Wednesday, January 14, 2015

15 Minute Studio Spiff Up Week 2

How did you do?  Did you find all of your UFOs and get them listed?  I spent a little bit more time this week looking at my UFOs.  (Remember, I'm working at least one week ahead of what I'm suggesting you do.)  So, I've moved on with my UFOs and have several pulled to work on and even have cut fabric for what needs to be done next.  We'll see if I can get some of it done.

Here's this week's assignment.  Tackle your cutting space.  I have a huge table with cutting mats and rotary cutters on each side.  My rulers are in two ruler holders between the space.  And both were totally covered with just a little tiny space available to cut.



Here's what I did to get my cutting tables cleared and cleaned.
  • Put all the excess yardage away where it goes
  • Stashed scraps in a bin that I plan to cut up at a later time
  • Throw away strings, unusable scraps, notes -- whatever I didn't need to keep
  • I put things from the table on to the ironing board so I could really dust the space. Eew -- behind the ruler racks were dust bunnies galore. 
  • I removed all the rulers from their racks and took a vacuum cleaner to the rack.  
  • After everything was dusted I put the rulers in the racks, put my boxes where my rotary cutters reside back on the table, lined up my pin cushions, put back the box where I put all my large scissors and pinking shears, emptied my little trash containers and then put them back where they belong. 
This area was so bad it took me several 15 minute sessions.  And, yesterday I spent nearly an hour finishing it off.
This is the newly cleaned space shown in the first picture. I flipped the cutting mat to the purple side to see if I like it better than the yellow. 
Here's the second cutting area.  Nice and neat still! 
And, then I started cutting out pieces I needed to work on those UFOs for the next week or so. It was so nice to have a decent cutting area to work with.  


Let me know how you are doing? If you don't want to do an area go ahead and skip it.  Or plan to go back to it if you can't get it during the week assigned.  The whole idea of this is to actually neaten and clean your studio without spending a ton of time on it -- at least not all at once. I like to see the progress and not be committed to days of cleaning. 

I'm happy to hear that people are joining in the 15 Minute Studio Spiff Up.  Don't forget to tell us how you are doing.  Is this method working for you? 

Happy Quilting All! 





10 comments:

  1. You did good! I did a major clean up of mine a few months ago and have been pretty good at keeping it accessible since. It makes a huge difference in my productivity.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great job! I am slowly working on tidying my space.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great idea - and job! I need to jump on your spiff-up wagon!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I had to laugh at the fact that you have a huge cutting table with only a small space free for cutting. Mine was the same!! Since I've moved, though, I'm being more strict with myself about keeping it clean. Why is it so much more difficult to put fabric away than it is to pull it?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Well, I started today (just saw your blog yesterday). I started with the cutting table because I need to cut several fabrics. I have been feeling so overwhelmed because everything in there is such a mess. I spent 1 hour and got some UFOs organized and cleaned the cutting table and organized the rulers and rotary cutters. Feeling very good. Thanks, Bonnie for the encouragement.
    NancyB in AZ

    ReplyDelete
  6. I think I have found all the UFOs that are in the house, but there are more packed and stacked in the attic. Saturday is supposed to be warm so a good day to go up there. Meanwhile, looking for the UFOs in the house has resulted in getting my closet and shelves cleaned out and organzied, something that was sorely needed.

    ReplyDelete
  7. For some reason, my cutting table tends to stay pretty clean. The only time it's a bit cluttered is when it doubles as gift wrapping central during Christmas. Your sewing space looks great. I did spend some time reorganizing the fabric closet. It still needs a lot of work, but doing it in small increments as you suggest means I still have time to sew.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Check out my blog. http://melsquiltingblog.blogspot.com/2015/01/15-minute-challenge.html
    I've done this within the last few weeks, but it gets to be a mess when I'm doing things. We had a school project that needed the help of my quilting ruler and paper rotary cutter. LOL
    I appreciate the push to do something about messes.
    I now need to vacuum because I try and do that between projects to keep control of all the threads.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I just found out about your 15-minute studio spiff-up, so I'm already behind! I do have a list of UFOs. The paper (maybe 3 yrs. out of date) is somewhere in a pile of papers on the card table behind the sewing machine. Half my cutting table is almost clear. Does that count? I'll try to do better by next week!

    ReplyDelete
  10. My sewing table is a bit multipurpose and gets cleared off at least once a week but oh boy, in between time. I'm off for a fifteen minute spiff up as soon as I check out post #3! ;^)

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for visiting. Let me know what you're thinking about.