Nothing like a new toy to inspire organization

Christmas was quite the happy occasion in our household, especially for me!  I was blessed to receive the two top items on my wish list, a new surger and a bias tape maker.  Since I felt it necessary to give them a good home, the quest to conquer the craft pit of dispare became priority numero uno.

So, against Flylady's advice, I decided to go at it until it was done (OK, with some good nights sleeps and naps in between).  I did however have a give-a-way, throw-a-way and several put-a-way bins (good Flylady advice).  I started by dividing up everything by category: Sewing, scrapbooking, jewelry and other crafts.

I took everything off the floor and counter tops and put it into the correct bin.  This enabled me to look at  the stuff that was already in the cabinets, something I knew needed to be done, but had been avoiding.  Filling the bins was the fastest part of the process:

The original bins really are under there, it always looks worse before it looks better

Since there was a lot that came out of the cabinets, and wasn't going back, I worked one craft at a time and put stuff back in it's new home, labeling as I went, seriously thinking about if I would ever use it before putting it away.  After two days of my ipod constantly running, I had a huge black bag of trash, a kitchen bag full of plastic bags to drop off to be recycled, 4 large boxes full of cardboard also to be recycled and 2 large bags of give away (already picked up by the VETS!). 

I do still have a large basket of items to be passed on to other people, a lamp to decide what to do with and the two big drawers still haven't been touched.  The picture really doesn't do it justice but I took it with the cabinets doors open to show that nothing is stuffed in, it is all grouped together and labeled, maybe this helps:

I knew all that Chinese take out would benefit me later!

So, my new toys have a clean home and hopefully, I will be using them regularly very soon.  We have a few days left of Winter Break and a few projects I want to do with the kids before then, so my toys may have to wait, but at least they won't be claustrophobic while they wait. 

The rest of the house on the other hand required some Flylady crisis cleaning to be ready for my parents delayed visit.