Something wonderful happened on my way to find all my “UFOs” (UnFinished Objects)!
On my last blog, I challenged myself to find all my unfinished projects and make a plan to finish them.
Well, as I started looking, I realized that it was best to look in all my fabric bins – never know what might be hiding in there!
As I did this, I thought to myself, “As long as I’m doing this, I should sort and reorganize all my fabric bins at the same time.” As you can imagine, this turned out to be a much bigger project than I thought!
I do try to go through most of my bins at least once a year in order to get ready for my upcoming camps. This helps me figure out what fabric I have, and what I need.
However, you know as well as I do that, when you take stuff out of plastic bins, it’s never neat putting them back in (unless you take the time to refold and straighten them – and for me that never happens).
Instead, it seems that I am always in a hurry and just shove everything back in. And for good reason – I have a busy life besides teaching sewing classes 5-6 days a week. I also homeschool my 7-year-old granddaughter!
Anyway, needless to say it all got done – and I am pretty proud of myself!
Here are the results of my UFO-search-turned-cleaning-and-reorganizing project:
- Went through 33 bins total.
- Purged 3 bins’ worth of fabric to donate.
- Consolidated and sorted ALL my bins (some, I might say, have not seen the light of day for some time).
Now I bet you’re wondering: how many UFOs did I find? And how many did I actually work on?
The answer to the second question is… I have not had time to work on any. Sorry to disappoint you!
In addition, answering the first question is harder than it seems. So I will give you the short version: I found 8 bins full of UFOs.
Keep in mind not all of my bins are the same size, and not all of them were full (while others were stuffed to the brim).
However, the good part is now my UFOs are all together with their friends. And now it will be much easier to organize them and begin working on them when I have the time!
Here are some before and after pictures of my fabric organizing process – I use this method on a regular basis. Hopefully for my next blog I’ll have them all my UFOs counted, sorted, and some even completed!
BEFORE (Upper Shelving): 
AFTER (Upper Shelving and Lower Shelving):
I did notice on Facebook that lots of sewing sites were doing this same thing, confessing how many projects they needed to complete, and then working on them. Must be time for Spring Cleaning!
Sewing Tip: If you’re anything like me, you have a lot of UFOs and stray fabric laying around, and not enough time to complete everything. This can be quite intimidating! Instead, focus on little victories, and accomplish small steps throughout the week whenever you get a spare 10-15 minutes. You’ll get a lot more done, and the project won’t seem nearly as overwhelming. In fact, you may even find it fun!
Wishing all of you luck in sorting, organizing and completing all your UFOs!
Happy Sewing!
JoLene