Happy first day of spring, to all my northern hemisphere friends!! And to my fellow-down-unders, here’s hoping for no more hot spells… goodness knows this country is desparate for rain. But regardless of what your local weather is doing, if you’re wanting to freshen up, here’s five ways to spring clean your sewing room!
1. Refresh your fabric stash
Clear out the fabric cobwebs by going KonMari on your stash! Sort through it all and be tough on getting rid of fabric that you no longer want or need. Whether you donate or host an Instagram destash, this is a great way to make some room in your tubs/cupboard/shelves and freshen your stash up. And perhaps even make a little pocket money to buy new fabric that really does spark joy.
2. Empty the scrap bin
Are you like me, and just keep shoving your scraps further down into the scrap bin in hopes that they’ll magically sort themselves out? Alas, there are no scrap fabric elves, and it really is up to us to do it.
Tip everything out, sort out what you’ll keep and what to add to the donate/destash pile, and then put them away properly however you store your scraps. And if you don’t have a way of dealing with scraps, then now’s the time to do that!
3. Tidy up the WIP piles
Take this chance to pull out all the WIPs (works in progress) and UFOs (unfinished objects) that you have tucked away, and make sure that you haven’t lost or forgotten any! If there are any that you don’t want to keep, add those to the donate/destash pile. For those that you are keeping, put them back in a way that means you don’t forget what you have and where they are – you can’t finish a quilt that you forget about!
I have this set of scrapbooking drawers for smaller WIPs under my cutting table, and then I have larger-project WIP tubs in my sewing cupboard. Quilt tops awaiting finishing are in a large tub of their own.
4. Sort out the notions drawers
Just like kitchens tend to have That Drawer where “everything else” seems to live, chances are that your sewing room also has That Drawer. The random, sometimes-used-kept-just-in-case notions and bits and bobs that collect. For me, it’s the top drawer; when I hastily try and tidy up, it gets swept into the drawer. And it’s worse now that I have my computer on one side, and the sewing machine on the other – the top drawer collects office things and sewing things!
It’s not perfect, but it’s certainly the best it’s been in a couple of months. I’m waiting for people to stop buying up all the bamboo drawer organisers from Kmart so I can grab a couple more to finish organising it properly! But at least there’s no more loose papers and pens, and all spools have been returned to the proper place.
5. Dust and vacuum your sewing room
I kinda forget how much fluff and lint builds up in a sewing space until you vacuum and suddenly the carpet looks a lot cleaner! All the thread ends, and frayed threads, and trimmings and lint and fluff… it builds up quicker than we might realise! Once you’ve tidied up everything, wipe down and dust all surfaces, and give the floor a really good vacuum, especially if it’s carpet. I just recently finished up a quilt top that spent a few days on my “design floor”, and ooh boy, did the carpet need a vacuum afterwards! Especially as it’s a dark grey/brown – shows up all those threads.
Another great tool is a lint roller – use these to wipe over your cutting mat and ironing board to pick up all the loose lint and fluff! It always surprises me how much is hiding on these surfaces.
Now doesn’t that feel better?! I wouldn’t even suggest continuing the spring cleaning fever to the rest of the house, just get back and start creating in your fresh space 😉
What are your top tips for giving your sewing space a quick spruce up? Let us know in the comments!
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