Anyone following Karen Brown and her declutter challenge?

3 years ago

She has been picking one topic per day and cleaning up her sewing space.

Yesterday it was books, today is patterns.

When I first started this journey, I went book mad. After the flood three years ago, I did a major cull, donated to one of the local thrift stores. So this morning I went through all the books I have left and reduced that by 2/3 . I looked through them all and only kept ones with patterns I really want to make. I have offered the ’rejects’ to my sister and her quilting group. I am sure someone will make good use of them.

Then I took the binder with quilt ideas and purged a lot of them. I am being realistic in that I will soon be 90 years old. Do the patterns I liked three years ago still call to me. I want to enjoy the ones I will continue to make.

I started going through fabric in the fall, putting aside those that I no longer ’love’ for my sister and her group who make cancer quilts.

I have way too much of everything, past time to whittle down.

Back to the sewing room!!

Theresa

Featured Answer

loisflan

3 years ago

I haven't made a concerted effort to winnow things down, but every now and then, I do get rid of something. I volunteer at the local Assistance League thrift shop, so whenever I decide I don't want certain fabric, books, tools, etc., I take them to the shop, price them and put them on the shelf. This way someone gets a really good deal, and the charity benefits from the money that is earned. And, I have more space in my sewing room!

Good for you, Theresa, for getting rid of your unwanted possessions. I find it's really good for my outlook to do that. I need to do more of it.

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Comments (6)

msmeow
3 years ago
Theresa, I went through my books & patterns a couple of years ago. I still have a pretty big fabric stash that needs to be tamed. We are planning to move in 12-18 months and a lot of it probably shouldn't get packed & moved. LOL

I have a big bin of colorful "strings" and a smaller bin of neutral ones. I just hate to throw away a useable strip of fabric! But I don't like making string quilts, so will I ever really use them? Do you want them? Hehehehehehe.

Donna
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polardream
3 years ago
I did the book purge a couple years ago, too. I went through magazines and gave away tons of them to a beginning quilter and she was thrilled. Still working on winnowing down the fabric, but don't seem to make much progress in that area. :)

Sue
nannykins thanked polardream
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grammyp
3 years ago
I did a declutter about 4 years ago. It is past time for another one.
nannykins thanked grammyp
toolgranny
3 years ago
You are an inspiration, Theresa. I should follow your lead. I keep bringing home more and more and the older stuff never goes out the back door. I'll have to make a plan. Thanks for the reminder.
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Char
3 years ago
Theresa, you are indeed an inspiriation! I will have to go through my entire sewing room in the coming months to prepare for the sale of the house and move onto the boat. I have a fair amount of books and binders to go through and a few totes of fabric as well. Lois, I think I will look into donating to a thrift shop in the area, thank you for the idea!
nannykins thanked Char