'll put up on ravelry in the de-stashing area.

So-- forward progress on the whole reclaiming space idea! Regardless if it is once a day, once a week or once a month... progress does feel good.

Progress!

I took the planning from Saturday's post and worked Sunday on re-organizing the "mail room" portion of the studio/sun room. Not sure if the before/after pictures show improvement to many people besides myself, but there really is an improvement.

Before:

After. One of the benefits of moving the mailing supplies upstairs, was that this allowed me to "unearth" the floor loom which had piles of fabric and packing boxes on top of it. I've started hanging some of the fabrics along the back wall, and will do that with more of my fabric as I continue to organize. I also put back on shelves any of the Bambu 7 I had gotten down when I was choosing colors for my QCC sweater.

All of the "mail room" stuff was moved out of the way and put up in the attic space along with the portable desks. I also moved all product that is ready for shipping up there as well.

This way, when an order comes in, I go to the "mail room" and fill the order. Boxes, packing supplies and product storage are all there. I was able to put together a shipment in much less time soon after.

I have a few minor supplies to add to the mail room area. A cutting board so that I can easily cut cardboard down to size when I need a special size and scales for postage calculations. I want to leave my current scale in the studio for the winding station.

So all in all, I'm happy with the weekend's activities. I reclaimed the space where the portable desks were stored (bedroom, basement and garage), I reclaimed some space from the studio/sun room where the mail supplies were scattered about, organized it and placed it upstairs where it is more accessible and available when I need it. A better flow for shipping and progress in the studio.

I still have a lot of fabric to organize and a lot of work to do to use all of the supplies I have accumulated over the years. But it feels like a good working space again, and that helps tremendously.

My how time flies!

I did finish the Rose Bag. I thought at first after it was done that it was just too big. It felt a bit awkward. I do like the color and the design. But there it sat... for weeks...

I considered cutting it down to a more reasonable size and figuring out what to do with the resulting scraps.... but hadn't the heart.

Then, last weekend, I had to teach another knitting class. I needed a bag to load up the books, samples, supplies in. I tried the Rose Bag, and it was PERFECT!! I was able to put the books at the bottom, samples and supplies on top of the books, name tags and tools in the outer pockets. It was all easily accessible and with the load inside the bag, and it over my shoulder it just worked! So much easier carrying everything from car to classroom. The construction is sturdy with two layers of fabric, so I didn't worry about the weight.

I'm very happy, and it now has a purpose and a place in the studio. I still have enough of the same fabric to make a bag of identical size, but considering what I have left, I think I'll design two smaller bags instead.

All of this has taken longer than I originally thought. I realize that the goal of "one project a week" is too much. It adds pressure without benefit. Slow and steady wins the race, but I also need contemplation time to determine the best path. So during the time between finishing the bag and actually using it (resulting in the idea that the bag really is finished), I was able to do some additional de-cluttering / cleaning up in the home office. I now have caught up on the home finances and any papers sorted into in and out bins. So when I have a few minutes at the computer, I can process new paperwork or file old. Its working better.

I also finished some projects for Fiber Rhythm, updating the website, finishing an afghan pattern for a client, and more filling of yarn orders. Now I'm realizing that it would be very nice to have space for a "mail room" area that is separate from my design/sewing/weaving/knitting space. Right now, the "mail room" portion of the studio expands as I'm working on an order, then is hard to contract back down when I need to reuse that space for my knitting/design work.

So I've decided to move my portable tables (table tops with detachable/adjustable legs) up to the garage attic and set up a "mailroom" up there. I can leave things setup there and they will be out of the design area. Thus, decluttering the design/studio. This also cleans up several spots where the table tops and legs are currently stored!

For Fiber Rhythm, there are several tasks that require space:

1. Winding the "Double Bambu", winding off custom cones/balls of Bambu 7 and Bambu 12, winding off yardage of the Retro Glo yarn. All of these take slightly different equipment that needs to stay set up. Currently I could use perhaps another 3-4 feet of "winding station".


2. Cutting board/sewing prep. I have a good area for this right now, but it does double duty as the mailing prep area as well


3. Weaving floor loom. This currently holds empty boxes on top that can be used for mailing (these get to move upstairs)


4. Knitting machine. Right now I have one machine set up and two still in boxes. This won't change until I have a lot more space.


5. Sewing machine/Serger. I have these on a desk my grandfather made. This will likely stay the same.


6. Storage of Already wound product (Double Bambu, Double Bambu Sampler Kits), printed patterns. These could move up to the attic area as well, as usually when an order comes in for them, we would move them right into mailing.


