Trying to Stay Organized

It’s a constant effort to stay organized. Friends will often tell me I am so organized and I tell them that I’m so unorganized, I make it look like I’m organized.

I always make a working copy of whatever chart I’m working on if it’s a paper copy. If it’s a pdf pattern, I use Pattern Keeper. I have had a bit of luck converting a picture of a chart or scanning a chart and saving it as a pdf but that’s sometimes more trouble than it’s worth. So, if I’m working from a paper chart, I’ll make a copy and then enlarge it – usually enough that I make two enlarged copies from one regular copy (one is the top half and one is the bottom half).

If it’s a multipage chart (vs. a booklet), I’ll put all the pages in a page protector and I’ll put the working copy in a separate page protector – just stuff all the sheets in there. I take one sheet out at a time and as I mark off what I’ve stitched and then finish that page, I toss it.

Another thing I’ve done . . I already mentioned about the needle minder which is a magnetic strip glued to a piece of cardboard and I have it hanging on the inside of the entertainment center door . . I added two hooks for my scissors. I start off every morning with four pairs of scissors and by the end of the day, I’m lucky if I can find one pair. They end up in my chair, under my chair, even sometimes in the kitchen. The last thing I do before I stop stitching for the day is to make sure there are four pairs of scissors hanging on the hooks.

The inside of that door is within easy reach of my chair. If someone is coming over or when someone comes to the door, I make sure to close that entertainment center door.

The last thing I’ve added to my “Keep Judy Organized” items is this little clipboard. I bought a package of six of these and six of a size just a bit larger. I’ll give a couple of them to Addie. My paper copies of my charts were always getting lost. They’d blow off or Boots would jump up in my chair and knock them off. I’d have several papers on the floor, pick them all up and put them somewhere, then realize my chart was in the papers I’d just moved. Now, I keep my chart on this clipboard. I fold the page into quarters and clip it there, mark off the area I’m working on and sometimes have to change the way it’s folded to be able to see the next part of the chart. I used another Command hook and stuck it on the little white table on the other side of my chair and when I stop stitching, the first thing I do is hang that little clipbard and the chart on the hook so I don’t have to seach for it.

I was giggling to myself . . I know when I’m gone, it will be Chad and Nicole who go through and clean up everything but what if someone who never knew me was cleaning out my house and found little hooks everywhere . . in the living room with scissors and needles and clipboards. You know how you sometimes find things in antique stores and wonder what purpose they served . . that’s what someone is going to think about 90% or more of the stuff they find in our house when we’re gone. But, I won’t be here and I won’t care what they think so I do what makes me happy while I’m here.