How to Live Comfortably with Less Clutter

In my last blog post, I asked, “What’s worth wanting?” Today’s question is, “What’s worth keeping?” Obviously, that’s something each person decides for themself. However, I want to share how I make it easier to part with my excess “good stuff.” It’s simple: live generously! When I give the things I love to someone else who will enjoy it, I don’t regret it or miss the stuff.

Way back in November, I wrote about A New Season of Contentment. I shared my plan to declutter during December rather than decorate our home for Christmas. So once I made that decision, I worked through the 30-Day Simplicity Challenge included in my Simplified Planner. This January, while other people were packing up all their Christmas decor, I had a headstart on the 2023 30-Day Challenge.

Less Clutter in My Sewing Room

Currently my sewing room is a strategic mess. Strategic because I have a new plan for working through my storage bins. But it is a huge mess!

Here’s my strategy:

  • Look at all my completed quilts. What do I love about them and what things would I do differently? I love the colors of spring: yellow, coral, lime, periwinkle, soft orange, and cornflower blue. My older quilts with dark backgrounds are no longer my favorites. Also, I don’t use small quilts; I prefer large napping quilts or bed quilts. After looking through the stacks of quilts in my hallway armoire, I pulled out quilts to give to my family members.
  • Open all my storage bins and boxes. I like to assemble my fabric and supplies into “kits” so that everything is ready to make a quilt or bag. Some of my kits contained leftover fabric from completed quilts, most contained projects still in my queue, and some kits contained works in progress, such as Moda Block Heads and Moda’s Sampler Spree summer sew-along.
  • Create a new plan for scraps. This year I’m going to use my leftover fabric pieces, charm packs, and odd fat quarters in one of two scrap quilts: Village Quilt (a free pattern) or Sew Scrappy Spools. If there’s a fabric that won’t work in either of those quilts or one of the kits in my queue, I plan to give it away.
  • Make quilts in a size I’ll use. As I mentioned, we use larger quilts and prefer rectangular lap/napping quilts rather than square ones. Since I have two sampler quilts in progress, I chose different layout options than the recommended ones so that they’ll fit on a bed once I complete them.

Use Up Those Scraps!

I started making my Village Quilt during the height of the pandemic in 2020. This is such a cheerful quilt, and it’s a fun, easy pattern. Since I love to buy Moda charm packs, this quilt is showcasing fabric I’ve collected over the years. Since I’m also using scraps, I use the Perfect 5 ruler to quickly cut pieces for this quilt and toss out anything smaller. The Bloc-Loc flying geese ruler makes quick work of trimming all those cute pointy roofs, and the seam roller reduces trips to the ironing board. I shared a progress photo on Instagram last week, which explains that my quilt is a tribute to the Three Pines/Inspector Gamache series by author Louise Penny.

I’m just starting my second scrap quilt, Sew Scrappy Spools, and the Fat Quarter Shop is hosting a year-long quilt along. Clink on the link if you’d like more information and buy the pattern here. I’ve amassed a large collection of Lella Boutique fat quarters and scraps over the years, and I’m going to use them in this happy quilt. In the photo below, I have the greige herringbone fabric selected for “spool ends” and a few low volume prints that I might use for background and/or borders.

Sew Scrappy Spools booklet and fabric

And here’s a photo of my overflowing bins of Lella Boutique fabric as I begin to sort scraps by color.

Cheerful fabric scraps

Have you been organizing your sewing space during January? I’d love to hear about your plans, ideas and solutions.

Progress in My Home

Before tackling my cluttered sewing room, I finally made progress in our two guest bedrooms. Originally I was going to paint the walls, but after dragging my feet for two years, I decided to simply touch up with the Sherwin Williams French Moire. It’s not my favorite color, yet it works with the quilts and art that I already have. Here’s a peek into Kiersten’s room. She has a collection of rosemaling decor that belonged to my mother-in-law. The little dresser and box were made by my husband’s grandfather from fruit crates!

folk art displayed in a bedroom

I selected my Stars and Stripes quilt top from the bedroom closet to use on the daybed. I’ll quilt it on my Juki within the next month. The photo above shows a Lella Boutique Folktale fabric that I’ll probably use to make a bed skirt. The fabric ties together all the shades of blue on the walls, quilt, and rug.

flag quilt on daybed

This corner of the room used to be my home office. Now our daughter uses it as her office when she stays with us for extended visits. Besides patching and painting nail holes, I ordered curtain panels and hung them up. Once I complete the bed set and choose art for the walls, this room will be done! Well, almost. There’s still some lingering clutter in this closet. For example, I need to sell my old sewing machine and a rarely used serger.

bedroom home office

Comfortable with Less

Next time I’ll share photos of the other guest room. I gave away some extra furniture that was tucked inside the closet and hung up some artwork. A few more pieces of art are hidden in the closet as I decide whether to use them or not.

Clearing out closets and drawers is so satisfying. Yet, parting with some things that we’ve owned for years has been hard. However, this house is a lot smaller than our previous home. And, if there’s a next house for us, it will likely be even smaller. It feels good to give thanks for well-loved pieces. Then I can send them on to another home where they’ll be appreciated.

Joyfully,

Tracie

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