Another Before and After

A picture is worth a thousand words, as they say. This "before and after" shot is no exception. What makes the greatest difference here? Shelf dividers! They're worth every penny, (I ordered them through Amazon) no more fabric stack avalanches! So, what led to this insane decision to drop everything and make some improvements in the organizational department of the stash closet?  I have been binge watching The Home Edit on Netflix; enough said, if you're a fan you already understand, if you're not, I can highly recommend it as a lifestyle that will set you up for nothing but success! Once you get your supplies identified, labeled and organized you're off and running, it's easy to maintain a system that's tidy and efficient. After I straightened up the stacks (I was already a step ahead there as I had grouped my fabrics into color families years ago, no re-doing there) I still had to dig in boxes and bins lurking elsewhere in the closet to uncover everything that was hiding, and bring it all into the light of day. I was ruthless. I only kept necessary sewing and quilting supplies and what I know that I will use and/or finish at some point. 

The next step was ordering bins to contain categorized fabric collections. We were gone on Saturday and when we returned home these boxes, piled on the front porch, looked like someone was moving out! I'm quick to admit that I have always loved The Container Store, it's long been my mother ship. 

According to the mapped out plan I had drawn up for the closet these are what I thought I needed. The clear bins help to immediately recognize the contents, the labels further point out the specific items within. No more recycled corrugated cardboard project boxes or tote bags for me, I've found that they only become a dumping receptacle where projects go to die.

Almost three days of sorting, culling, stacking and stowing were ahead of me after that.

And, as of noontime today, here is the final result. I couldn't be happier, I know where everything is, can lay my finger on it in a quick second, and will thoroughly enjoy using what's right in front of my eyes. It's liberating! As current projects are completed I can now clean out its respective bin and relabel it for the next! Speaking of completing projects, I can, and will,  finally reveal the BIG sewing secret that I have been guarding; stay tuned for that in my next post, it's all good.

Oh, one more thing, Happy Flag Day!

Life is Good!

Cleaning Up, Clearing Out...

Since I've begun cross stitching again, it became vitally apparent that I needed a better system of organization for the needed supplies. The way it stood, as of a few days ago, is that the needed items were lurking in various and assorted zip-loc bags and storage bins, stashed here, there and everywhere. My project bags were hanging on the back of a doorknob filled to the gills with dissimilar things. I needed to get with it and straighten out my mess! How could I ever be efficient working within such chaos? I couldn't! This cabinet in the sewing room revealed more clutter. Clearly, the upper shelves serve as a repository for batting scraps, but the lower shelf, which is 24" deep, had become a pit for discarded, misplaced and abandoned oddments! Getting things in order required a deep breath and coming to grips with reality. I was motivated! It took a few hours and some firm resolve, but I was able to get the designated "needle work" space organized for its new purpose. I disposed of a LOT, re-homed a few things, and FOUND more than a few treasures that I'd thought were lost forever! It was time well spent.

However, in true If You Give A Mouse A Cookie fashion, one thing such as this leads to another...

... and so it goes. I found a few things that needed filing from out of that cabinet; which led to another, even larger, clean out! Still riding the high from the first successful purge, it was time to bring in the shredder and a large, industrial strength trash bag to tackle the stuffed-to-overflowing file drawer. You wouldn't believe the amount of useless, outdated and extraneous paperwork that was lurking in there. I could BARELY (no exaggeration) lift this bag off the floor when I was done.  

The results speak for themselves, whew! Now I know what I have, where it is, and can put my finger on whatever I'm looking for in a nanosecond. Did all of this take up a huge amount of valuable time? Yes. Was it worth it? Absolutely! Now, to tackle those batting scraps and pieces; I've had, in the back of my mind for some time, the idea to stitch them up into usable quilt sizes so that they're ready to go. There's no time like the present; but, I'm going to allow myself a breather first, it's on next week's "to do" list!  One step at a time. What's weighing you down? A simple reorganization might be just the thing. 

Life is Good!

Visions and Dreams

Last week was A WEEK! Moving into the new church space in time for Holy Week and Easter was a blessing beyond measure. But, there was A LOT  of work to do behind the scenes, going forward, to organize and personalize the spaces within the new church to ensure functionality. I took on the task of cleaning out what had been used as a former storage closet off of the chancel and transforming it into a clean and well ordered Sacristy and Robing Room for the acolytes, crucifer and service assistants. As you can see in the before and after photos, above, the transformation has taken place. I had shared my vision for this space with Mr. Goodneedle, he fully understood what I wanted. After this 100 year old room was completely cleaned out, he insisted on completely painting the room, including the ceiling, before he was willing to put up the shelving. He took on that task as his own. In the meantime several of us occupied ourselves with cleaning out other areas and finding places that made sense for storage of everything that remained in the building. It was a long and back-breaking few days... but, it's DONE!

