Fabric Data Base

The sprucing up of the pit of despair is moving along. The deadline is looming and to be honest I'm not sure if I will make it. However I am very happy with the work done so far. 

The fabric cataloguing is much more time consuming than I had anticipated, but the OCD in me is doing a happy dance with the results! Check it out:

A harmless, everyday binder. Most of us have a few lying around the house. Who would ever guess that a dozen hours or so would turn it into.........

THIS!!!

A little time on excel, the use of a yardstick and a glue stick and this plain binder has become an organized database-palooza!!! It makes me so happy a little tear comes to my eye every time I look at the binder.

The spakin' new database has a column that directly correlates to a bin, where the fabric is stored. the bins started like this, and ended up like........

THIS!!!!!

So very, very happy!!!

I am lining the bins with used dryer sheets to help the fabric stay smelling fresh. Last thing I want is it all smelling like old basement. Blech!

As of right now all my fabric has been measured and catalogued. I have one big pile left to iron and fold, and a bag full to wash and dry, then iron and fold. I may be a bit behind where I wanted to be, but from where it started, the room looks vastly different. We may have to come up with a new name for the pit. 

Any suggestions?

The Pit of Despair

I have a room in my home that was dubbed "the pit of despair" shortly after we moved in. We both hear the albino from "The Princess Bride" naming it every time we walk through to the kitchen. We believe it was originally intended as a dining room, but we put our table in the main room, and really like the coziness. So the dining room became the place for everything that didn't have it's own home. I must admit that the majority of the fault for the mess lies squarely at my feet...... 

My name is Amanda and I am a fabric addict.

I can almost hear the chorus of "Hi Amanda's" from all the fellow addicts out there. If only there was a twelve step program for this! Mind you, most of us wouldn't stay on the wagon for long. Fresh fabric samples are just too tempting to pass up.

My very large fabric stash was put in there when we moved in. I had it beautifully displayed, (or so I thought), on bookshelves from Ikea, which had been recycled through my family in a few different rooms/homes and were a bit the worse for wear. Sadly, due to some technical issues that arose with my phone, the "before" pictures I had of the room, including my displayed stash, have faded into the ether, (part of my stash can be seen here in my 'magpie' post). As tends to happen with stashes mine kept growing after the original stash had been shelved without the extra shelves to contain it. It wound up in bags and boxes tucked here and there all over the place.

When our darling Lady entered our lives the pit got a jolly good cleaning and her crate went in there. It went from despair to fair in short order. As she got more comfy in her new home, it became more and more evident that the crate was not for her. She never used it, and as a result the pit came back to despair in full force. By the time December arrived we decided something had to be done. It was starting to resemble a room from "Hoarders" and we were both having nightmares of being buried alive under a mountain of stuff.

And so, as must always happen in these situations, we sat down and came up with a game plan.

Step 1: Crate goes down to storage locker. Check

Step 2: Trip to Ikea to get better shelving. Trip to Canadian Tire to get plastic bins. Check

Step 3: Rip the room apart to create a bigger mess than you had before. Check 

Step 4: Put new Ikea shelves together. Check

Step 5: Try to sort out the ruddy-big mess of your apartment. Check?

Believe it or not the pictures below are only about half way through the process. 

                                          

                          

I am currently sorting, categorizing, washing, ironing and folding all of my fabrics. They are going in plastic bins in the storage locker in the basement. My current deadline to whip this room into shape is January 26th.

Keep your fingers crossed, and wish me luck......I'm going to need it!

Happy New Year!

What a wild ride! December went by in a wink, didn't it?

I am so very far behind on everything. In fact as I am typing this I am trying to get my christmas baking finished.....in January. That particular endeavour didn't work out quite as planned. That's what I get for going to florida for Christmas.

I hope everyone had happy holidays, filled with lots of family time. I also hope that the New Year brings everyone health, wealth and happiness.