Starting to Clear the Backlog

The last few months have seen a definite increase in the amount of junk that has accumulated in my sewing room, rendering the room virtually unusable. Most of the space is once again taken up by the ongoing donation pile.

I don't think I've taken any items to the charity shop or a Give and Take since October last year, so the room is looking incredibly cluttered.

It hasn't helped that I still haven't returned the Christmas decorations to the loft.  Anyway, here's a picture so you can see the damage;

The other night I began to make some inroads into tidying this room.  The main reason for doing this is threefold.

One - I want Christmas to be packed away until next year.

Two - We're moving a double bed in here when our new bed comes and I need some space to put it.

Three - There is a Give and Take in the borough on Saturday and I'm intending to take most of the donation pile there.

It also didn't help that I had to take everything off the bed at the weekend, so we could use the two single mattresses on it for LB's Birthday sleepover.  They and the bed will be donated too, once the new bed arrives. One came from our rented house and the other was LB's, along with the bed.

Once they were back in place, I could put a few things on the bed temporarily and free a bit of floor space.  Most of the things on the bed are plastic storage boxes, that need to go back on the shelf, but can't until the Christmas decorations are back in the loft, as they block access to the hatch. The mess is all interconnected and just needs unravelling.

I started by sorting through the boxes of stuff for donation and pulled out a box full of slightly better quality or newer stuff that I want to donate to the charity shop. Then, I pulled out a bag full of books I want to put in the Little Free Library.  The rest is going to the Give and Take, along with an old bike of LB's which is in the garden.

I still have some work to do on tidying up some fabric scraps left over from the Christmas rush on eBay, and once I've trimmed and bagged these up, I can put them away until later in the year, which will clear more space.

I had also pulled out lots of fabrics that I was going to use for Furoshiki purposes. These can go back to where I got them from and I can pull them out as and when I need them, instead of leaving them in piles everywhere.

This was the room after a little bit of reorganisation.  A very slight improvement, but much better organised, even though it doesn't look like it. I'll post again when I've done some actual clearing and putting away (as opposed to moving things around that is!) and have really made a difference.