If you are a crafter, you know how easy it is for crafts to multiply into an amazing amount of clutter. For me, there are a few reasons for the clutter:
- I find it hard to throw things away. This is part of a larger pack-rat issue — I was raised by two parents who habitually saved things “that might come in handy” and watched as they sometimes did. This means I have stashes of bits and pieces and leftovers that pile up and that I find it really hard to part with.
- I seem unable to pass up a craft-supply bargain. Recently, I bought a jumbo pack of craft thread because it’s something that I use regularly and it was a very good price but in tidying up I discovered a stash of the remaining skeins of the last batch I bought! I told Mike, “No matter how cheap it is, I do NOT need more craft thread for a long while.”
- I don’t always finish what I start. Recently, I’ve been trying harder to finish what I start or at least put the unfinished objects (UFOs) in one place. That bin is now about half-full… time to finish stuff!
- Sometimes, I have a plan when I buy or save things but don’t get around to actually making what I’d planned. Especially true of my yarn stash. I think I need to start making an idea list to work from when my creative mojo has ebbed.
- I tend to throw stuff into containers that I can take away and work on when we travel or if I am working upstairs. These materials don’t always get returned to where they belong but sometimes I do upend them into a bigger bin and I end up with miscellaneous bins of stuff.
Yesterday, I tackled two of the collected miscellaneous bins, one of which had been packed before we moved in here and never dealt with. In each one I found similar bits and pieces: buttons (that I returned to the button bin), ribbon (that I gathered together along with the contents of three other containers into one big new ribbon-and-rick-rack bin), UFOs (into the UFO bin) and craft-fails (into the garbage), and oodles of scraps.
Another thing that I found in both bins were scraps of craft thread that were too short to use for most projects but too long for me to justify throwing away. Then it hit me: tassels. Out of the stash I had, I put together two tassels — I think I will make some quilted bookmarks out of fabric scraps to go with them — here’s how one went together:
Now… what to do with the rest of the stuff?