This room is an absolute JOY to work in now; just look at the glorious resurrection window!

This space is now neat and organized with a clear space to prepare communion and lots of room for the young people to locate their robes and get themselves ready before worship; we even installed a full length mirror (that was found in a storage area downstairs) behind the door to assist them in that effort. 

The Fellowship Hall received the full treatment last week too! Furniture was moved and repurposed; window treatments were removed, tablecloths were laundered and stored, adjacent closets were cleaned out and organized. This space was transformed into a brighter, lighter (and appearing larger!) gathering room for all to enjoy. 

In my last post I mentioned dreaming about tulips blooming everywhere outside the church. After I awakened from that dream I remembered the children's book, Miss Fannie's Hat, by Jan Karon. In my dream, tulips took the place of the roses from the story. I pulled my copy off the shelf and realized why this may have come to mind in my dream state, the illustrated church building is very similar in appearance to ours!

Yesterday these flowers arrived, brought by a member, to grace our chancel space for worship;

I told her that just seeing those tulips were, for me, quite literally, a dream come true!

Life is Good!

Spring Happenings

Spring happenings: It's been a busy, but joy-filled Easter weekend! The bluebirds have decided to start a substantially-sized family right here. Spring has taken hold.  Even though Easter Sunday was much later this year, it still was a bit chilly, surprisingly. We've had gloriously sunny days and then rain on Friday which washed the pollen from the air, albeit temporarily, and ushered in some cooler nights. Easter won't be this late again until 2030; I did learn that the latest that Easter can be possibly be celebrated is April 25, that will occur in 2038-- I'll be 85. 😲

I am including, below, a photo journal of the weekend's activities including some holiday breakfast baking, some house-cleaning and organizing, a scene from a Holy Week play, Easter Sunday church service and post-dinner posing from the youngest two grandchildren. No sewing, unless I count placing the final stitches in the binding of the Fuse, Fold and Stitch rug. Guess what's on the agenda for this week?

I cleaned out decades' worth of accumulated young-children's books and repurposed this guest room bookcase. 

Selected age-appropriate titles now reside in a basket for choosing by our youngest overnight guests. 

Happy Easter!

Life is Good!

"It's In The Laundry Room..."

A frequent response at our house, to almost any question that began with "where is...?", was: "in the laundry room". Over the years our laundry room became a repository for all manner of things. Well, as so often happens, the contents of this room reached a tipping point at the same time I reached a breaking point; enough was enough! I pulled everything out  of the room (except the washer and the dryer!) and emptied the drawers and cabinets, nothing was spared. Planters, vases, batteries, plant food, rags-- you name it; if it wasn't in some way related to laundry it wasn't staying anymore! Oh, and then there were the light bulbs. Yes, lightbulbs! Don't even get me started on the subject of light bulbs. Take a look at all of the light bulbs that were hiding in the laundry room, stashed and shoved everywhere in there. There was a time when buying and replacing a light bulb was easy, they were incandescent. You simply went to the store and bought one; whatever wattage you needed, that was the only differentiating feature. Then came the CFLs. Okay, they used less energy and they took a while to come to full illuminating strength, but other than that, (once you learned the wattage conversion) it was okay. The biggest problem I had with the CFLs was the variance in color produced, sometimes it was a white-white and sometimes a yellow-white but I learned. We have an abundance of recessed cans requiring flood lights in our ceilings, in straight lines, and if one flood was replaced it almost had to be the same color or it looked wrong. We spent a lot of time replacing entire rows of flood lights to rectify that situation.

And now, here we are again: gone are the CFLs and in come the LEDs. I don't like the light they throw off, to me it's simply too glaring and harsh. It seems too industrial and not at all home-y.  I understand, once again, the energy savings... but, please. Mr. Goodneedle replaced the flourescent tubes in his workshop with LEDs a few weeks ago. He can do microsurgery down there now. 😲 Yeah, light bulbs. I don't know when this light bulb dilemma will conclude but they won't be residing any longer in the laundry room! See, I said "don't get me started on the subject of light bulbs".

