I haven’t posted for a while now, primarily because I haven’t been in the studio for about two weeks.  I am not feeling well and have been using that as the excuse.  But the truth is, there was another more pressing reason for avoiding stepping foot in the studio–it was a mess.

Now, I knew my creative block was in large part a result of not wanting to go into that messy environment.  I can’t focus and be creative in chaos, plus not being able to find what I want, no place to set anything down, all contributes to blockage.  And which is the chicken and which is the egg?  Maybe I don’t feel well because I haven’t been in the studio doing something creative.   But for some reason I just couldn’t set foot in there to straighten.  Really, let’s face it, not the most fun we have in our workspaces.

I keep my fabrics in bins by color.  This becomes the biggest part of the mess, as I pull fabrics out for consideration they pile up on the side of the worktable, and eventually I just have to bite the bullet and put them away.  Not a big deal really, just boring.  Add to that the fact that several of the bins were overflowing and I just wasn’t going to be able to fit more fabric into them.

The first thing I did was purchase two new bins.  I decided that the one housing black, white and gray fabrics needed some breathing space, so the white and gray moved into their new house and the black fabrics got to spread out a bit.  Then I got a larger bin for the blue fabrics.  I don’t really know why, but I have more blue than anything else.  Maybe because it looks so good with orange,  my favorite, maybe because I acquire it and don’t use it much.  But the bigger bin accommodated all the fabric so that went a long way towards straightening up.

Here are the blue fabrics in their bin, all folded so I can see what is there.  Could it be neater?  You betcha.  I used to organize all the fabrics in value order.  Today, I am just happy to sort and get the bins closed.  See the plastic baggies–one holds small pieces of blue fabric and the other has solids.  I don’t use solids much, but when I need them, they are all in one place.

Oh my gosh, there’s the dog–he has been missing for a month!!  Only kidding.  Some bins will have to wait, for obvious reasons:

The biggest thing I did today while straightening was to let go.  Let go of all those fabrics I have acquired that I have never used and never will.  And I say acquired because as the pile grew on the floor, I noticed that none of them were fabrics I purchased, they were all given to me one way or another and I never liked any of them.  Gone is the notion that all fabrics have value, gone too the idea that I can use them for quilt backs.  Gone is the notion of waste not want not.  Not everything has value.  Sometimes the peace and tranquility is more valuable.  Makes more room in the bins, makes the stash more focused, makes me feel like I am accomplishing something.

There is nothing in this pile I will miss.

Finally, the one other thing I had to address and get rid of–my precious pieces bin.  What on earth is a precious pieces bin, you ask.  I am probably the most frugal (oh, tell it like it is–CHEAPEST) person I know.  I hate to throw out anything.  And since so much of what I do does not require large pieces of fabric, I save every little scrap.  Yes, scraps–my precious pieces.  But once the bin was overflowing onto the table and I could find anything in it anyway, it was time to act.  Gone any piece smaller than 2″ square (yes, I had MANY smaller than that), gone anything for which I still had a larger piece in my stash, and gone anything that just wasn’t special enough to save for future use.  What did I save?  Pieces of fabric I know I can’t get again–even if they are small, and anything black or brown, as for some reason I am always looking for tiny bits of black and brown.  NOW…

From overflow to in control.  At least now I can find stuff in here.

Bye bye clutter.  Not so precious anymore!

As I get older I am finding that being organized and neat is critical for creative thinking.  I used to be able to work in the middle of a messy room and it didn’t bother me.  Now, chaos equals paralysis.  I can’t work in a mess, I can’t think clearly, and I don’t even want to be in the room unless it feels neat and orderly.  Would everyone consider it neat and orderly?  Probably not.  But it is for me.

Think about how you organize your workspace.  The bin system isn’t for everyone, even the way I break out the bins might not work for everyone.  There are always overlaps, I tend to put the fabrics that could go in more than one place in the bin where I am most likely to use it–in other words, a gray/green fabric–if I would be more inclined to use it as a green, to the green bin it goes.  Gray?–gray.  I do also have a bin called MULTI for those that just can’t be tamed.

So neat and tidy (almost, waiting for my friend to let me get into that last bin) and ready to get back to work.  I feel like I have a new lease on life….

so what’s blocking your creativity?

Tags: bins, cleaning up, creative blockage, organize

This entry was posted on Monday, February 27th, 2012 at 1:39 pm and is filed under tips and advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.