Weeding out the Unwelcome, the Unwanted and the No Longer Necessary*

We are half way through the Let's Get It Done Quilts Declutter Challenge with Karen Brown.  HERE

Not to toot my own horn but my studio is fairly tidy.  I'm of an age I tend to not buy the latest trendy item. (And when I do, I'm usually disappointed.) That, and the the fact I just moved over 2,000 miles about two years ago, I would have thought I didn't have much to purge.  But, this challenge is forcing me to look at what I do have and ask myself "Do I use this?" "Do I need this?" "Will I miss this if it's gone?"

What we've accomplished so far:  (Watch Karen Brown's Youtube videos:  HERE)

Day 01 and 02:  Clear out all the trash and things that don't belong in your studio.  Things that were stashed there instead of actually put away.  For me, that included some folding tables and chairs.  They went out to the garage where they belong. (Although that reminded me that the garage needs a good purging, too.)

Day 03: Magazines and Subscriptions.  I went through ALL my old quilting magazines...page-by-page, starting with the magazines that did not have any bookmarks. That took a few evenings.  Moving on to magazines where pages were marked
I asked myself  "Realistically, will I ever make this quilt?" "Do I have another pattern that is similar?" 
Bye-bye about 10 magazines. (I'll admit, I did photo copy a few pages.)  I added a step here...unsubscribing to newsletters and ads from quilt vendors and content creators. If I'm not reading them, then I'm unsubscribing.

Day 04: Moving from Magazines to Books.  Pattern books, sewing books, books about techniques.  This was harder because they cost more than magazines and I found myself saying..."I still want to learn...free motion quilting..." etc.  But, I did pass on a few books.

Day 05: Patterns.  The decisions are getting harder.  Day Five is all about patterns.  For me that included all the patterns I've downloaded from the internet and stored on my PC.  Even some patterns I've paid hard, cold cash for not that long ago ended up in the "Pass 'em along" stack.

Day 06: Archives.  Tokens and mementos of quilts you have made...or other trinkets.  I take pictures of the quilts I make so I don't really have tokens, per se  But I did toss a few items.

Day 07: This was a catch-up day.  Finish up some of the other days.  By participating in this declutter challenge I'm motivated to clean out other areas of my house...bathroom cabinets (where I found an extra bottle of shampoo...and I just ordered one! 
Oy Vey!), drawers in my office space, etc.

Day 08, Day 09 and Day 10:  Scissors and Rotary Cutters; Thread; Pins and Needles.

 

Day 11: Rulers and cutting mats. No mats to pass along.  I have exactly what I need and use, although they could use a cleaning. Rulers...I did find a few duplicates, i.e., four 4" square rulers, so the extras were added to the "pile." Some special rulers I discovered drew a blank...What? Where?  How?  So I stopped and looked up on Youtube how and when I would use them...a few were passed on.

The Pile is growing:

 So there you have it.  You're all caught up.  Want to participate?  Click HERE.
Join the Facebook page:  HERE

*Karen Brown of Just Get It Done Quilts