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Tidying up my Pens and Pencils

1/16/2015

7 Comments

 
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I have too many pens and pencils. I never thought about this much, but now that I'm reading 
The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, I've decided to start decluttering the way this book suggests. The first thing I've learned is to only keep things that give you joy and the second thing I've learned is to tidy by categories. So, pens and pencils seemed an easy category to do today.

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This is what sits on my work table.  I did a doll sample for a toy designer friend of mine a while back that included making tiny high top shoes and she sent this to me as a thank you gift and I have used it ever since. It doesn't looks so cluttered but really, I don't use 2/3's of the things in there.
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I, also, have a couple back up boxes of more pens and pencils ...
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and a few packages, partially used.
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This does not include my colored pencils, which probably should be looked through, too, at some point.
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First I need to group everything into subcategories. These are the pens that can be used to mark fabric and the marks disappear with heat from an iron.  But, I still am careful not to make LOTS of marks with these. 


These give me joy! These I keep.
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Here is a group of charcoal drawing pencils I NEVER use, no joy here.

These I get rid of.
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WHOA! how did I get SO many highlighters? And I don't ever use them! 

Joyless! 
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OK, Sharpies are useful, but should be checked over. These give me modest joy.
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How did these fabric pencils get in with all these other ones ... I will put those in my small notions draw.
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Here is a mishmash of pens that need going through,
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and a mishmash of mechanical pencils that also need going through. 

These two groups give me confusion.
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These wooden pencils I will give away, I never use them.

No joy from these.
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Red pencils I keep. These I use to make the large pattern sheets I send into Simplicity clearer by writing somethings in red. These make me joyful.
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But, these small ones that just get lost at the bottom of my little pair of ceramic shoes I will toss.
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I will also toss these difficult to use rolling highlighters.
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I test all my Sharpies and only keep the ones that write well. I do this to my regular pens also.
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And here is the best reason to be cleaning out my pens and pencils.  This is my mess of mechanical pencils. I keep buying new ones because it is so confusing to find ones that work and are the size lead I want.  Here are pencils, leads and erasers for 3 different sized leads, .5 mm, .7 mm and .9 mm.  I don't use the .5 or .9 anymore, for a long time now, so any of that stuff gets eliminated. Then any extra erasers that don't fit the pencils I have get eliminated, too.  Now I will only have pencils I will actually use and I don't have to sift through ones I don't use!

Now I am joyful about my mechanical pencils.  I use them a lot, all the time, everyday and now they will be easy to deal with.
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So, after throwing away all the things that don't work this is what I will be donating to my local thrift store.  I hope they find someone who needs them.
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This is what I'm keeping, a box of .7 mm mechanical pencils and red pencils, a box of pens I know I will use and ...
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This is all that will sit on my table.


Now I have to remember not to buy any more until these are used up!
7 Comments
Laurie link
1/16/2015 06:10:05 am

lol I just wrote about purging "stuff" on my blog the other day. I've used some of your historic patterns. So neat to have found your blog!

Reply
Ginger
1/16/2015 11:53:36 am

if you know any teachers they could probably use these. Our school is always asking for pens and pencils.

Reply
KT link
1/17/2015 04:28:10 pm

I just found your blog last week as I'm renewing my interest in publishing my doll clothes patterns. This post encouraged me to take the small step of decluttering and organizing my thread. I recently bought all new thread since the thread in my stash was pretty old.

I love your long sleeved t-shirt. I don't know any pattern drafters, so seeing the pictures of you laying it out and pushing pins through the fabric to make your pattern brought a smile to my face since I do this, too.

Simplicity prints my patterns. Well, they used to until they out-sourced.

I've always wondered what kind of machine commercial Barbie clothes are sewn on? Is it a cylinder bed machine like shoe makers use? I'm trying to get used to my Janome since I get parts for my old Elna 9000 any more, which I know like a body part. The Janome and I are still getting acquainted.

I'm going to enjoy reading your blog's past posts. Again, it's liberating to find the blog of another professional pattern drafter!

Reply
Andrea
1/18/2015 08:39:51 pm

I believe factory Barbie clothes are sewn on a flat bed machine. Tiny doll clothes like that are sewn flat and open as long as possible and then as late as possible in the construction process sewn into the round.
I used to make lots of prototypes of fashion doll clothes for the toy industry and I just used my regular sewing machine.
Thanks for writing in.

Reply
June link
1/18/2015 09:54:32 pm

I found joy just watching you purge. Go, Andrea, go!

Reply
Diahn link
5/11/2015 12:36:22 am

Hi Andrea,

Thanks for turning me on to this book. I bought it right away and have read up to where I have to sort through my tops. Have you done this yet?

Reply
Andrea
5/11/2015 01:16:36 am

YUP ... tops all tidied, but I still have a LONG way to go. I get a huge work project and tidying gets put on the back burner. But I am so aware now of keeping things I don't need or don't spark JOY!

Good luck.

Reply

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    From Andrea 

    I am a commercial pattern maker who is now "sewing over 50"!
    I love to sew and hope to encourage others to come back to sewing.
    The water is fine!!

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