Stash
I've become increasingly frustrated with the state of my material possessions over the last few months. It's probably exacerbated by the fact that I have all my earthly goods in a single smallish "bonus room" without even a closet -- everything is in constant view. But this week I decided to do something about it.
I'm down-sizing. I decided I shouldn't really need more clothes than will fit in my dresser (five medium-sized drawers) and on my hanging rack which is masquerading as a closet. So yesterday I piled all my clothes (socks and underwear and everything) on the bed and did some sorting. I ended up with a comfortably-filled hanging rack and a dresser a little over-full, plus one small crate for mittens, hats, shawls, and other knitted things. This seems reasonable to me. Some of these items are starting to wear out, also, so I'll be discarding them as they pass their useable life. Three or four items went in the scrap-fabric pile, a few in the trash, and the rest (a very large box) will either be offered at yard sale or donated.
Today I began tackling the yarn stash. This is a slightly more complicated process... not only do I have to find all the yarn I own (a daunting task, as I never unpacked some boxes when I moved last year), but I also have to sort it, decide whether it's all worth keeping (ancient acrylic from my first attempts at knitting 18 years ago, anyone?), and then find an organized way to store it. By weight? By fiber content? I'm also taking this opportunity to enter it all in my Ravelry stash, so that I have it all photo-documented, and I can see at a glance what I have and what might work for a new project.
I spent about three hours this afternoon, and made it through four small boxes. 44 separate entries. This is going to take a LONG time.
(And this is not counting all the FABRIC that needs to be sorted and stored, or the books, or the papers accumulated from four years of college and one of grad school... I need about three weeks for this project!)
I'm down-sizing. I decided I shouldn't really need more clothes than will fit in my dresser (five medium-sized drawers) and on my hanging rack which is masquerading as a closet. So yesterday I piled all my clothes (socks and underwear and everything) on the bed and did some sorting. I ended up with a comfortably-filled hanging rack and a dresser a little over-full, plus one small crate for mittens, hats, shawls, and other knitted things. This seems reasonable to me. Some of these items are starting to wear out, also, so I'll be discarding them as they pass their useable life. Three or four items went in the scrap-fabric pile, a few in the trash, and the rest (a very large box) will either be offered at yard sale or donated.
Today I began tackling the yarn stash. This is a slightly more complicated process... not only do I have to find all the yarn I own (a daunting task, as I never unpacked some boxes when I moved last year), but I also have to sort it, decide whether it's all worth keeping (ancient acrylic from my first attempts at knitting 18 years ago, anyone?), and then find an organized way to store it. By weight? By fiber content? I'm also taking this opportunity to enter it all in my Ravelry stash, so that I have it all photo-documented, and I can see at a glance what I have and what might work for a new project.
I spent about three hours this afternoon, and made it through four small boxes. 44 separate entries. This is going to take a LONG time.
(And this is not counting all the FABRIC that needs to be sorted and stored, or the books, or the papers accumulated from four years of college and one of grad school... I need about three weeks for this project!)
I understand the need to organize every now and then. It's almost theraputic for me! Minus the stress!
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