Used stashed tulle, satin, felt, and lace for this silly bridal get up for Delia. It’s a part of a long running joke.
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She looks a bit like a reluctant bride
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Anything but reluctant, actually! She was in a mutual adoration society with her wife and brother-husband!
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What a pretty bride!
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This little project feels a bit more bust-y in terms of stash. I used the rest of the snaps on 3-different cards, that last bit of thread of one spool and two bobbins, the last bits of a few flannels and also put a dent in some other flannel scraps. Woo!
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Hoping to destash some stuffs via the Use it Or Lose It Craftalong and finally started my list with these:
Two packs of 60+ “journaling cards” from cardstock collections
Two Wonky To-do List Notebooks, about 70 blank and lined pages from cardstock collections.
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Very tempting!
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Totally agree!!!
My destash/stash use has stalled. I did manage to cull 2 books from my collection (but both are still in the house until I get my act together to send one to a friend who wants it and get one to a donation site.
I am having a hard time with the idea of just making stuff to make stuff/use up stuff because then I’m fretting that I’ll turn around and need something to make something for a purpose/intentional use and have to go buy stuff I just used for no real reason. It’s a “second verse same as the first” kind of thinking. I need to get my spaces (all of them, really) into a better state of usefulness. Thus I actually, honestly, truly need less stuff. I need room to make stuff, I need to make stuff to make room, or I need to remove stuff and set it out into the world to seek it’s fortune elsewhere. But that feels wasteful, too. And again, what if next week I need that thing and have to go buy it…
But I have to stop thinking this way. I need to embrace the space I have and bring it into it’s most useful/beautiful potential and stop waffling.
Thanks for letting me put this here (again.) I am in a funk and needed to say it where people really understand.
Ok, back to the stash diving…
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I’m stuck too. I just did a hard cull of the craft books though, they are GREAT books, someone else will enjoy them very much. I am fed up with the clutter and even though it’s way, way less stuff than ever before, it’s still more than I’ll use in a lifetime so… a trip to the donation centre is in order. It will be impossible to make an unreasonable mess if there simply isn’t enough stash to do that with, right?
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I am very happy with what I have destashed from my crafting life!
It has carried over to other areas as I have also destashed all of my personal paperwork and my clothes and shoes!
It is quite freeing and I am able to find everything now…I did find five pairs of shoes in shoe boxes under my bed that I had forgotten about…lol…never worn…I have to “see” stuff to use it, so I am going to look for some sort of shoe storage ideas.
Save the best and toss or donate the rest
I will tackle my bins of hundreds of zip lock bags of recycled clothing and scarf fabrics…I saved them for a reason so I better start using them!
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My clothes and shoes are minimal as I’ve been wearing things out and not replacing anything I don’t use often enough. The furniture is a tough one for me, I inherited some stuff and bought stuff for a different home and this house we live in now is pretty permanent for us and I need to accept that some of my old faves do not work in this layout.
The craft stuff gets me though. I need to either make stuff, admit I won’t actually make something that I have supplies to do and pass them on, and for the love of all things good and crafty stop buying/adopting things that aren’t for an active project.
When my MIL was downsizing she “gifted” me 3 or 4 large trashbags (I’ve blocked it out so I can’t remember exactly) of old yarn she had kept for way too long. It was labeled from stores that had gone out of business 30 years ago in some cases. At first I was looking forward to seeing what was in there but then it hurt my crafty soul to see how much had not aged well enough to use and had to be discarded. I don’t want that for my yarns, nor my pocketbook.
I have a toddler and that saps all my good energy so that at the end of the day I am toast. I need to stop getting online and looking at patterns and start keeping simple pattern projects by that chair instead. I could do a nice simple repeated pattern shawl or something in my wind down time. I just have a hard time working on something without an end goal in mind- like “this is a gift for Sally” or “Charity Whozits is collecting squares at the library…”
I gotta get out of my own way here.
