Okay, friends, I’m about to show you the before photos of my sewing room in all their embarrassing glory. Yikes! Please don’t think less of me when you see this disaster.

As I mentioned in my last post, it’s time to clean up the sewing room, and I want you to clean up yours along with me. I do love working in a nice, tidy space, but I admit, my creativity tends to explode all over the room and destroy the tidiness. Regularly. Yes, “explosive creativity” is what I’m going with here.

Prepare yourself. Here is your grand tour.

Here we are standing in the doorway of the room. Look left and you can see the wall that holds shelves of most fabric and supplies. Next to that is my cutting table (which is actually too low for cutting). Notice that it is currently covered in randomness, which makes it rather difficult to cut anything. Hmm. One lonely mini on the wall. And a small shelf with bottom weight fabrics (plus more randomness) and other sewing/craft supplies above.

Moving clockwise around the room. To the right of the window is my sewing table. Notice the absence of the sewing machine. Hmm, kind of difficult to sew without a sewing machine right? A friend borrowed it a week ago and the state of this room is so appalling that I haven’t even bothered to put it back yet!

Moving on. Ironing board. Suffering from the same “covered in stuff” affliction as the cutting table. Same outcome of “kind of difficult to iron anything.”

And finally, looking back toward the door at the shelves. These have already been tidied just a touch.

Some details. Scrap bin with a mini quilt ready to be put on the wall. Seriously, I love this mini, and I received it 5 weeks ago. I LOVE it, and it deserves more respect than hanging out of my scrap bin. There’s also a race bag that’s been there since December.

Shoe shelf. Empty. On its side. Why? 

That (presently unusable) cutting table with a small (completely disorganized) bookshelf below.

Pin board. Some paper with notes for projects that have been completed, random templates for quilt blocks, etc.

I’ve been intending to jump in and clean up this room since the beginning of the year, but here we are, mid-February, and I haven’t done it yet. Now is the time! My sewing mojo has been at an abysmally low level all year, and that makes me really, really sad. My sewing time is usually my happy time, but I just haven’t been inspired.

I was motivated by Amy, who last week posted a photo on Instagram with the hashtag #sewingroomcleanupalong20122013. That was just the reminder I needed. These unpleasent tasks are always easier if we do them together, right?

Let’s Clean Up Our Creative Spaces Together!

Go, take some before photos of your sewing/craft space. Write a blog post or post to Flickr and share with the link-up below. If you use Instagram, tag them with #sewingroomcleanupalong20122013. You are not alone (“explosive creativity”, remember?).

On Monday, February 25th, I will show you my “after” photos and invite you to share yours as well. We can pat each other on the back and work, newly inspired, in our (temporarily for me, I’m sure) tidy spaces!

You have one week and two weekends, so knock it all out in one day, or do it a little at a time. But before you sit down to sew this week, first do a few minutes of cleaning up, putting away, or reorganizing.

After the clean up post is here.