Fabric tidying WIP

I've been quite good recently in avoiding thrifting, but Venetia's school shoes fell apart last week and we ended up scouring a few charity shops for some replacements at the weekend. As well as coming home, happily, with some shoes, I ended up coming home with this bargain, vintage suitcase:

I always have a weakness for vintage suitcases, and they're great for all kinds of storage. For me specifically, they're great for storing fabric! I have a couple in use already.

Then earlier this week Maria and I were passing a favourite charity shop, and I gave in to temptation and popped in - only to find another bargain, vintage suitcase. This time a really huge one.

To give you an idea of it's hugeness, my yellow one is a good size case. The new blue one is really more like a vintage 'trunk'.

Now it's no secret that my house is not the tidiest of places and I'm not the best at being organised and clutter free! But, even within the parameters of that understatement, the situation in my bedroom has been getting seriously out of hand recently! And I have to admit, this is largely down to fabric hoarding. My wool stock pile is almost entirely stored in my bedroom and somehow it seemed to have spread and spilled out of the wardrobe it was supposed to be in. And somehow it got muddled up with other fabric and clothes and books and everything really. It had got to the point where I just looked around each night (before climbing over the piles to get to my bed) and felt a bit defeated. I didn't even know where to start with any tidying. So I didn't start, which is of course the worst response.

Two suitcases on the trot from charity shops, rather than the usual two wool blankets on the trot, felt like the charity shop Gods were really trying hard to tell me something. So this week, instead of happily getting out my WIPs (or quite possibly starting a new one!) I knuckled down and started tidying my room. After 2 days sorting, it's still a WIP, but I can at least see quite a bit of the floor now! I did contemplate before and after photos, but I'm afraid the before photos would really have been too shocking! And as huge as that second case is, there's no way all my wool is going to fit in both those cases - what I need up there is a tardis trunk not a vintage trunk! But it has been useful to sort through everything, try and get it a bit more organised at least and actually remind myself of all the pieces I have. After seeing how much I have, I really ought to take a vow not to buy another wool blanket for at least the next five years. Being realistic, I know I'm likely to fall off the wagon with that. But I am taking a vow not to buy another pink, wool blanket for at least the next year, maybe two!

Sally.

PS The charity shop Gods did also let me find a lovely, embroidered napkin with my trunk, but that's pretty small so I don't feel too bad about that!