Decluttering Craft Supplies and Tools — Things to Think About
First off, I have to be honest and say that I’m not a crafter. My mom is a talented and sought-after artisan quilter and I grew up watching her acquire and stash lots of crafting supplies. Now that she is retired and free to quilt a LOT, the stash has grown 
Many crafters like to have a lot of supplies and tools on hand in order to be well prepared for current and upcoming projects. Many also have a number of unfinished or in progress projects to organize. The key is to balance your crafting inventory with the space available so that you can easily find what you need and spend your time enjoying crafting rather than searching for supplies and tools.
This is an incomplete list of ideas but I hope it will be a starting point. And if you are a crafter, I would love to see your comment here here about decluttering and organizing strategies that work for you.
- You could think about what space you have to devote to your supplies and tools. What is the volume? How much, in percentage terms, of your stash would you have to cull in order to fit it into your space with room to spare? Perhaps you can highgrade and keep the very best tools and materials?
- Do you have any duplicate tools? I have found that now that the clutter is gone, I only need one of each tool because every tool has a home. I always know where something is when I need to find it. Could you pass along all the duplicates and just keep the best of each item?
- Who could benefit from the decluttered extras? Are there any schools or clubs who could use the supplies? What about posting your extras on Craigslist or Freecycle? Maybe you have a friend who is interested in getting started in your craft?
- Perhaps you can take a look at your unfinished projects and upcoming planned projects. If you estimate, how much time total will these projects will take to complete. How much time do you have to devote to your craft? Are there any projects you can pass along to someone else who has the time to complete them?
- Cara at Repurposeful suggests storing unfinished projects in reused plastic bedsheet cases.
- For beaders, Geralin of Metropolitan Organizing suggests using florists “water picks” to organize those tiny beads.
- Beth from MySimplerLife.com suggests, “Give yourself a time limit on unfinished projects. Either finish them or let them go. Letting go means room for new projects.”
Please leave your favorite organization and decluttering tips in the comments below!
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Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ambernussbaum/
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2 Responses to “Decluttering Craft Supplies and Tools — Things to Think About”
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Thanks for the link love! Hope your readers find it useful!
Craft clutter is one of my biggies. Something I am finding useful is that the more I ‘put like with like’, the more I realise that there are certain things I really do have ridiculous amounts of. That makes it a lot easier to get rid of some of it.
Craft items often sell well on ebay, and schools, community centres, and that kind of place would probably be very glad of any free supplies too.