Pat Sloan When is a mess a mess?

Yesterday my friends and I were emailing about what is a Mess.

A mess to me might not be a mess to you.. and during yesterday's long back and forth email chat.. we learned one of our members has supernatural organization powers.. (wanna see her new studio? click here)

I am currently overwhelmed by my stuff. My stuff not put away.. stuff coming in.. stuff that I need to deal with. I work here 10 hours a day and I like my area to be tidy. It's how my brain works.

This is my hall... that is my suitcase.. it still has laundry in it.. really.. a week after I'm home?

My ironing board has

• kit fabric,
• project fabric...
• and... stuff...

I have NO CLUE what is in these baskets stacked on the floor

That bothers me because last time I looked the one on the right has a LOT of little stuff in it.

Stuff that I need to find a home for.

I really don't feel like dealing with it at the moment.

Holey Moley this shelf is making me insane.

The bag from my book cover is there to cheer me up.. wink! (BOOK HERE)

But those baskets.. eek!! I have no idea what is in them. I think the big one has stuff from SPRING market.. that was 6 months ago...

I've decorated my "books waiting to be reviewed" with Renee Nanneman's lovely fabric. It's so pretty wrapped up in big bows, she spoils me!

BUT.. I need to get these stacks sorted, reviewed, moved ...

seriously .. it makes me insane to have them there waiting for me to get to them...and my view from my desk is right at this shelf

All....

Day....

Long....

maybe I need a curtain to hide them?

And of course THIS is my new Scrap project I shared in my newsletter Thursday ... and see my rotary cutter from THIS SHARE?  It works great now.. thank you very much.

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CLICK HERE.. a few more hours to get in on my FABRIC GIVEAWAY!!!

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Comments

[Mary Lynn Wolfe Hughes( Noni)]

Pat ,we redid our house just a year ago and my sewing area (part of the downstairs family room was just beautiful )now just 15 months later it looks just like it did before 1 ) the baskets 2)the pretty boxes 3) the lawyers book-case full and overflowing with things that come in while I am sleeping or if I go to the store they creep in and hide . What's a person to do? Noni

[Beth]

It looks like creativity to me. I had to clean up my sewing room this week to prepare for lots of guests next week.
My cutting table always seems to have piles of stuff on it. I think stuff hops up there when I am not looking. ;)

[Linda]

I wish I had a sewing room with a mess. I sew in the guest room so it has to stay clean. lol, one day I'll have a sewing room.

[CHRISTINA MACKENZIE]

Pat your space is sooooooooooooo organized you just don't realize it. I used to be like that, I just don't know what happened. Slowly (not fast enough)I'm getting back to that state. I have to, even if it is to make the move to the new house easier when we go, sometime in the next 18 months. Funny how flat surfaces seem to attract piles no matter what room it is in the house. Why does time fly by so fast, so that we never get caught?

[Beth]

Oh, Pat! I'm right there with you! I've spent the better part of two days trying to find homes for all the cool stuff I brought home from market. Staying for Festival didn't help either!

[Donna Joy]

Yes those piles of delightful fabric messes drive us crazy. We'd rather start more projects than get other projects done. Then who had time to organize when you want to sew. I'd forgotten about the Flylady, she is delightful.

[Lorna de Lange]

LORNA D in KZN says When it is an organized mess and you can still find what you are looking for - than its OK

[Sandhya Karandikar]

Pat, your mess is very inspiring. I wish I had photographed my work room (s). I was doing some QALs and also working on my bags plus I had crochet project on hook so the whole of the top floor of my house was full of fabric and yarn. Just last week I cleaned it up as I had a house full of guests coming.

