I can’t believe today is Friday already. The first clue should have been that last night was my quilting club. We received materials to make a pillow with a kite on it. But looking out my window with the 6 inches of snow we got overnight I can’t believe spring is coming anytime soon.

I have another purse organizer to review. It is much different than the one I did a couple of months ago. I was going to review it for Friday’s product review but my daughter needs to use it another few days so I can give an honest review. Next Friday will be the day.

I saw these bright, sturdy containers at Tai Pan yesterday. I thought the price was right and I could use these to organize clutter. Aren’t they just the prettiest? (They were on sale for $1.99).

Containers like these are great for organizing clutter in any room in the house. In the bathroom they can hold rolled up hand towels or wash cloths. In the office greetings cards could be stored. In the craft room paper can be contained and placed on a shelf. They would be adorable as Easter baskets as well.

Reasons I like this organizing product:
•Comes in a variety of bright colors
•Sturdy cardboard
•Attractive
•Multiple uses

What do you think? Would this be a practical container for you to organize clutter?

I was on TV, Channel 2 KJZZ, yesterday and I wanted to share the different ideas I have for getting rid of clutter in your sewing and craft rooms. I showed several examples of containers that can help you get organized.

What ideas do you have that gets rid of clutter in your craft/sewing room?

I have had a few questions which were generated by my video on how to fold fabric. I have been asked how to organize fabric.

Here are 7 tips to organize fabric:

•Organize by color
•Organize “specialty” prints that don’t really go with a specific color way in its own place. This could be Christmas, juvenile prints, flower prints, batiks etc.
•If you have different fabrics like cotton, flannel, velvet and wool store each of these separately. (Cottons together, flannels together etc). I have a great video on how to store wool you can watch in my videos.
•Store fabric away from bright light to avoid weakening the fabric and to avoid fading.
•It is okay to store in plastic bins if you don’t live in an area with high humidity or pesky bugs that like cloth. The fabric needs air so it doesn’t mildew (mainly in places with high humidity). I prefer see through plastic bins and I keep the lids off. I don’t recommend storing in plastic bags.
•Or stack fabric on shelves. It is easy to see and to reach.
•If you can’t see in your boxes be sure to label them using a label maker, masking tape, or with a permanent pen right on the bin.

For more tips read my article on Organizing Fabric. How do you store your fabric?

Here I am (second from the right, standing, as you are looking at the photo) with a few of my quilting friends. We planned in November to have our Christmas party luncheon the first week of December. But with this and that happening we rescheduled it for the first week of January. It was so much fun!

The clever organizing ideas our leader (we call her Turbo Becky–she’s the one on the left in front), came up with was for each of us to make a bag and put goodies in them for our gift exchange. Now we each have a great bag we can use for projects all year. The bags are all made from one dish towel. From just one idea so many creative ideas came from it. All of the bags are unique and different.

How fun this party was. We all liked it in January too when there are no other parties and in theory we aren’t as busy. Becky also made us all these cute little bouquets of flowers that she placed at each of our plates. Each one of these was unique, different and fun.

This was a great start to the great year of 2009!

Are you looking for nifty organizing ideas to contain ribbon; the kind that comes on a spool that you use to wrap gifts? Here is a great, practically free solution. It pays to have friends. Jacki Hollywood Brown, a professional organizer in Canada made this nifty ribbon holder. This is what she said:

“I had to show you my trick for wrapping gifts. I made it myself from a shoebox from the recycle bin and a dowel that was lying around in the garage. Since I made this box, I also purchased pink, blue, yellow and silver ribbon which I use for birthday gifts, baby showers, weddings etc.”

She also informed me the Container store sells a container that does the same thing. I checked it out and it is nice, but with shipping it would cost about $18.00. By making your own you will save money and be creative at the same time. It can be neatly placed on a shelf next to your wrapping paper.

Do you have a nifty organizing idea for wrapping gifts or for storing gift wrapping stuff?

I cringe whenever I hear someone say, “This year make your gifts to save money.” It does not always save money.

I was working in a fabric store and I remember a woman spending $30.00 to make her husband a robe. At that time she could have bought one just as nice and it would have cost her less in money and time. (She didn’t even know how to sew).

