Staying Organized

How I try to stay organized

I wish I had the perfect answer to that question.  Seems like after I finish a big project you can’t even see the floor in my sewing room.  I still manage to keep things pretty straight though.  What works for me is separation!  For each project, which in my case would be each school or family, I have a small box.  I use the photo storage boxes that you can get at any craft store.  I label it with a removable tag.  Inside each box I keep index cards with the written contact info, details of the order, and my to do list.  I also keep all particular notions for that order.  Seems like that as a dressmaker we do provide a lot of storage for our larger customers.  For the schools that I store fabric and other supplies for, I also keep an inventory list.  Most TC’s seem to appreciate someone else keeping track of what they have, and knowing the status of their supplies.  I can usually say…..you have enough fabric for X number of dresses, but need XXXX for them to be completed.  It helps me too!

I’ve tried keeping separate e-mail folders for each account….but that has not worked for me.  I have one big e-mail folder for the sewing, and then just do searches for what I am looking for.  I try to keep things in two different places, because when the computer is out of commission, which is rare, I still need to find where I am with things.  the boxes work for me becuase they are inexpensive, easily store in a closet, and I can change out the tags.  I can bring the boxes with me to a meeting, and need to only have out the ones I am currently working on.  I keep all of my receipts in them, an so, always know where to put them and find them!

Luckily I have a computer right in my sewing room that is dedicated to the sewing.  If I had to wrestle with my kids for computer time…..I’m pretty sure I would lose.  This does help keeping up with e-mail, and I can take mini-breaks to surf the web frequently.  I try to stay on top of e-mail, and just hope that I don’t freak people out when I reply to things very quickly…..I am usually in the room when mail comes in.   I have been working on this new website to keep it up to date.  It started out with my husband doing the updates…..that did not last too long when he said……”can you just e-mail me what you want changed”  when I was standing right next to him!  So he came up with this plan, and we both like it much better.

I try to clean the room after each big completion.  To manage scraps, I keep one big bag during the project.  I dip into it during the process if I need to, and then when it is done……(this part hurts) I don’t even look in the bag, I just throw it away!  That took a while to get to.  I used to save the scraps from each project….just in case.   But just in case never seems to come, and now to save space I just throw out whatever my daughter does not claim for herself.  It really does help.  I know I am lucky to have a room set aside just for sewing, it is the smallest room in the house though.  It has a very high concentration of garbage cans!  (In addition to the bag for scraps.)  I put all of those JoAnn’s bags to good use as can liners.

Those are the key things I do to stay on top of my projects.  I am working on the picture taking and blogging.  Thats my next goal…..to get better at writing about how I do things, and take better pictures of the process.