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Harmony Matters

This colorful chaos and cheerful clutter is the result of Jan’s prolific fabric art output.  She has obviously outgrown the initial organizational systems she set up when she first designed her sewing room.  Her goal was for this room to look and feel accessible, relaxed and inviting.

After one day of labor by seven hard-working people plus two on-call helper/ shoppers, using the Harmony Matters plan as our map, and working under the leadership of Naomi and Jesse, this is what we accomplished.

In order to remove some of the room’s visual clutter and work toward achieving Jan’s goals, we removed everything from all the walls.  These items were placed carefully in the adjacent guest room for decisions later about what will be re-hung and where, and what will be stored.

Our next step was to empty these shelves and remove the piles of stuff on the floor around them.  We put all this stuff into the guest room where Jan and her daughter Jaisha diligently sorted everything into categorical piles, including donate, recycle, trash, works in progress, etc.

In the space we cleared, Jan’s husband, Charlie, was able to install the shelving outlined in our plan while the rest of us began working on the other end of the room.

This area now holds Jan’s serger and an extra sewing machine for visitors to use.  The top two shelves above the table hold projects in process and supplies, books, magazines, and reference materials are on the lowest shelf.  At the far end, there are more shelves, with bins for donations and for Jan’s sewing retreat supplies under them.

We piled most of the things we removed from the sewing room in the storage room in order to clear space to work.  All of this was eventually sorted and put away in the storage space we created in the sewing room.

Jan’s storage room, after.  This nicely organized and dust-free fabric storage system was there all along but the floor had become cluttered with overflow.  From now on, this is the amount of space Jan has for fabric.  If she wants to add more and she can’t find room, something has to go.

Throughout the room, we cleared the space, Jan and her daughters sorted and categorized piles of stuff, we cleaned the newly emptied area, Charlie installed shelves, and then we put things away.

Here is the cutting table, before…

…and after.

Before, the design wall was blocked by a work table.

When we finished, the design wall was completely clear and ready to use for new designs.  Charlie installed a push pin friendly surface as per our plan.

Jan’s ironing area was crowded and hard to access.  It also blocked the door to the furnace room.

Jan’s main work area held her sewing machine, a TV, radio, phone, and many personal mementos.

We created this media center by removing everything from the walls and having Charlie install the shelves our plan called for.  In place of piles, Jan now has a complete media center for all of her electronics on the lower shelf, and a top shelf for mementos.  This leaves Jan’s sewing and work space clutter free.

This table had become a place to pile things.

This clean and clear space is now called the in/out table, with the top shelf for things coming into the room and the middle shelf for things leaving the room.  There is also plenty of workspace for short term projects (like ironing or packing for a retreat).

Welcome to Jan’s accessible, relaxing and inviting sewing room!