When people make the assumption it will cost less to make a gift rather than buying one, it just may not be true. Here are a few organizing ideas on how to decide if making or buying is the best decision for you:

1. Do some price comparisons first if saving money is important to you.
2. Budget for the projects, don’t just think because they are homemade they don’t cost money.
3. Plan several months ahead to buy the materials you will need to make a project.
4. Give yourself enough time to make the item so you aren’t spending Christmas Eve finishing the project. I know many women who work into the wee hours of Christmas morning finishing projects and then they don’t enjoy the day.

I make beautiful quilts and knitted items for my family but I don’t do it as a way to save money, because frankly it doesn’t. But there are other reasons to make a handmade gift other than just to save money.

Have you found money saving ideas when you make your Christmas gifts?

The weekend before the 4th of July two of my daughters and I went to Lavender Days about two hours from where we live. Saturday morning we jogged and walked in the race through the lavender fields. Everyone asks if it smelled good. No, there was no fragrance. The lavender has to be touched and then it smells. This year the lavender wasn’t out yet because of the cold spring we had.

After the race they had a raffle for the runners. It was nice to sit, relax and enjoy the looks of surprise and happiness on the faces of those who won. I wasn’t paying much attention when I heard my number 617 called. I didn’t even know what I had won.

It turned out it was $50.00 to a runner’s store! We stopped at the store on our way home and I shared my good fortune. We each selected one item we could use. It was so much fun winning and sharing. Unexpected surprises are wonderful.

The photos we had taken at the festival I had in my photo album and journaled within in two days. I bought a small album, slipped my photos in which I had selected from home on my computer and emailed to be developed. I took a readers advice and hand wrote the captions. (Instead of taking the time to type up each caption). I added stickers and funny sayings and it was done in a couple of hours. There is room in my album for 25 more photos of our fun summer activities to come.

What fun stuff have you been doing this summer? How do you keep your family photos in a fast and easy way?

I am happy to report I just finished machine quilting four table toppers. I am like you—I have a very busy life. I wanted to share my organizing tips and time management ideas on how I accomplished this. I had a time frame that needed to be met.

•I made it a priority in my day. Things get in the way so I literally set a time when I would go into my sewing room and quilt. I turned on my book on tape and listened and quilted.
•Get up one-half hour earlier and work on projects before anyone else is up.
•I didn’t let the phone interfere; I took a break after the first one was finished and I then listened to messages and returned calls.
•I quilted for an hour and then I worked for half an hour and repeated this until I was done.

This is a great way to accomplish projects of any kind. I like the ratio of 2 to 1. Do the fun things twice as long as the ‘have to’ things. This way I work harder, smarter and faster on the ‘have to do’ things so it all gets done anyway.

How do you motivate yourself to get things done?

I have a top drawer in my dresser I thought was nicely organized. Okay, so there was a clump of nylons and socks, it still was pretty organized. That is what I told myself until I got a lingerie organizer.

This was given to me and at first I thought I don’t have any use for this and besides the plastic seems like it wouldn’t hold anything. Wow, was I ever wrong.

I am using it and I LOVE it. It is in the same drawer I thought was nicely organized. What an eye opener for me. Now it IS organized. Two things I really like about the organizer is that it is sturdy and because it is clear I don’t see it yet everything stays in its place in the drawer. I can see everything in the drawer at a glance.

It is summertime and I found about ten pair of winter socks in that clump of socks. I took those out and put them with my winter clothes. As a professional organizer I always try to take my own advice and it feels so good when I do.

It also becomes a matter of time management to be able to open a drawer and immediately find just what I am looking for without having to search. It feels good and saves time. I am totally sold on such a simple thing as a lingerie organizer that can be used as a container for much more than lingerie.

Do you have a favorite container you use to keep your socks and things ‘corralled’?

My friend Aby from Simplify101.com has generously donated her beautiful book on scrapbooking. She is the co-author of this book and has autographed it.

To get your name entered in the drawing leave an organization tip as a comment and say something like “I want to win, count me in on this free giveaway”. On Wednesday, June 11 we will have a drawing for the winner which will be live on video.
There are some other select prizes we will be drawing for also. We will then mail the prizes to the lucky winners. So, come on and have fun, leave a tip.