You see, I have a 15 year old daughter who craves variety. She decided she wanted a change of view and asked if she could swap my craft room for her bedroom. After thinking about it some, I really didn't see why not and agreed. After all, I'm a military brat. I'm used to packing up and moving fairly often and I wanted a change of view as well so this was a cheaper way to do it.
I may have grown up always on the move but I forgot that we've lived in this same house for 10 years. 10 whole years! In one place! I've always suspected that it wasn't actually possible but the time does slip away quickly. The corollary to time passes is stuff collects and I had forgotten that important detail.
So far I've pulled 9 bags of trash out of the craft room in 2 days. I've stepped on various assorted buttons, calligraphy pens, straight pins, and odd metal doo-dads that I have no name for. I have located a giant pile of half-done craft projects ranging from paper mache to leather work to blackwork to lacemaking. I'd forgotten about the tapestry loom and I really don't remember buying that green lace or why I'd need such a thing. The bobbin lace project is hopelessly snarled and there are multiple loose patterns running around.
Many of my friends believe in the concept of keeping a bunch of materials in stock in their craft rooms. The idea is that if they have a craving to build a hat at 3am then they have all the stuff on hand and can be hatting until breakfast or they feel better, whichever comes first. I'm starting to think that for a person with hoarder-like tendencies that might not be the best idea however. I just keep picking up craft things on sale and tossing them in the room with the idea that "I'll use this sometime". The right project for that particular item never comes up though and it just gathers dust in the room. Eventually there's more wrong stuff in the room then room and I have to do my crafting elsewhere.
I come by these tendencies genetically if not honestly. My mother has always had a very bad habit of collecting more stuff in the house then she needs. Every 6 months or so she has a huge garage sale and wastes massive amounts of time and energy to make about $50. She labels everything, has a cash box, puts out ads and signs, and makes about enough money to pay for the sale. My sister hasn't ever managed to get to the actual yard sale itself. She almost lost custody of her children because she had too much stuff in her house. The memory of that tiny apartment crammed literally to the ceiling with junk still gives me nightmares. I know this could be a problem, but it's hard to remember to fight back against it.
So, I'm going to toss out lots of old junk. I'm going to go through what's left and have a crafting and book sale. I'm going to invite my crafting friends on purpose since I figure that would be the audience who wants this stuff and I'll make sure to give people plenty of lead time before-hand to save. I'll even take checks. And at the end of the day I will drive all the leftovers to Salvation Army and leave them there, because I value my sanity more then I value two hand-spans of black stretch velvet.
For now I will go back and keep cleaning the room. I've got to get the closet, spinning wheel, and antique table out, plus dig through the piles of costumes stored in there. I also need to remove the herd of dust buffalo and set them free outside to wander around and disturb the neighbors. Break out the carpet rakes!
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