Who is Winning?

Crafters are always talking about their stash.  I have a stash of fabric, yarn, spinning fiber, soap making materials, toilet paper, etc.  Yes, people make fun of my supply of toilet paper, but that is one thing I do not want to run out of.  Do you have a stash?  They say that the person that has the most when they die wins.  Now exactly what do they win?  The family does not win when they have to sort through a mess when they go through your belongings.  God forbid my family having to sort through my things.  I am not a hoarder by definition.  It is someone that collects and never gets rid of or throws away things.  I pare down a lot of my things and then buy new and better things.  LOL  I give away and donate many things.

bottom 6 cubes

Top 3 cubes

Overflow

More Overflow.  Can you tell I like the color pink?

I have been organizing my fabric and placed it on cards, rolling it up and organizing it by color and theme.  I started buying little cubes and putting it in the cubes.  That did not work since I ran out of room and I bought 9 of them.  I saw some cheap bookshelves at Wallie World and if I embellish them with some trim boards, etc.  I think they won't look too bad.  The shabby chic ones at Target are already embellished, but the cost per bookcase is $179.00.  I think the 29.99 will win out, even with the trim board, they will be much lower in price.  But, the shabby chic ones are so pretty.  LOL
 
I have also purchased a ribbon holder to help remove the clutter and ciaos.  I had a re-purposed ribbon holder but it took up too much room and it did not handle all of the ribbon.  With the little pieces of ribbon and lace, I have devised a way to store them.  I want to say that there are many clever ways to store them out there.  I read up and looked at many a blog.  I tried to cut pretty shapes out of cardboard and glue pretty paper and fabric on them.  The cardboard was hard to cut and the tags were difficult to make.  The plain old fashioned manilla labels were not formal enough.  I like the look of old or worn tags, but even when I know that the stains are tea died, I do not want to touch them.  Am I the only one that feel that way???  Well, I finally decided to laminate some rose sticky notes I purchased around Valentine's Day.  I placed the small ribbons and lace around the roses and they all fit nicely into my red rimmed enamel bowl.

Ribbon storage in progress.  Can you tell that I like pink?

Organization

I am organizing again.  I read about organizing fabric using pre-made fabric boards which were very expensive.  I actually ordered pink foam board and I was going to make my own.  I ordered the boards from Walmart.  They messed up the order.  Instead of getting two packages of ten, I got two boards.  Two boards would not have gotten me too far with my large fabric stash.  I tried to go into my on-line Walmart account and sign a form for them in order for them to send me the corrected items.  I could not get into my account.  I opened a new account with them and of course it told me that I had not made a purchase in the last 90 days, so the form has not been signed.  After no return phone call, I decided to forget the order, even though it would have made my boards pink.  Pink would be my preference since I am the "Queen of Pink."  Go ahead and ask my co-workers and my son.  They will agree.  LOL  I made an alternate choice using comic book boards.  They were under $10.00 for 100 of them.  I haven't a clue how they are used with comic books, but fabric I figured it out.  Fabric comes folded from selvage to selvage when it is cut off the bolt.  I fold it one more time and roll it around the comic book boards and then pin the end.  I find that anything over five yards does not look as tidy, but it can be done.  I purchased some new storage cubes.  For other storage, I have a few cubes left from a purchase 20 years or so ago.  I found that these cubes are fine, but they do not do well with children or in basements.  Any ground moisture would be wicked up into the particle board and mold and mildew would grow on the bottom and back board of my cubes.   If rollers were placed on the cubes, they would not be in direct contact with the floor, so you should be able to use them in basements.  Children tend to rip the handles and hinges off of the doors of the cubes and the stack of cubes could be moved and out of kilter easily.  I purchased these 4 cubes from Amazon and the brand name is Way Basics.  Each cube was $20.00.  I still have a long way to go and more cubes to buy, but here is the beginning.  Thanks for viewing my blog.  Blessings to you and yours!  Dawn