7. Storage of raw supplies (fabric, cone yarn, other yarn). These are now everywhere... just need to be chipped away at.


8. Books and sitting space. Pretty much need to be "unearthed" from underneath piles of product.

I guess there is still a lot to do!!!

But progress is not only in action, it is also in planning. One must be able to envision change before change can happen.

Labor Day weekend

After looking at several places last weekend, I did finally find a couple of rolling wire drawers at Storables that are perfect for what I was looking for. I spent pretty much the whole day Sunday helping my sister with the setup and take-down of her warp-weighted loom for a demonstration, so didn't do anything on the Reclaim projects.

So, yesterday I was able to return to work on the rose bag. Its coming along nicely. The outside is sewn and the lining is sewn, and next is to join the two and finish off the handles. I like the general design. I think a medium sized one would also work well. This one has taken quite a bit of time, but its been worth it as I will have a good prototype for repeating with other fabrics. Also re-acquainted myself with threading the serger as I broke a couple of serger needles. They were pretty old though. And I had the replacements right to hand... so that was good.

This afternoon, I spent time with the boys going through clothes to figure out what, if anything they need for school clothes. Looks like new jeans are in order.... and some more jeans to the rag pile. Longer sleeved shirts for later in the season.

Tomorrow, I hope to finish the rose bag, then my first "Reclaim" project will be complete!

Organization

I cleaned the space up a bit, clearing the cutting board table enough to cut out the bags from the rose fabric. This all done last weekend. However, the week just flew by. Nothing much accomplished in terms of reclaiming space. Had to re-sew a button onto some pants for my son before he headed off to a short backpack trip. This brought up the issues of storage. Where were those buttons? I looked high and low and finally found them on the knee-shelf of the sewing desk.

So, its the weekend. The rest of the family has gone back-packing until Sunday afternoon. I've the rest of today open. So I started thinking about how to get the craft supplies organized. I think perhaps a few more organizers are in order. Last week I put up a cone thread holder on the wall, and found I have enough cones to add a whole second one... so thats on my shopping list. I have a great peg-board that was my mom's (when they moved/remodelled, I got that plus the cutting table with lots of storage, I just love). I don't have the mounting hardware for the peg-board though... so that is also on my list.

The peg-board has little dowels in many of the holes, intended for holding spools of thread. So that will be great... it also has some room for other things... so I started looking online for more inspiration and found another couple of great organizing/decluttering articles. I'd like to follow the example here for organizing some of the tools on the pegboard (half-way there!). I also love the idea of the having a bag clip hanging for keeping pattern pieces in place!

I was also re-inspired by the de-cluttering article. Both articles speak to hanging fabric lengths from closet rods-- part of the reorganization that I've already done has exposed some closet rod space and it would be great to get some of the fabric I have on display, for inspiration as well as perhaps a less easily forgotten purpose.

So... off to the sewing/knitting/sun-room to finish sewing the bag that has been cut out, (and thinking at the same time about what kind of organizers will fit best) and then off to do some shopping in prep for some more organizing/decluttering activity for the rest of the weekend!

Rose colored fabrics-- the first project

So yesterday I was completely lazy. Slept, read, and basically ignored all of the stash waiting for me. It was great! One of my last vacation days and I know it will be crazy busy when I get back to the office.

Today, however, I decided on a couple of fabrics from the stash for the first project. These are fabrics I bought together with the idea that I would make a bag for re-sale.

The first photo shows the fabric with light colored background, a bit shiny, depicting a couple harvesting some flowering plant. Also has a type of large bird in the foreground. The piece is about 58" x 36" but has some ink along the bottom that pretty much precludes the use of that area of fabric (you can see it in the bottom left of the photo).

This second photo shows the rosier fabric, a decorator print also, that has flowers and branches. I was seeing this as the main outside of the bag. Its a really good sized piece, 56"x 96". Its large enough for a tablecloth-- but I think its just a bit too shiny for our tastes. So it is about 3 times the size of the first fabric.

The final photo shows those two fabrics together with a third Nylon/Lycra blend that I plan to use for trimming/accent along the edges. It is 60" x 29".

So tonight I'll do some planning to make sure I can use all of the fabric-- and if not, leave enough for another project. Perhaps some can be made into placemats as a backup plan. Then tomorrow, on to the actual project itself.

This could be a great process. Saturday to choose and plan, Sunday to work on the project-- and into the evenings of the following week if its a long project. I like that!