Last week I mentioned my need to thin out a couple of “collections” I have. Long ago WAY back in 8th grade–I learned to sew. I had grown up watching my Mom sew our clothes, Barbie doll outfits, Halloween costumes–she did it all. But, when I learned to do it myself, a whole new world opened up. I spent HOURS in the fabric stores pouring over McCalls, Butterick an Simplicity pattern books–dreaming of the things I would make. It was then that I fell in love with fabrics– creating things with them, and…collecting them.
It all started out so innocently. Back when I was a young interior designer I enjoyed using the huge library of fabric samples we had at the design firm I worked for. I quickly discovered that when the old books became outdated they were tossed into the dumpster. Gasp! Perfectly good fabric swatches that could be sewn into any number of craft projects just tossed away. I sprang into action and “rescued” them. It was all fine and good until I learned that I didn’t make things with them nearly as quickly as I collected them. They soon became a hoarded mess of “I’m going to do something with that some day” projects.
Over the years I’ve “thinned the herd” many, many times. But, like the movie The Blob, it doesn’t take long for them to overtake my closets and storage spaces. This is one of those times. I noticed that I’ve been needing to purchase more and more storage tubs to keep up with my growing piles, but this past year I ran out of room to store the tubs.
So, it’s tough love time. I have to let some (ok A LOT) of them go. I’m not ready to go cold turkey here and get rid of all of them (like I probably should), but I did decide to limit the space I am willing to keep them in. We recently moved a dresser into our guest room. Since we don’t have anything in the drawers and it’s a nice contained space it will serve as a good place to keep my fabric collection to a minimum.
I went through my pile and got rid of a lot. I organized them by color and pattern–dedicating a drawer to each. I’m happy to say they all fit, but embarrassed to admit the drawers may be a bit hard to open. I hope to stick with my commitment to keep it contained–so I’ll just have to show marvelous restraint the next time I run across a darling buffalo check or pile of leather swatches when I go to garage sales this summer.
My plan is to use the wardrobe rule of thumb–if I haven’t used it in a year, get rid of it. My biggest fear is that I will come up with the perfect project for one I’ve gotten rid of and then be really sorry I decided to get so organized. Ugh! The life of a self professed hoarder.