Attacking the craft closet

I'm not sure what possessed me, but I decided I should do something about the "craft closet" in our bedroom. It's a little "bonus" closet (as opposed to our walk-in closet) that, before we bought the house, was apparently used to store square dancing outfits... 

Anyway, it's got shelves and I've always just kind of stuffed my crafty things and other such odds and ends into it. Mostly partially done knitting projects and yarn, and odds and ends of scrapbooking supplies, lots left over from when I sold Creative Memories (so a lot of outdated scrapbooking supplies, as that was 10 years ago!), a little bit of fabric, boxes of photos, etc. 

The yarn was the most intimidating. I have bad knitting ADD. I start a project and then forget about it. Then I start a new one. And a new one. And a new one.... I don't finish a lot of projects.

By far, the biggest job was just seeing what was there (since every project was in some sort of bag, in some sort of half-done or barely-started disarray. Lots had the needles taken out, since I always am short on the size of needles I need when starting a new project... (Seriously, it's bad.) I decided which projects I thought I might actually have some hope of finishing and put them into ziplocks with their patterns. Anything I decided not to finish, I frogged and rewound the yarn and reclaimed the needles. I sorted out good and crappy yarn. I untangled what I could of good yarn and ruthlessly threw the rest away. I put like yarn together in ziplocks, if there were only a few. Then I sorted all the random, crumpled paper patterns and threw away any that I didn't want to keep. I get most of my patterns off of Ravelry anyway, so I can usually find them again. I totally wish I had a kindle, just for knitting patterns. At any rate, I got it all neatly stashed in a big plastic container! Major stress relief!

The next issue was scrapbooking stuff. I am 100% converted to Project Life for daily stuff, and for the current year, I'm doing it digitally, via the app. The clutter-free aspect of needing ZERO supplies to make this happen is UH-mazing. But I still have years past to complete. The pathetic thing is that I've had PL kits and accessories stashed all over the place. So I consolidated it all and put it in the closet in an orderly fashion so I can see everything that's there. 

I still do some traditional scrapbooking here and there, so I don't want to get rid of all my stuff, but I could probably go through my big plastic drawer tower at some point and pare that down. I went through the old CM stuff I still had. Found plenty to give to Goodwill that I don't want and won't be sellable. There are a few things I might be able to get a little out of on eBay, so I saved those and put them neatly back in the closet for now. 

The rest was odds and ends, which I sorted, folded, and packaged in ziplocks as I was able to.

The finished product is so much better!! In fact, I kind of want to knit again!! (New project anyone? 😉)