If you follow me on Periscope, you may have seen my SUPER LONG broadcast last week on organization in your studio.

I wanted to write up a quick post outlining the main points and link up to the video on Youtube. For those of you who’ve watched the video and didn’t take notes, you can review the content here. For those of you who did take notes: How studious of you! You’ve earned a gold star from me!

Here are the notes:

Everyone has their own working style. If you’re a person who functions well in clutter (I know there’s some of you out there!) and you’re happy with the way your studio looks, then this teaching is NOT for you. This teaching is for those of us who feel like they could work better in a cleaner space… who enter their studio and feel exasperated with themselves for not knowing where things are… who hate that their latest quilt top is on the floor…  who feel stressed about constantly moving things around to work. I find that most people I talk to feel this way.

You may be working in your dining room or in a huge studio. Alone or with little ones underfoot. The way you apply these principles to your own situation will differ, but the principles stay the same.

What am I doing wrong? 

Let’s get down to the main things we do to sabotage our efforts to stay organized.

1) Bringing in too much/ Keeping too much of what you already have.

•  A healthy, useable stash is fine, but consider whether or not you can use it in the next year or so. New fabric is being made constantly. How much are you bringing in, and how much is going out in the form of beautiful, handcrafted things?
•  “If everything has value, then nothing does.” Meaning, if you treat every last scrap or stray block as important as the top you just worked a year on, you need to reevaluate!

2) Not keeping like things together

Fabric goes with fabric, notions go with notions, etc.

3) Not having a place for everything. 

• EVERYTHING should have an assigned place- one that makes sense.
• If you don’t have a place for something, you’re just going to lay it down right on your work table.
• It’s ok to have a ‘deal with later’ space!

4) Keeping items you don’t often need in your work space 

You need designated areas for work space and for storage space

5) Not maintaining

A good system well maintained will SAVE you time (no more digging for lost projects!). It takes a lot of time up front to develop a good system, but maintaining only takes a few seconds.

6) Not being flexible

It’s ok to make changes to your system if it’s not working! You should have a general organizing structure that you stick with, but making tweaks and adapting should be expected.

** Your things (tools, fabric, finished projects, etc) are ASSETS! I’m not asking you to get rid of your assets (unless they’re weighing you down!) But, I want you to treat them in a way that shows you value them.**

Getting organized is not about having a perfect, pretty sewing space (although that’s a bonus!). It’s about improving your work flow and making you feel happier and more confident in your studio. I want you to walk into your studio and feel successful before you even start working!

And if you didn’t get a chance to see it yet, go ahead an click above to watch. Be warned, it’s about 45 minutes long, so you may want to grab something to drink and take a little potty break before clicking play.

Lastly, I did a follow up Periscope for those of you who are in the ‘organizing trenches’ right now. I thought you might need a little encouragement and direction! If you missed it live, you can find it on my Youtube channel, or on here sometime next week.