Clean up, Clean up, Everybody Everywhere!

We sing that song a lot at our house when it is time put the toys away because that is what you have to do sometimes.  I'm starting to think that I need to sing that song in my craft room on a regular basis as well.  Perhaps you are better at this than I am - putting your things away.

For me, that means more than just returning my tools to their proper locations so I can easily find them later.  To me, that means making sure that ALL pieces of the project make it back into their box, or bag, or whatever that project is being stored in.  I have a not so great habit of putting it on the desk to put away "later".  Hopefully you are not the same. 

It also means that whatever leftover fabrics I have from that project are put away (if there are substantial pieces left) or are cut up into usable scrap sizes.  This is a new one for me and this came about because I have been exposed to Bonnie Hunter who makes wonderful use of her scraps.  If you haven't checked her out and would like to you can do so here. 

I have been trying piecemeal to get those scraps cut up into usable sizes, but to be honest it is a boring job and it doesn't feel like I'm getting very far.  I will continue to soldier on, but I do have a rather large Rubbermaid tub to get through.  It would make things so much easier if I would just do so at the end of each project rather than trying to do 10 years of project leftovers at once. I'm sure one day I will be caught up...just not yet and probably not before Christmas.

For me, "later" never really comes and then when I do want to spend a good amount of time in there trying to get something accomplished I have work to do before I can get to the fun work.  It doesn't make my crafting very enjoyable when that is looming or when I shove the needed work over to "later" just so I can go in and do the fun.  It is helpful to do your clean up.

Hopefully yours looks better than mine, or you have better habits than I have.  If we have a clean/picked up work space it makes finding time to do our crafting much easier and it helps when we have all our tools in their places so we know where to find them when they are needed.  If you are struggling like I am, let's make a pact right now.  Tonight spend 15-20 minutes in your crafting area just picking up.  Try not to get sidetracked into nostalgia town (I've spent many unproductive hours there as well) and stay on task.  I bet in that 15-20 minutes we can get more done than we thought we could.  Deal?  Let me hear from you.

I suppose that is why my craft room looks the way it does, because I don't always take that time and not just after finishing every project, but also after doing any work in there at all.  I really need to take a page from the preschool teacher...

Clean up, Clean up, Everybody Everywhere
Clean up, Clean up, Everybody do your share.
It's time to put the work away, the work away the work away
It's time to put the work away to have a goodly time.