Updated July 10, 2018.
I am facing, starting Thursday, the first round of major remodeling since this was written in early 2009.Admittedly it’s mostly upstairs at the other end of the house, but it will continue for two months. While I know I will love the result, I’m not keen on the process & chaos.
This makes this post about organizing your stash a timely one for me. And perhaps for you as well.
Remodeling is also giving me some time to reflect. I watched What Not to Wear quite often and I am always surprised and delighted by how changing your clothes can change your attitude.
I’m living proof that changing your decorating can do that too.
Since I moved to California in 1980, until late 2008, my stash (threads, books & canvas) had never all been in the same room. Sometimes it’s been close, but never all there and all accessible.
Thanks to my DH moving his office back home and our moving to a new house in 2009, I now have it all here in one place.
Before the Move, this was how a project went.
Get an idea.
Go to the Internet for inspiration because books are upstairs at the other end of the house.
Pull threads from what’s downstairs (too lazy to go upstairs for new unless necessary) meaning same old color palettes and rooting through tote bags of thread.
Move stuff in closet to get to canvas bin and find crumpled canvas about the right size.
Root around under chaise in bedroom for stretcher bars and through desk for thumbtacks.
Start stitching.
For almost 30 years, with only some variation, I’ve worked that way.
Now it’s all in one room and my work has changed. Because the inspirational and technique books are right here, I use them, adding new stitches to my repertoire all the time. Because the threads are right here, I try new combinations, both of color and of thread. I liked that fuchsia, teal, and hot pink I’ve used several times in the past few years, but I wouldn’t have used it in the past because it would have been too hard to pull the colors.
But with everything here, it’s easy and I can explore.
I’m even finishing pieces, something I didn’t do because that’s here too.
Sometimes you just don’t know how much better things can be until you are forced to change.
About Janet M Perry
Janet Perry is the Internet's leading authority on needlepoint. She designs, teaches and writes, getting raves from her fans for her innovative techniques, extensive knowledge and generous teaching style. A leading writer of stitch guides, she blogs here and lives on an island in the northeast corner of the SF Bay with her family
Robin Hargett says
Hi Janet,
Last summer we finished a whole house remodel. It was very trying at times. My one word of advice is to just take one day at a time and not to get “your panties in a knot.” And think about how nice the end result will be. You’ll survive!
Janet M Perry says
I try but I think remodeling is a synonym for frustrating. Demo starts tomorrow and just in the last week we have dealt with:
— a door salesman who would not tell me or my contractor what we had to measure to get the custom door
— two aisles of ugly tile at one store
— another tile store so cramped I couldn’t get my scooter into the area with tiles
— bureaucracy galore at my health care providers about the need for the modifications.
— the security system folks who thought it was weird that I called them weeks in advance to let them know we were installing a new door.
— a contractor who bid on the job but I didn’t use, who said I “wasted his time” by asking him to come out to look at what we needed before bidding — and he didn’t even bid on the main part of the job!
Oh well. It will school me in patience.
Keep stitching,
Janet