More organizing going on

My stitching room is a shambles, and that is being polite. I have been working for a long time to get it cleaned up and straightened out. It isn't easy. I posted a few days ago that I had made some progress. One of the things I did manage to do was to get a good start on getting my threads organized and a very small start with my charts. As far as the threads were concerned I had originally had them on large rings alphabetically and then stored in a box that was lined in acid free material. I was not happy with that but it worked until I found something I liked better. I decided to go with the floss away bags and some pretty boxes I got with coupons from Joann's.

 The floss away bags fit perfectly inside the box and the box was big enough to hold my entire collection of Cresent Colors silks Belle Soie and the Cotton colors in a second one. The lid closes magnetically and I will label the end of the box so I know which box hold which threads.

 Once I figured out the boxes were a good size for the floss away bags I made several trips to Joann's to stock up. After all I still have GAST and WDW plus some NPI and AVAS silks to sort and store somewhere. I am thinking these boxes will work just fine for all my threads. They fit nicely on my restored shelving cabinet that lives in my stitching room.

I have finally gotten a small bookshelf moved into the room and placed in the closet so I can move all my needlework related books in there. I have a four draw filing cabinet to be moved next and that will take its  place next to the bookshelf in the closet. I am sorting my charts by designer to be filed in the drawers for easy access. I am using 3in wide hanging file folders that have been reinforced to hold all the charts and kits. Then I will either use the top drawer for WIP storage or the large trunk that I used to carry all my stuff back and forth to college to store them. Just depends on how much room I need in the file cabinet. My fear is that I will need a second file cabinet. 

I have gotten rid of most of the fabric that I had purchased over the years. I am not a sewer but a stitcher and really there was no need to think this was going to change any time soon. I save a good bit but I got rid of 4 boxes of fabric. I will probably end up weeding out even more. 

Next comes sorting out the magazines that I have collected over the years. I am not getting rid of all of them because I like going back and looking at them but really I have more than is even reasonable

mostly because I have several that people have given me as they have moved out of state. I gave 4 large rubbermaid boxes to a lady who took over running a stitching group for the local homeschoolers but still the number I have is overwhelming. I am keeping Stoney Creek, Piecework, Inspirations, a few Just Cross Stitch, all my SANQ and a few others that have patterns I particularly like. Jane Greenoff had a magazine for a while that I especially liked and the few copies of it that I own I plan to keep as well. The others are going to new homes or the recycle as a last resort. The large repurposed cabinet  (a gift from a friend moving out of state) has sections on the bottom that will hold the magazines I plan to keep and if not I have found some white wooden magazine holders that will work just fine. I hope to make a dent in that chore this weekend. 

 I have almost finished sorting the cross stitch fabric. I am rehoming some of that as well. It is sorted by count into big versions of the boxes I bought for thread. I will stack those under my open sewing machine and will be able to look for the size fabric count I want in a short check as opposed to hunting for hours for that "piece I know I bought" somewhere in that room. 

I already have a cozy chair and decent lighting so that is a plus. Once it is straightened up it will be a cozy place to do my favorite thing stitch. 

So there you have my current plan for digging out the stitching room for those that asked. When it is all done I will take pictures. Before shots would be just too embarrassing. 

Hope this weekend brings lots of stitchy time to your day. 

Marjo