Organizing Solutions for Every Quilter 

by Carolyn Woods

Carolyn Woods is a professional organizer, author, and speaker. She is a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers and runs her company, Totally Tidy Household Organizing. For most of her life, she has been helping people get their household clutter under control. Carolyn lives in Gilbert, Arizona.
Visit Carolyn on the web:  www.totallytidy.blogspot.com

What happened in your life that prompted you to become a professional organizer?

My mom is a very organized person. She always had places where our things (mine and my sister's) belonged and where her things belonged. Things always belonged in the same places, so it was easy to find what you wanted and to know where to put it back. I think my slightly OCD, over-achiever personality gravitated toward that sense of order.

I tell the story in my book about realizing for the first time that I could get paid to help other people get organized, even if payment came in the form of a homemade lemon meringue pie. I was 10 years old when I got paid in pie. I had it in the back of my mind for many, many years that I could become a "closet organizer" as a job. I had no idea until the early 2000's, when organizing shows like Clean Sweep came on cable television, that I there is such a thing as a "professional organizer." After 7 years in business, I still only do organizing on evenings and weekends. But I love it. It fuels my soul.

My craft room/space is a mess.  I’m ready to clean it up and get organized.  Should I just flip through the gorgeous pictures in Organizing Solutions for Every Quilter for ideas and then head over to my local discount store, get some cute baskets and toss all my stuff in them?

Oh, dear. No. Please, don't.

I love that you think the pictures in my book are gorgeous. That's actually how I envisioned my book from the start. I knew it would be full of pictures of specific organizing solutions. But when I started writing, I realized that I needed the disorganized quilter to know more about exactly how to get organized. I put my writing in reverse and unexpectedly wrote chapter one.

Chapter one is the process of getting organized, and buying cute baskets doesn't even come until page 24. Begin by figuring out why your craft space became a mess in the first place. It most likely has some design and efficiency issues you need to solve by reading pages 1 to 23 first.

I'm always losing my scissors and other tools mid-project.  Any suggestions?

Wear an apron.

Minimize your distractions; stick with your project until you finish a whole step or process, and then put your tools back where they belong. 

Money’s tight.  How much will an organizing project cost me?

Most organizing projects cost nothing at all; they involve time and careful consideration to put things away and to tidy up the space.

For getting small spaces like drawers or shelves sorted and organized, you will probably need containers of some sort. These will divide up your stuff into "compartments" in order to keep like items together and to create separation. These containers can be recyclables or repurposed items from other places in the house.

If your whole craft space is a mess, it's likely that the room's furniture and structure aren't working for you. Clutter builds up because you lack the proper places to store your items. You may find yourself investing in $30 plastic drawer units at the low end of the budget up to $500 for a semi-custom, plastic-coated wire shelving solution. My advice is to invest in your mess and spend what it takes to really  solve the problem. Being creative about the final solution is how you can keep your budget in check.

I like to collect online patterns.  What’s a better way to organize and store them than just stacking them in a pile on the floor?

First, pause a moment to consider why you are collecting online patterns. Are you enamored by these wonderful patterns that you really will quilt? Or are you obsessively collecting free patterns because they are free? Keep only what you love and use.

Set goals for yourself in terms of categories--the techniques you want to try, the block designs you want to quilt or the fabric you want to use. Keep only those patterns you really intend to use. File them in manila file folders by category. Slip them into plastic sheet protectors inside of binders that are tabbed by category. Or place them into containers like 12"x12" project cases to keep the patterns you really intend to make together with the fabric and embellishments to go with it.

I know the title of the book is Organizing Solutions for Every Quilter but, can other crafters benefit?

Absolutely! My friends who ready my manuscript even said that the book helped them get motivated and gave them ideas for organizing all kinds of places in their homes. The process for organizing is exactly the same, the room design concepts are the same and even some of the organizing solutions are the same. It's just the actual stuff that is probably a little different.

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Photos courtesy of C&T Publishing.