Spring Bin Clean

Every year I try to do one major spring cleaning project; this year I have two: downsize and condense my fabric stash, and clean out the room above the garage so we can use it for furniture storage after Katherine graduates. Her apartment lease is up in July, and we won't be renewing it. We may not have to store anything if she goes to grad school and takes her furniture with her, but that's still up in the air. I'd rather be prepared if that doesn't work out.

I'm starting with my stash because I need more closet space downstairs before I venture upstairs. I'm trying to do one bin every day. Over the last week this is how much I've gotten done:

The full bin on the left is what I'm keeping, and the seven empties on the right are what I've donated to Goodwill so far (and they were all packed.)

It's hard for me to part with any fabric, but most of what I had stored was material that I never actually chose or bought. These bins contained fabric from mom (who I am now pretty sure is color blind), some from my friend Jill who thought I could use it (Jill and I have opposite tastes in fabric, sadly), and other family members who simply gave me fabric they didn't want or bought as a gift. I honestly didn't like any of it, but felt guilty and kept it in case I could find something to do with it. Also, I feel terribly guilty when I donate something someone else gave to me.

Theo, you should know you are the only person who ever gave me fabric I actually liked and made into a quilt -- but no surprise there. :)

Once I counted and looked over all the fabric I have stashed, I realized I have three bins of fabric that I like and bought for myself, and twenty-five bins filled with gifted fabric I'll probably never use. Because I keep it closeted I had no idea my stash had grown so huge -- or so unusable.

My habit of saving things is rooted in childhood. My mother and grandmother hated throwing away anything that could be used again, and they both trained me to do the same thing. Our house was perpetually cluttered with junk when I was a kid, which I never liked. While I'm an advocate of reusing and recycling things whenever possible, I really want to break free of this hoarding mentality. I've been trying to, at least, for the last twenty years.

Before I started cleaning out the bins I also talked to my pal Jill about the problem, especially as a lot of this fabric came from her. She admitted she has the same dilemma; she had a very similar childhood and the same kind of semi-hoarder family. I offered to give the fabric to her but she thought it was better to donate it. Now she's going to start cleaning out her stash bins, too -- with the understanding that I don't need any more fabric.