[VickiT]

Pat I am SO jealous of your mess! Seriously! At least you can see your cutting table. Mine? It is totally buried! In what? A huge, monster sized pile ......wait no.....it is really three piles stacked about 2 1/2 feet high, each of them and one of them has an equal sized stack behind it. And you wanna talk floor space? Yea, I can get into my room to my desk and about three feet past that point begins the rest of the mess covering from side to side of my open floor space with fabric and a box of books and very old patterns. WHY do we do this type of thing to ourselves? I did this to myself. My husband would tell you the very same thing, but he was with me. He encouraged me to keep picking this stuff up even. It was a sale ~ oh yea we all know what that word does to any woman. SALE! That translates to BUY IT ALL! RIGHT? Yea, I am pretty sure I just about did. It was a sale at the local historical society to help them earn money as a donation. They just had to work a bit to get their money when a family donated a woman's entire fabric stash and more to them for disposal. This sale was in my hometown and the woman lived just two blocks from my home I was raised in. She still lived in that same home close to my old one all these years so you can imagine the fabric she had. HA. It's all in MY sewing room now. LOL

Yep, I'm totally jealous of your mess. Your room and mine is like the comparison of yours to that absolutely GORGEOUS room you just linked us too which I am sure we are all drooling over. I know I am.

[Diana Tatro]

i actually don't think it looks all that bad. I have my own mess going on but you have an excuse......You have a whole lot of everything going on and there's only so much time. don't be so hard on yourself....you'll get to it.

[Kathy Raabe]

A mess to one is a comfortable amount of clutter to another. A curtain would be good.

[Sally Johnson]

Pat how can I convince you that I would make a great
assistant. LOL!!! Love to organize. Just saying. Id come for a weekend and have you so organized and all you'd have to do is pay me in Starbie visits LMAO!!!

[Gene Black]

Your mess is way neater than mine. The only "mess" that I see is the one on the cutting board.

[Cheryl Rupp]

Thank you for sharing...now I don't feel so disorganized! I have totes, boxes and such with different projects....just wish I had more time to work on them! I can't really say your area is a mess, it seems to be organized for the most part, but perhaps it's a bit overcrowded?? Have a great day! Cheryl

[Carol Berge]

Not sure if this is going to work.
I love the fall colors and the changing of the seasons. Winter will soon be here.

Tried to follow the instructions, did not find the comment link......

[Kathy]

A mess is a mess when it starts to bother me. When I'm happy and life is good, I like my messes and am productive, thinking I'll clean up tomorrow. It's only when I'm sick or overcommitted that I feel stressed and see my world through someone else's eyes and then it's all a mess. You can consider your baskets to be treasures to uncover.

[Shannon Haas]

It's starting to look like my spare room!

[Sandy A in St. Louis]

That is a "good" kind of mess, though, with lots of fun stuff. A "bad" mess would be one with things you didn't like or were from something like natural disaster. I will take a good mess over a bad one any day!

[Laura West Kong]

Ha! Looks just like my hallway. I really would move my quilt things from there to a proper home if I could figure out where. And my studio is not any better. I try to put a little away each day to at least stem the messy tide, and hopefully move closer bit by bit to organizational bliss.

[Sharon Hughson]

Hey, Pat, don't feel bad. That studio has not been moved into yet according to the pics. Really any space looks great before anyone moves in. LOL Chin up, GF. Hire a helper to sort and put away. A nanny for your studio.

[Jocelyn]

Ha, ha a gal after my own heart. Yes a curtain to cover the eye sore. Sort of like keeping a band aid over the wound ;-)

[DianeP]

Oh yes, my house is a mess, but I'm the one that made the mess so I have to clear it up.

Here's my advice - take a deep breath and pick up ONE thing and deal with it. The suitcase? Empty it out - do the laundry - and put all the clean stuff back in and you're ready for the next trip.

Baskets? Pick ONE up and go through it while you're waiting for the laundry to finish. Now you'll have TWO things done.

As the Lady at Weight Watchers told us, "You gotta wanna!" When you're good and ready - just one thing at a time - you CAN do it!

[Shirley in Canada]

I so know how you feel about being overwhelmed .... I tend to just go down then turn around and leave. Show me what you do to get back to origination and hoping I can follow along with you!!

[Karyn]

Feel free to box that mess up and send it over :)

[Maxine Funk]

I forgot to say that my sewing loft is in a mess, but day by day it is getting better as I work on it little by little instead of driving me crazy and quitting with the first attempt.