spring cleaning?

Last Sunday was a rainy, dreary morning, ruling out any chance to pull weeds and lay mulch (Aw, shucks!).  So I seized the opportunity to do some cleanup in my sewing room upstairs.  A lot of lint and dust are generated in that environment, and the dust balls in the corners and under tables were starting to resemble tumbleweeds drifting across the prairie!  So the floor really needed to be cleaned, and in order to do a proper job I had to spend some prep time with getting things off the floor.  While doing that, I thought I would take some pictures to show you some of my "organizing opportunities" that you might like to try for yourself.

I had some ribbons on spools, and discovered that I could make a nice little ribbon rack on my existing shelving.  This shelving is something stock from Menard's or Home Depot, so it's pretty common to have these rows of peg holes running up and down the upright pieces.  

I found a little dowel that just fit into the hole, and was just long enough to span the width of the shelf.  It's not a tight fit, so I can easily slide out one end and add or remove a reel of ribbon.  The dowel is kind of thin, so it wouldn't hold a lot of weight without bowing down, but I can minimize the problem by sliding the reels to the ends which takes the weight off the middle portion.

The picture above shows the dowel in the front row of holes for the sake of photography, but it is usually inserted in the back row of holes and then I still have good use of the lower part of the cubicle.

I have a bunch of ironing clutter and supplies that needed to be corralled, and I found a cheap but workable solution.  I bought some pretty contact paper and cut down an oversized cereal box to a shape like a magazine file.  It's one of those Costco-type cereal boxes, Honey Nut Cheerios, to be exact.  I think the world might stop spinning if we didn't have them in the cupboard here!

Now I can stash all of my ironing clutter much more neatly, and so stylish, too!

Using magazine files is one of my preferred methods of sorting and storage for many things other than magazines.  I put many of my interfacings and sewing products in them and line them up on the shelf.  but I had a few oddball things that were too long to store upright, and were taking up way too much shelf space because they are round and rolly.  Well, a moment of clarity struck and I realized that all I had to do was tip over that magazine file, and stack those roly-poly things vertically.  Voila, another bit of space opened up!

Here's just a random thought for you that might make your life a bit more organized.  I am a big fan of labels, so I don't have to try to remember what's in a box.  But adhesive labels can sometimes be a pain to move or remove.  The label on the box below is just printed on an index card that is on the inside of the the box.  Still very visible and legible, but so easy to move if my solids outgrow this box.  Nothing fancy, just hand written with a marker, but could even be made better if printed on the computer in a big font.

I would love to hear if you have any good organizing/storage tips to share!