How do you evaluate craft supplies and decide what you should keep and what needs to be liquidated?
Let's start by asking ourselves a couple of tough questions.
1. How long have you had it?
2. Are you realistically going to use it in the next year?
If your answer to those questions is, 'I don't know', then you probably need to consider parting with it. Use it or lose it 'should' be my standard policy on such things but that's easier said than done, as I can attest to.I've been agonizing over this for days now. It's time to make some decisions. I've set up three zones to help me with this; keep, trash and donate.
Alright, the yellowing polyester stuffing that has been around here since my boys were young can be trashed. (My sons are 38 and 36.) I think the plastic beans that I'd intended to make bean bags with can probably go too.
The fabric has already been sorted and categorized. All that I've kept is the good cottons for quilting and some larger pieces intended to make medieval garb with for the renaissance faires we go to. The polyester/cotton and 'unknown' fibres went to the thrift store.
Now we get to the yarn. I have not done any knitting in a long time, yet I still have a ton of it around here. The local daycare would probably love to get some of it for their kids craft projects. I think that most of it will go there.
Next we come to the beads and beading supplies. I can't even begin to look at that stuff yet. I'll think about those 'tomorrow'. *smile*
What area do you intend to tackle this week? What do you think you will find? More importantly, what will you do with it?
The craft supplies is a hard one. The minute I get rid on something I find a need for it. A couple years ago I downsized and got rid of way too much. My kids will no longer let me say,"well I used to have 2 of these but I got rid of them and now have to repurchase".... Good Luck
ReplyDeleteI know how you feel. I have beads from high school when I made indian beadwork. I keep them because I know you can use them for other projects and I hate wasting money. I just now found a use for a bunch of the glass beads, when I started an applique quilt and used the beads to accent some pieces and to add details. My big issue is that sometimes I can't find supplies I know I have. To help organize, I got a small plastic dresser. Each drawer has a theme and this help immensely with items like beads and buttons.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I don't have fabric to deal with. I do have beads though, but they are all in one cupboard, and still manageable, so I think I can ignore that for a while yet. You wore me out just thinking about what you must have had to go through this week!
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