Tackling my notions drawers!

My husband and other non-sewers are puzzled by the word "notion." What is a notion anyway?  It's a word I've just always kind of known, but find hard to define.  So ... Wikipedia to the rescue!  

1. Notions can include items that are sewn or otherwise attached to a finished article, such as buttons, snaps, and collar stays, but the term also includes small tools used in sewing, such as thread, pins, marking pens, and seam rippers. The noun is almost always used in the plural.
   

If you want to read more at Wikipedia click on this link.

In any case my notions are a chaotic mess.  I have LOTS of stuff I don't use and I'm sure I have duplicates of many things, because I go out and buy stuff when I can't find something.  So today is the day to TIDY! my notions.

So, I dump out the drawers and clean them.

The book I've been reading "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up" suggests using small boxes you have around the house.  She thinks the companies that make organizing equipment are encouraging hoarding ... well ... we all need those boxes and bins, but maybe not as many as most of of have.

I buy seam rippers by the dozen. They get dull and while I'm working it's easier to pull out another one than search through the pile on my table. So I own a lot! 

But, I will bag up most of the unused ones.  Throw out old ones and just keep a reasonable number in my main drawer.

I will, also, only keep 3 of these tracing wheels in my main drawer. My favorite is the one second from the right. It was my mother's. It's half way between the really pointy ones and the newer dull ones. WHY don't they make things the way they used to???

I throw out a bunch of broken and useless things like a couple feet for a very old sewing machine.

I use pointy tweezers often to help guide small things at the sewing machine. But, three of those tweezers don't close well at the point. No reason to keep them.  Those two "Purple Thangs" I will give away. Some people love them, I don't. The two bodkins I will keep for elastic and drawstrings. 

I only like two of these marking pencils, the ones that are blue and white on the outside. The others just don't mark well. Either the line is too fat and inaccurate or too faint. So, I will only keep those two.

Well, this is a no brainer ... when and where did I get those silly "hubby" labels? Out they go.

Again, I will throw out the couple bad rulers and put away the excess ones, keeping 4 in my main drawer.

Keeping all this stuff! I can't live without point turners and I find this device that "de-pills" sweaters very useful.

I need tools like this from time to time, but not this many. I will ask my husband if he can use the extra tiny screw drivers and will give away any other duplicates I have.

I must keep my tracing paper and tools for turning tubes and tiny things. I've had those for 20 years now and they are still great.

I will only keep these two finger protectors.  I have many others but I don't need them often and these are the only ones I can tolerate. 

Well! I didn't realize I had so many replacement blades!  I will put them all in a ziplock bag so they won't migrate under and behind things in the draw and will be easy to find next time I need one.

I will carefully store these things, too.

This is what these drawers look like now!


On the left is will be the bottom drawer with tools I don't use often and extras of my seam rippers, tracing wheels and seam gauges.


In the middle, is the middle drawer with tracing paper, turning tools and rotary cutters.


The one on the right is my main drawer with the things I reach for most often.

OO-OO-OO that looks so nice.  I hope I've done a good enough job that I can keep it this way.  At least get it back to this state between projects!


I might clear out the drawer that's below the third drawer. It has knitting things that I could store elsewhere. Actually going through my knitting things should be a future project.


And, you may say ... what about pins!  I think I will do a separate blog on pins. I have many opinions about pins.