The Difference Between “Organized” and “Pretty”

Someday, people will begin to realize that the media distorts a healthy perspective of what it means to be “organized,” almost as badly as they distort what it means to be “healthy.”  There are entire industries around organization, who, in their attempt to turn a profit, convince you that you are NOT organized unless you buy their system, use their tools, and read their books and watch their shows.

When you don’t, for whatever reason, you may feel depressed.  That you are supposed to have things just so, photo spread ready, so that the infamous Martha Stewart looks upon your attempts and pronounces it a “Good Thing.”  (If she still does that any more.)

I had to come to my own little nirvana that says that it is NOT important if your boxes are all of the same manufacture and style, it is NOT important if they are labeled in Chancery Italic font, it DOES NOT matter if they are not the same color . . .

What matters is that you can find things, and that things have a place to go.

Let me reiterate that: The only way to declare you are organized is if you (and you are the one that matters) can find things when you need them.

When I cleaned up my craft space, I waited until I had given a LOT of thought about what was and wasn’t working for me in my “system” of finding things.  I had fabric in bins.  I had papers detailing what fabric was in each bin.  I had bins of yarn.  I had .  . . stuff everywhere.

So, after some thought, I realized how *I* thought of my fabric.  There were these few, simple categories:

• Fabric leftovers from costumes I had made
• Fabric that I knew exactly how I wanted to use in a future costume
•  Linings and filler fabrics
• Fabric that I wanted to keep, but I wasn’t exactly sure how to use
• Fabrics that I could part with

The first four types went into bins, each paired with a bin that fit the amount of fabric on hand.  (It did not matter that the color or style of bin make a theme, that is what labels are for!)  The last bit was turned into an excuse to meet up with friends, let them pick through what they wanted while we visited, and then the rest went to Goodwill.

The bins were unceremoniously moved to the unconditioned part of the attic, after being padded with silica gel packets.  I know some of you are crying out at that one, seeing as how I live in a region battered by two straight weeks of 100+ degree heat; but, you know, if the fabric suffers then it wouldn’t hold up on stage.  It was more important to be able to USE my sewing room to sew than to use if for storage.  So there. 

This theme continued.  I sort by how I think of things.

Little boxes hold groups of like items.

 Open baskets hold ribbons, vaguely organized by color.

Cabinets hold loose things that could spill out and over if not contained by doors. (Top shelf, patterns I made. Mid shelf, patterns I bought.  Bottom shelf, elastic on the left, bin of random in bags in the middle, Velcro on the right.)

Close up of the random bags, where each baggie holds trimmings that will be used in future projects.  There are bags of short bits of elastic, ribbon, cord, etc., all slightly sorted by light or dark color.

Having lived with this for a few weeks, it is working for me.  By that, I mean I spend a LOT more time sewing because a) I don’t have to fret about the piles surrounding me, b) I can find what I need to work on any given project, and c) I have learned a very important lesson about being organized:

You don’t need fancy, color-coordinated “systems” to be organized.  You only need two things:  1) permission to put things together the way you and only you think about them, 2) containers of any variety that group them.

Now, let’s sew something pretty, ok?