Sewing With Nancy

Do any of you have the task of reorganizing your sewing space on your to-do list? Today's Nancy's Corner guest is a professional organizer helping creative people like you and me spring clean all year round. Please welcome Gretchen Hudock a previous pattern designer, quilt designer but now a spring cleaner. Well, we use the term "spring cleaning" a little differently when we're organizing our spaces. Gretchen has a great acronym for spring cleaning which will help us in organizing. Right, you need to know the steps that you need to go through in order to spring clean. We start with "S" and that means sort through all of your items. We'll show examples of how to do that. Then because you sort through, you're going to "P". Pare down. You have to give up some things, most of the time. You might have enough room to keep everything but you still need to go through it. There may be some things you can get rid of. Then for "R". That's where you're going to re-use, re-purpose, recycle. Try to re-use them somewhere else not just throw everything in the dumpster. And "I". "I" is identify locations where you're going to put the items. In containers, and all things like that. Next, for "N". That's where you find the containers so they fit the locations to store your items. Then the "G" is kind of important. "G" is very important. Gotta put things away. So the acronym SPRING, you're going to spring clean. We have some pictures of a client that you worked with. This is a great "before." Yes, it's a classic "before" picture. Things are scattered all over the place. She had a lot of different hobbies and they were all incorporated into once space. She had her knitting, embroidery, sewing and her quilting all in one area. First of all, we had to do all the spring cleaning areas. But to begin with, when you're sorting it's good to have boxes sitting out so that you can decide where you're going to put the different items once you sort through them. When you're sorting your stuff into boxes you ask yourself some questions. Correct, you have to ask yourself, do I use it. Or when have I last used it? That's a good point. Do I need it? Do I want it? If you don't use it, and you don't need it then you can share it with somebody else. That's why the boxes are marked. You can repair it. You can donate it, or keep it. Right, you can come up with your own categories. You may have a charity that you want to donate things to. There's a lot of different charities that do accept fabric donations. You had fun buying it. Don't feel that, oh, I can't get rid of it because I bought it once. It was fun when you bought it. You enjoyed the fabric, but maybe you've gone beyond that or maybe you have a different focus. I think sometimes buying fabric is inexpensive therapy. It is. It's a lot cheaper than spending an hour in someone's office. Right, that is very true. And styles change, tastes change. You change. Or new products come out that make things easier to do for sewing so you may need those type of things. The most impressive part is seeing the after. This is the same room. You didn't put the "after" stuff in a closet or garage. No, we didn't. When you see "befores" and "afters" it's always so much fun to look at. That can be my space, and everything has a space. That makes it easier when you're going to put things away which you have to do you know where it's going to go. Most of the time, we don't have a place for it. That's why our rooms are like the "before" picture. You were able to reuse a lot of the organizers. You just got rid of stuff. Right, the client actually went through and did a lot of homework in between our sessions and went through everything and got rid of a lot of things, not everything. But then we had cabinetry that was full of something else that we re-purposed and put other items in there that just made more sense for her usage. Gretchen, you've given us a lot of ideas for spring cleaning using that acronym sort out, and put away, and recycle and reuse. I think I'm going to apply that to my sewing room at home. Thank you for being our guest. You're welcome. Thank you for joining us on Sewing with Nancy. If you'd like more information on how Gretchen sorts, organizes and does spring cleaning you can go to nancyzieman.com where you'll find all things Sewing with Nancy. Click on Nancy's Corner, and you'll go right to her link. If you'd like to re-watch this program or you want to pick up a few tips from older programs or upcoming programs again, at nancyzieman.com, you can watch 52 of the most current Sewing with Nancy programs right online, in the convenience of your home. You can also sign up for Facebook and Twitter and be social with my blog, as well. Next time, we'll be back again with Eileen Roche for our second program on "Machine Embroidery in Six Easy Lessons" right here on Sewing with Nancy. Thanks for joining me. Bye for now.