As the cabinets were emptied, bags were filled. Vases and planters to Goodwill. Outdated cleaning products, chemicals and junk went to the trash. See this? Spray starch from when we lived overseas, I had two brand-new cans of this-- the problem with it is that we moved from Europe in June of 1999! I am doubting that eighteen+ year-old spray starch would still be good. Or what it might deposit on fabric. Gone. Why had I kept it?

Before too long the laundry room became not only neat, but well-organized and welcoming; stepping inside was a joy and doing laundry was no longer met with dread. All of that accumulated junk had been weighing on me. I had wanted, for some time, to have a pull-down, wall-mounted, drying rack for items that don't go into the dryer. I had saved a few photos on Pinterest and mentioned this idea to Mr. Goodneedle, presenting him with my visual aids.

He set to work and went one better. This rack is spacious, easy to lower and raise and leaves plenty of clearance below when entering or exiting through the laundry room door when it's in use.

I couldn't be happier with the solutions encountered from simply cleaning out laundry room central. Now, as for those stashed and amassed light bulbs; we might have to go hunting for those next time!

💡

Life is Good!

Forced Expulsion and Other Happenings

Bear with me through this post, it has lots of photos and a weekend update too. This was my the state of my sewing room on Friday. Being banished from the studio has resulted in a change of pace and tidier, better organized spaces in other parts of the house; not necessarily a bad thing! I have to admit, just looking at the plastic drapes, floor cloths and chaos in my favorite room gives me a case of the jitters. But, the face lift will be worth it. Freshly painted wall surfaces, ceiling and trim will revitalize the appearance of the room and recharge my creative energy when I return.

At least that's what I keep telling myself.

So, late last week I tackled dresser drawers and my closet. The closet was a MAJOR undertaking. It was in dire need of cleaning out and organizing! I did not take a before photo. Trust me, it was bad. I organized from the top down. Shelves first, and then hanging items. At long last all of the wire coat hangers (how do the multiply exponentially?) are gone, replaced by cleaner and quieter plastic hangers.

I used the one year rule for identifying items to be donated. Some items had taken up valuable closet space for ten to fifteen times that! Of course, keepsake items have been retained. But, even with those were carefully scrutinized first. I was ruthless.

This was the final result. I thought I was done. Neat, tidy, organized. I felt like my clothes could breathe again, I know I was breathing easier having this task behind me, it had weighed me down for a very long time. Speaking of weight though, if only those closet rods could talk!

The donation bags ready to go. You can't tell relative scale here, these are 42 gallon bags. I "borrowed" the bags from my husband's workshop. They are "contractor grade" plastic, 3 mil thick, they're very strong and sturdy. It's a good thing because I filled them and they were HEAVY.  I am thankful now that those closet rods never buckled, in all truthfulness they've had the largest load lifted from them. Wow.

About the time I was finishing up the closet I received a desperate phone call from our daughter. She needed some help with Lucy Ann, our son-in-law was traveling and she and Mason were on their way to the hospital, he was in need of an emergency appendectomy! As luck would have it, our son was in the car at the time, near the Capital City. Uncle Kyle to the rescue. He picked her up and brought her to us.

Here's Mason after his successful surgery. It was a textbook procedure and he was on his way home (yes, HOME!) two hours later. His Daddy arrived back in town just before Mason went into surgery. The surgery, performed laparoscopically, plus an otherwise healthy young boy combined to make this procedure, in essence, one of out-patient status. This seems almost unbelievable to me. Twenty six years ago his own mother was in the hospital for three days when she had the same surgery; and she didn't get souvenir photos of her procedure to bring home! Mason not only has photos but stories to share too!

Meanwhile, back at Chez Goodneedle, little Miss Lucy Ann had a fun sleepover with Nana and Paw Paw and staged a perfectly wonderful fashion show on Saturday, modeling her mother's old prom dresses! These sparkly sequined dresses, a pair of rhinestone-studded sandals and her imagination were all she needed for a great morning of dress-up fun. We returned her to her family later in the day, she was eager to get home and check on her big brother. 

Yesterday after church I showed off my now clean closet to my son and daughter-in-law. (Yes, I lead a very exciting life!) My daughter-in-law, after complimenting me on getting rid of  all those horrible wire coat hangers,  graciously informed me that I was using the wrong style hangers for my slacks. She pointed out how this style (above) has the vertical posts to stabilize them for the weight of slacks on the bottom bar. I had no idea! A few substitutions were easily made and I was in complete plastic coat hanger compliance! Am I the only one who didn't know this?

All is well.

And back in the Capital City: Legos and a lap tray. Let the healing begin.

Life is Good!