Paper and fabric

[magid]

I'm continuing the declutterfication of my apartment, and realized again that I have a problem. Two problems, really: paper and fabric.

I have paper. Lots of paper. There's the obvious books - approximately 1800 of them in what's technically a one-bedroom apartment. And old paper, which I'm slowly sorting through, keeping the letters, recycling the old bills and statements (So far this week: 5 full bags of paper recycled, and a 6th is almost full.). There's the slightly more subtle, with far too many office supplies - cards, writing paper, postcards, pads of paper, stickies. And there's the theoretically useful - maps and stamps. My goodness, I didn't realize just how much money I had tied up in postage! And the smaller, yet shelf-taking, artistic blank books. (The plain ones I use. The pretty ones never seem to have anything worthy enough of sullying their pages for, so I have a number of gorgeously made pieces of book art that I should likely pass on, yet they were gifts and I treasure them.)

I have fabric. Lots of fabric. I have clothes, probably too many of them, though I did bring a couple of bags to Goodwill just before Thanksgiving (having missed the most recent clothing swap). It does not help that I tend to let the laundry pile up awhile before doing massive loads. I have cloth I've bought because it appealed, long before I acquired a sewing machine (which I need to start using more than I have been), though I had no particular projects in mind. A lot of it is folded up, but some fleece is on 45-foot-long bolts, which are not easily fit into my space. I have more scarves than I could shake a stick at (as it were), though some of them could be considered usable fabric, I suppose. And I have yarn, waiting to be made into surfaces that are fabric-like. I thought I had too much yarn, then discovered there was another box of it high in the closet. Oy. Time to keep craft supplies more accessible, both so I use them, and I remember I've already got stuff to use when I'm tempted to acquire more.

Comments

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

For a lot of that stuff, it turns out to be cheaper to buy it at full price when you need it, than to keep a giant inventory of "just in case".

For clothing, I go through it at least twice a year, and anything I haven't worn lately has to "justify its existence". So, my dive skin and tuxedo stay, but random t-shirts and such don't.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I don't know when I last bought paper stuff. Some of it is gifts, some of it is free stuff that came home with me (actual free stuff, not, er, reappropriated).

In general, neither of these categories seems to fill the "just in case" niche in my brain the way, say, lightbulbs or nails or cans of beans do. I get fabric and yarn because their beauty calls to me in some way, for what it is now as well as what it might become later.

I should go through my wardrobe more frequently. I know that I keep some things too long, in the hope that they'll fit again (or the hope that they won't, but just in case....).

I keep thinking I should make something out of the now-fraying T-shirts I'm still fond of, a quilt, maybe.

[twostepsfwd.livejournal.com]

i wish i was there, i could take some of your fabric off your hands. lee just sent me some scraps in the mail actually. i need small pieces of fabric for various crafty projects and i'm having a bitch of a time finding them. it never occurred to me to look at goodwill. the fabric store (the ONLY fabric store) around here has no scraps, they donate them all to hospital home sewing clubs or something. anyway, i basically have the opposite problem of you!

i share the paper problem, though.

sending you organizing-and-declutterfying vibes

[magid.livejournal.com]

I'd happily send you some fabric, once I cut it up enough to have reasonable bits to send.

One of the used clothing stores around here has dollar-a-pound (though I think it's actually up to $1.50/lb now), and with it so cheap, it's easy to look for interesting fabric rather than clothing that fits. They also have a very tiny area with table linens, which are incredibly cheap, for some reason. Perhaps Goodwill prices similarly.

And the vibes must be working; I've been fairly productive today!

[gingicat]

littlebuhnee has "fabric" on her wish list - she's starting to make and sell mei tai baby carriers.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Good for her making mei tais.

I don't think I want to give away long pieces of fabric; my goal is to use them myself.