Inheriting a Craft Room

 

When a loved one who was a crafter goes to her heavenly home, you have to decide what will happen with her art supplies. Suddenly, all those UFOs (Un-Finished Objects) need new homes. What do you keep? What do you toss? What do you donate?

In the past five years, I've inherited crafty items from my sister, Tina, and now my mother as well. And a lot of it is really wonderful stuff. But the more I bring home to my own craft room, the more I realize that I need to sort and organize and pare down and clean out.

It's been a week.

I finally got all of the bins out and made sense of everything. I made labels. I filled garbage bags. I filled donation boxes. And I'm finally seeing some progress.

I went through patterns and organized them into binders with plastic sleeves. This was my sister's system, so I just organized each binder. One binder for fall projects, one binder for Christmas and winter, and another binder for all seasons.

Here's a project my Mom had almost finished:

This kit totally encapsulates my sister's sense of humor:

I remember Tina having a whole series of these alphabet samplers for the seasons in her home:

And then there's the DMC floss, the Gentle Arts floss, the Weeks Dye Works floss:

Sometimes, just seeing my sister's handwriting on these items gets me all choked up.

I played Christmas music as I cleaned to lighten the mood. But I can be honest with you, it's made me a little blue. So many memories of all the wonderful shops we would visit together. So many fun projects we would make for each other. So many good memories, but such a sense of loss.

I can't help but wonder: What about my own craft stash? What can I do to lighten the load?

I have a tote of stamps from myself and my Mom that need to find homes.

We've lost three parents in less than five years, and with that comes a LOT of stuff. We are nearly finished cleaning my Mom's house, and every time I go I promise myself I won't bring anything home. Well, you know what happens. One thing goes in the car, and then ten more things.

The house was getting pretty cluttered.

I have boxes filled for the sons to take home the next time they come to town, too.

I went through closets and drawers and storage this week, and donated a lot of things that we were no longer using or needing. It's feeling a little lighter, and that's good.

One day soon, I'll show you a few sweet treasures from Mom's place that have made it into our home. It's a good thing I like cottage core because it's looking more Granny chic every day.

Now that the craft room is looking tidy, I think I will try to mess it up again with some crafting tonight. I have some new products from the Greetery that I've been wanting to play with, and lots more Christmas cards that need to be made.