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I think most of use hate being wasteful so we feel a lot of guilt about not using what we have. I am trying to stop from adding to my stashes…a result of boredom and emotional shopping…My sister is the same way…but she buys stuff, especially shoes, clothing and handbags, and then just sends it to me if they don’t fit or she gets tired of them! I have told her not to do this, so she is getting a bit better.
She sent me a trash bag of fabrics and interfacing for making masks when she got tired of making them…she tends to get interested in a project and buys “all” the supplies, then loses interest!
I sometimes think we also enable each other, so, I am trying not to do that…
I also like a “goal” but in swaps, I tend to buy stuff specific to my partner, so I need to stop that as well and select swaps where I can use what I have!
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omg the swap thing kills me. I start all “Yay, a swap! I’ll use some of these treasures to make someone something great!” and then I get my partner and I need to go buy all new everythings for the thing to make that person.
Maybe a shop the swap or a wish swap should be my next pick.
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lol that is why I have loads of leftovers of fabrics with specific themes…horse fabric, fish fabric, penguin fabric, etc. Yeah…trying to figure out if I should just make those available in the use it of lose it!
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I’ve been trying to admit some stuff should go to the lose it group. I should just pull a category in total, not look too closely or have a friend photograph it and seal it up then offer it out. Once i touch it i’m all “ohh, I bought this to make…” or “ohhhh I forgot i had tjos super adorable thing! I lurve it!” And back in the stash it goes. I’m incorrigible.
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I relate to this so much. Lately I’ve been trying to be more honest with myself about the crafts I enjoy doing and the supplies I enjoy using.
I recently watched a video and she was talking about finding your crafting style. There might be projects you love to look at and would love to have in your home but you don’t enjoy the process of making them. And that’s ok. But by having all of the supplies around that you’ll never use, it makes less room and functional space for the supplies and crafts you do love. She also talked about not feeling bad about acquiring something and later realizing that it’s not for you. You still got joy out of it - picking it out, waiting for it to arrive (if it was shipped), looking at it, etc. Something about that really hit home for me and I’ve been thinking much more objectively about am I really going to use/make this if it’s been sitting in my closet for 10 years untouched?
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This is super hard; I know I am bad at daydream acquisition when my brain is tapped out for actually sitting down and making stuff; the project by the couch (or wherever you’re going to find yourself settled for a bit) is helpful; I also have a floating mending bag with the basic supplies for fixing in it, and then a box of mending projects where I’ll add a few to the bag before we go someplace, which works especially well for patching knees of kid clothes and suchlike.
For me the important distinction is between things I want to do, and things I want to want to do. It can be really hard to tell what category something falls into, especially when shopping or looking at pinterest, but once you start forcing your brain to categorize things that way it can help a bit with culling stuff you’re realistically never actually going to get to ever. (and then things I want to have done is a third angle for which gathering supplies & taking them to a place where you’re stuck with nothing else to do is helpful!)
Also re: “but I might have to re-buy this later!” think about the longevity of the supply… If it’s something that wears out/dries up/etc but is easy to replace, it’s better to send it on to be used before it dies and then get just what you need next time (if there is a next time) rather than filling up your spaces with it. Sometimes the craft store (or the library!) is a better storage space for things than your house is.
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Daydream acquisition…yup that’s me! I have become stricter about what I allow myself to buy the past few years but I have still managed to add to my stash. This year I am doing a no buy challenge on my crafting. So far I have been successful AND I have destashed through crafting and passing items on.
This discussion has been great you guys. I really appreciate everyone’s insight and willing to share.
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It doesn’t use much, but it used the last wee ball of this yarn. It is one of my all time favorite acrylic variegated colorways from too many years ago. When AIMR and I were making hearts back in Jan/February I thought a garland or something of the last litgle bits of a favorite yarn or one from an important project/event would be a fun timeline in a craft space and this is the first one done. It is currently hanging off the apothecary jar of Vanna’s Choice remnants.
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