I got my longarm a couple years after I started quilting and there aren’t many photos of me quilting on a domestic machine but I came across one tonight on the old CDs. I don’t remember this photo so you know it’s been a long time since I looked at those CDs!
For those of you following along on my decluttering/packing journey I have a few tips.
First, don’t wait until you have to do it! It’s a lot more stressful when you have a deadline. Luckily, Keith and I have had some more discussions and have decided NOT to sell by owner so we probably won’t list the house until mid May. That gives me more time to get things in shape.
Second, take time for focusing completely on decluttering … that “do a little each day or each week” just doesn’t work for me. I get started and before you know it, I’m back to ignoring everything. Take a week … or two weeks … and work on it every day. Pull everything out and go through it. Donate and trash what you don’t need any longer, organize what’s left. Every time I move I say I’m going to stay on top of things and it never happens. Maybe I can resolve to completely declutter and organize every couple years … and maybe I can actually keep to that resolution.
Third, take time to really look at how much fabric (and yarn in my case) you really have. There’s something about pulling it out of closets and opening up all the bins that is eye opening! I was telling Keith not to let me buy any more fabric or yarn and he pulled out his phone to video me and told me to say that again …. I love having a generous stash and being able to just grab some fabric and make a quilt without having to shop but even with as many quilts as I make, I can’t work fast enough to keep ahead of my buying so the buying needs to stop.
And finally, get some help. I’m the one going through most of our stuff (and most of the stuff is mine) but Keith is carting the trash off and taking the donations to Salvation Army. He’s going there again tomorrow and I’m sure there be another trip or two. Luckily, it’s just around the corner.
All of this makes it sound like my house is always a disaster and that’s not the case. Other than my sewing room and beside my chair upstairs in the bedroom where I knit and crochet, the rooms in the house are not overly cluttered at all – but the closets and drawers are. I tuck a lot of things away for “later”.