Embroidery Floss Organization - My Perfect Solution At Last!

I was in dire need of a way to organize all my embroidery floss.  I had tons of floss and no good way to store it.

This is how I was storing my embroidery floss.  Not too convenient; definitely not attractive.

I had some of it divided out by number, but this really did me no good as I'm more interested in the color than I am in matching the number to a chart.  Most of it was just thrown in the basket.  It was, frankly a mess.

Then last week, I was walking through Target minding my own business when I came across these boxes.

Great stacking boxes found at my local Target.

Bingo!  Guess what they are sized perfectly to hold?  And they stack to boot!

Exactly the right size for a skein of embroidery floss.

I couldn't wait to get home and start sorting out my collection.  I did hit one snag.  I have such a vast collection of floss that it didn't all fit in the four boxes I bought.  Where did I get it all?  Goodwill, of course!  It's where I get most everything.

Oops!  My floss collections won't fit in the four boxes I bought.  I'll need one more.  By the way, you can see the blanket on the floor.  I don't usually throw the blanket on the floor.  The cat had pulled it down there to sleep on...  you just can't see him.  I swear it's true.

Oh well, I'd have to make another trip to Target to pick up a fifth box.  I can deal with it!  Look at how beautiful it looks:

I redistributed the overflowing colors with the greens waiting for me to purchase a fifth box.  Doesn't it look pretty?  Am I a dork for thinking that?

I stacked the boxes one on top of the other and they hardly take up any room on the shelf at all.  I love it when storage can be vertical and not horizontal, know what I mean?  Neat, orderly, and easy to get at.

I'm still in my "it's New Year's so I need to organize" mood.  Do you have any storage tips for craft supplies?

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Challenge No. 20 Submission - Fabric Covered Holiday Storage Boxes - Tutorial

May I introduce you to my newest storage solution? These are fabric covered boxes, made to hold holiday decorations. The idea is for the contents to be obvious by the box "decor" ... It seem to be forming a habit of making some craft for each holiday and they didn't really have a place, and everything needs a place. So, I decided to give new life to some old shoe / gift boxes by covering them in cute fabrics.

Which holidays do you think these boxes represent?

Pink & red = Valentine's Day, and

Red white & blue = Memorial Day & 4th of July!

They are big enough to hold all those random holiday trinkets (like the stuff from the dollar bin at Target that I cannot help but go to).  



nice & tidy corner!



You see, part of my laundry room is really organized but part is not. For months, I've been shoving stuff on the shelves. In my recent spring cleaning / organizing mode, I couldn't handle it anymore.  I decided I wanted boxes that made it obvious what was inside.

If you like them too, then please vote for this in our challenge! And if you want to make your own, just keep reading :)

I think it'd be fun to embellish with ribbon, buttons, etc and use them for gift boxes (like for a new baby, or a wedding present). Here are a couple of other ideas for these boxes (I'll probably do some of these as my spring cleaning fit continues to plague me):

• boxes for Christmas cards (for each year, with the year on the box)
• boxes to hold gifts / box as the gift.
• boxes for each year of child's life (mark it w/ the number) ... to hold cards, pics, etc.

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Farewell, Old Friend

I made a couple changes in my sewing room this weekend.  One change was because of an awesome Goodwill find.  The other was a needed change, but a bittersweet one.

First, the awesome find.  This is my old cutting table.

I got this drafting table at Goodwill for $15 a few years back.  It makes a great cutting table because the height is adjustable.  You can raise it up so you aren't hunched over the table while you cut.  It was perfectly functional, but as you can see, there is some wasted space beneath it.  I wasn't even  considering a new cutting table when I ran across this at Goodwill:

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Sunday Sewing Tip on Thursday

I totally forgot about my Sunday Sewing Tip.  I'm middle-aged, forgetting is what middle-aged people do, right?

This is another storage tip post.  As you know, I love thrift stores.  One thing I'm constantly buying is old novelty planters.  These are great for ort catchers or miscellaneous doodad holders.  Here are some examples from my sewing room.

This is right next to my sewing machine.  I would guess this one is from the 1940s.  It's perfect for scissors, seam ripper, stiletto, and other miscellaneous tools.

These are on my ironing board right next to the bottle of Mary Ellen's Best Press (love that stuff).  The dog planter is an ort catcher (bits of thread or scraps), and the head vase holds a scissors and some other tools.  You could use something else for this, but this is much cuter, isn't it?  I have a poodle planter in my TV room, as well, but I forgot to take a picture of that one.

If you're off to your nearest Goodwill to look for an old planter, keep in mind that an imperfect planter is fine for this purpose.  As a matter of fact, if you can get a chipped or crazed planter for 99 cents to keep your seam rippers in, more's the better.  You don't have to worry if it gets knocked over and it's still cute.   We'll all be old and imperfect soon enough.  Let's hope someone out there still has a use for us.

One more storage tip.  I needed a button keeper.  One day, I came across this old glass humidor at a Savers store.  Buttons are pretty so this allows me to see the buttons, as well as the pretty old humidor.

The Mercury space program era lunch box isn't used for storage, but it's awesome, so I included it in the photo.  Please disregard the dust.  I have better things to do than clean.

So there's your Sunday sewing tip on Thursday.  Perhaps I'll remember the next Sunday sewing tip on Sunday, perhaps not.  But a tip is a tip so let's not quibble over the day.

Seacrest, out.

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