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| Another hoarder... look at the pollen on those thighs! |
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Clearing out my Qi
I am a fabric and sewing notion hoarder. There, I said it. Yeah, but... I even made a list of "reasons to buy more fabric." (Titled "He made me wait in the car." It's an Idaho thing.) It had 88 items. I left it on my old computer, and when I moved, it went ~poof~. Dangit. I have gathered more reasons, and can recreate a lot of the list, the point is, I hoard regardless of reasons. I am 57 years old, and already living on bonus time, so in an effort to unhoard, I have adopted a new philosophy. It is: see if I can get rid of all my fabric, in this lifetime. I am no longer saving the nice and pretty fabric/notions/etc. for that special project. I am using it now. Wow. Yesterday I took a large carton box to the consignment shop full of good stuff. You would think that it was the family jewels the way I agonized over what to include. For pete's sake, most of it is stuff I was given or found at thrift shops, and is old stuff I have had for over a decade... I did toss in a nice zip lock of generous flannel pieces in shades of greens, olive, and turquoises, all over ¼ yd. each. A big jar of buttons, a mason jar full of wooden spools with pretty and ancient thread, poly batting, zippers, elastic, notions... buh-bye. Then I came home and went through a giant box of flannel scraps and ruthlessly tossed all of the small pieces, even though I intend to make a ticker tape quilt which calls for a zillion tiny pieces... I filled a garbage can. I have another box full and ready to go to the consignment shop. If I get rid of all my fabric, I'll come to your house and help you sew on yours. xo
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Jane, if you could only be there, the day that some quilter comes in and can't believe what she has found. :) I'm sure we could all go thru our stash every once in awhile.
ReplyDeleteI have such mixed emotions about this post, Jane. I have too much stuff, too, but I think of it all as resources, giving me options for future activity. On the other hand, I have 10 years on you and I know I'll never use it all up. I'm too slow! I should follow your example, but, well, not just yet.... Good for you to do it, though.
ReplyDeleteyou are brave! and I know it feels so good to free up space and get rid of the clutter. I always think I am going to use things, but once they are gone I can't even remember what it was. it is time to focus on the important stuff and wear our nice clothes and cut up our favorite fabrics! xoxo
ReplyDeleteI have to add something else.... I really don't think you are a hoarder. Compared to some people we know, you really just have a nice collection/stash. When you have to buy a 5000 square foot house, dedicate an entire floor to your fabric, fill the whole space with warehouse style shelving filled with big tubs to keep everything then that's hoarding. Or if you buy fabric every day then just throw in in a big pile until you can't even open the doors to get out of your house and one day a mountain of fabric falls on you and crushes you. by the time your friends clean out your fabric there is nothing left of you but a flattened imprint of your face on the fabric that squished you.
ReplyDeleteThere was a quilter local to me who was de-stashing. She filled large boxes (think the kind office paper comes in) and was selling them for $20 each. Kind of a grab bag approach.
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