Are you familiar with Pareto’s Principle?
I bet you know it but you might not know the name… It is the 80/20 rule that a dude in Italy years ago came up with after observing that 80% of the wealth was held by 20% of the people and that this rule played out in all factors of life.
We see this everywhere, from our kitchens to our closets. We use only 20% off all the cookware we have on a regular basis and only wear 20% of our clothing on regular rotation without creating a plan to do otherwise.
And while I see no historical evidence that Pareto was a quilter that sneaky bastard is hanging out with your quilting supplies as well. The trick is figuring out what is really serving you and what you are keeping out of habit fear or guilt.
Last week I wrote about there phrase I use to help me decided how to cull my stash, my supplies and the other detritus that fills my sewing room (Handy dandy link to that article) and today I follow up with a bit of help from my friend Vilfredo and offer a few more hopefully helpful nuggets of wisdom as you take on the task of making your sewing space not only safe but easier to work in.. you know, like being able to find one of those 10 seam rippers that always seem to go missing?
- Establish the boundaries of your hobby. For myself that meant that my sewing and crafts cannot spill out into other parts of the house. I must be able to easily store it in the bounds of the room I have dedicated to my hobbies. I was pretty harsh on myself in that if I do not have room for it I have to either give up something or go without. This hard line approach is not for everyone and I cant say that it has been easy but opening cabinets and not having stuff come tumbling to the floor is a nice change! I used a version of this years ago when my sewing space was a closet, like a coat closet. I would open the door, pull over the extension cord and pull up a chair and sew. I kept the basics on the peg board on the wall in the closet and on two shelves inside the closet. It sounds a bit rough but it was actually a really nice way to do things and I was quite happy to have it. It also kept things in order that is for sure!
Bigger Sewing rooms = Bigger Messes
2. Multiples might be the way to go! I have found that when it comes to cleaning up and the inverse, actually finding things when I need them that having as many sets of the basics as i have work stations in my space works for me. So I have a sewing/serge station, an embroidery machine station, cutting station, and longarm station as well as a mixed media station. Each have their own scissors, pins etc… and while notably this flys in the face of being minimal it does help in that there is NO way I actually need 10 seam rippers.. or basic scissors, so I have been working on culling the extras and just getting rid of them. You know those scissors with that catch in the cut, those pins that melt with the iron even gets near them.
3. When it comes to fabric stashes feelings can run high and I am no joy killer, shopping for fabric is fun and even better when what you bring home really works with the fabric you have. With this in mind I offer the Idea of a Capsule Fabric Collection. Much like a versatile Capsule wardrobe, a Capsule Fabric Collection (CFC) creates a style and color palate that you enjoy working with and that gives you direction when “buying for fun” so that what you buy actually gets used as to opposed to sitting there like a pretty wallflower with no one to dance with. I am going to some back and talk more about this as I work with this idea in my on stash making it vastly more usable for my home and what I want to sew.
In the meantime I would love to know what you think, are you stuck in the 80/20 rule and what tweaks could you make to get more use out of what you have or possibly make some more space by letting some of it go?
