Redestashing

About six months ago, I did a big cloth destash.  I was pretty good after that at resisting bringing home any more cloth--sure, a few doll friends sent me a few bits of doll-appropriate cloth, but that was easy enough to add to the (admittedly, already overflowing) open suitcase that has held doll cloth that had been either also given by generous doll people, or else that came from the thrift store cloth grab bags that were my downfall.

Then, another doll friend visited from out of state, bringing about nine large plastic storage tubs' worth of cloth (and one more tub's worth of lace, elastic, thread, buttons, and zippers.)  I knew she was bringing some cloth, but that level of generosity was overwhelming!  (I believe the cloth and notions had belonged to a relative who had been a bit of a hoarder,)

I was immensely grateful and spent a fun few days taking over the living room and sorting everything.  I separated out the wearable clothes (there is so much yardage in my life that, unless the clothing is already severely damage or made of something I am specifically looking for, I feel better letting the clothes be clothes--and several of the pieces fit!  The kiddo is wearing a shirt from there now, too.) I separated out the household linens, which included several table cloths (some of which are lovely vintage items that I really want to figure out how to safely remove the stains that may be older than I am), some Incredibly 1970s bed sheets and curtains, a few blankets, and a stack of napkins and dish towels, many of which were in the vague color scheme I like for the kitchen, and the timing was fantastic because the napkins I'd made about four years ago, and the dish towels that I bought longer ago than that, really weren't looking good any more.  But these new-to-me napkins and dish towels make me happy!

There were also two rugs, which both quickly found spaces in the home.

And then there was the rest, the stuff for sewing: clothes that had already been cut into, and proper yardage.  So much yardage.  I separated that into "tiny pieces suitable for doll clothes," "yardage that looks useful, but isn't inspiring me at the moment," and "WOW that is AMAZING" (OK, and also a very small pile of "heavily textured 1970s synthetics that, with all due respect, I don't ever want to touch again.")  I put the "useful but uninspiring" things back into some storage tubs, which are now in the basement, and brought the pile of WOW in here, to take up a lot of space while I tried to figure out how to store it.

I finally realized that what I had to do was to go through my cloth again--all of it this time--and destash for the second time this year.

I removed this much

That's two stacks that are roughly 18" tall each.  They just about filled two of the large plastic  storage tubs.  Most of what's visible came from thrift store fabric grab bags.  Maybe I've learned my lesson on those...

I was able to work the WOW cloth into the spaces where the goodbye cloth had been, and I decided to re-stack just about everything.  The interesting bed sheets and tablecloths and such went into the top of the closet with the blanket tops I've made (and the sheets thrifted to use as their backs), and some of the more utilitarian cloth (like the four yard cut of vinyl/oilcloth) went into the bed-in-a-bag bags that had been holding a lot of the cloth that got destashed. (and that black trunk visible in the goodbye cloth piles picture--a trunk which arrived full of buttons and zippers and thread and more--replaced the plastic tub that had been holding my cloth scraps.  The trunk is possibly precariously balanced on the closet's wire shelf, but it will be easier to get out than the plastic tub was...if I don't drop it on my head in the process.)

And the rest...

OK, technically not all of the rest--I didn't touch the top of the shelving unit, with the wool and the faux fur and the jaquard/tapestry pieces.  Someday...

Anyway, I wanted to document this, because I know it won't stay this tidy for long.  And it is so pleasantly tidy