I can lose anything, including the glasses right on top of my head. One of the problems with quilting is that it involves the simultaneous use of many things, and that means losing things all the time. Searching for stuff is a huge waste of time – time you could be spending quilting! It’s very frustrating and it’s enough to make you want to take up a simpler hobby, like reading. Do not despair, my creative friends, there are ways to stop losing things (as much). Consider these:
- A place for everything and everything in its place – I’m sure you heard your Grandma say this many times, but it really is true. Try to have a place for the important things that you use for every project (scissors, rotary cutters, rulers, etc.) and make an effort to return those things to their spot every single time.
- Take time to clean up – It’s hard to find time in our busy lives for fun things like quilting, so it would follow that it’s even harder to find even more time to clean up. But, if you can take just 2 or 3 minutes and the end of each day to straighten up your crafting space, it will be much less of a disaster and “finding things” won’t become an archeological dig.
- Containers, containers, containers – I can’t say enough good things about containers. Put all the “stuff” for a particular project in one container. It will be easy to clean up and easy to take out when you have time to start working on it again. A perfect example of the value of containers occurred over the summer when I suddenly had to move. I put all the things I was going to need (pattern, fabrics, trim, buttons, thread and other notions) for a special Christmas stocking project I had been planning into a big Ziploc baggie. Incredibly, I was able to make that stocking for my BFF even when my house was still a mess from the recent move.
- Have spares – lots of them – For the cheap stuff, sometimes it pays to just have lots of them. This is how I solved my problem with my glasses. I keep lots of cheap “readers” everywhere. I also have about 40 pairs of tiny thread scissors. However, I have only one pair of “good scissors”, the ones for cutting fabric. Which brings me to my final point…
- Never let anyone borrow anything – Especially your good scissors.
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