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Rhian's avatar

I totally empathise. I too graduated from the dining table to an upstairs bedroom. I was so excited to finally get a craft room when my son moved out. It was lovely, lots of space, nice and tidy and I could leave things out until the next day. Gradually though I have accumulated far too much stuff and every available surface is as you put it a ‘heap magnet’ and a huge distraction from sewing and creating. I don’t do new years resolutions but my job this year is to thin things out and get my room back to organised and tidy, but ita going to be a mammoth task and as my husband says “I’ve heard ducks f…rt in the bath before 😂😉Rhian

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Izzy Moore's avatar

😂 I hadn’t heard that one before 🦆

So that’s you and me both - check in again this time next year to see if we’ve done it 🦄🪄✨?!

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Jane's avatar

Nowadays I have the dining room exclusively for my textiles stuff, with a table that doesn't get used for anything else, and loads of cupboard space which is always groaning and over-full. We liberated an additional corner by bricking up a doorway. This corner backed on to the 'clean-water-in, used-water-out' pipes just outside, so now I am so, so lucky to have a sink and draining board in the room. I do know how lucky I am. When I was doing my City and Guilds courses, we lived in a flat where the living room floor was lovely solid maple and the kitchen work-tops were white, so there was literally nowhere to do messy stuff like dyeing etc., except kneeling on the kitchen floor. It was a very small kitchen , so working on the floor wasn't compatible with cooking. Where there's a will there's a way! To encourage anyone who is struggling with space, I'd add a photo here of dyeing on the floor, if I could work out how.

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Izzy Moore's avatar

I love this! I have visions of you kneeling over your dye pot…I think if I open the chat, we can share photos. I’ll try that!

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Barbaray's avatar

Thank you so much! Thought it was only me....

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Izzy Moore's avatar

No, it’s definitely not just you!!

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Mary's avatar

I moved into my daughter’s bedroom when she moved out. I had a fold up table specially made to fit over her bed so that she could use the room on her visits home. But, she decided that she preferred to sleep in another room when she came home.

I guess you will know how much stuff you can fit into a spare bedroom and also how much you can pile on that fold up table just leaving enough room for a sewing machine and a little space to sew!!!

I really need a bigger room………… 😂🤣

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Izzy Moore's avatar

I can picture it now 😂

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Nancy Klatt's avatar

I need to institute the No heaping rule. I love my sewing room, but I don’t think the space is ever enough. No matter how large it is.

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Izzy Moore's avatar

Sadly, I think that’s the harsh truth. The No Heaps is tough but I reckon I can either do zero, or everything…

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Sheralyn's avatar

We moved to this house three years ago and my husband very kindly put together a wooden summerhouse (8ft x 8ft). We painted the outside together and I enjoyed arranging my sewing bits and pieces in there. I really needed him to build a 20ft x 20ft space at least. As time has passed I find the space is too hot on summer afternoons, and too cold in the wintertime and feel a little guilty having the electric heater on for hours. So guess what..... I'm back to using the kitchen table which means scattered bits and pieces - I'm not quite in doors and I'm not quite in my sewing space in the garden. My sewing machines (3) have come into the house this year and I feel as if I am slowly creeping back to the kitchen table permanently - oh dear hope my husband doesn't notice.

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Izzy Moore's avatar

That’s sort of what we did too…we built a lovely summerhouse with a posh green roof the same time we got my quilting cupboard. It started as a ‘sitting space’ with a second hand sofa, then (briefly) a meditation room, then I had the idea to create a quiet arty space and installed cheap ikea tables and pots of felt tips,that weren’t used. It then became a space to store, cut and package transfer foil (there’s a story there) and finally I admitted defeat. My husband tried it for a model railway, then there was a very short-lived attempt at an office space (lasted an afternoon) and now it’s a bike shed 🤷🏻‍♀️. Turns out nobody likes working in a sauna OR freezer!

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Lisa Rull's avatar

I am currently in the neither quite scattered, not quite in one place 🤦🏻‍♀️ our front living room is the only space big enough to have a foldaway table out for my (little, lightweight) sewing machine. But the table won't take the weight of the Singer inherited from my MiL. Under the table is a bag of Work in Progress knitting and crochet projects: the ones ACTUALLY started as opposed to those not actually begun 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ behind and at the side of the sofa are several more large zip up laundry bags filled with yarn 🧶

But then in my upstairs study room (where I also work 1-2 days a week so need laptop desk space) are multiple boxes with yarn and fabric. In both rooms, there is enough to make the rooms not really functional for other purposes, but also not really functional specifically for craft purposes. Oh and obviously ii sit on the sofa in the other downstairs room to actually knit/crochet... 🤦🏻‍♀️🤣

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Izzy Moore's avatar

I absolutely love this “In both rooms, there is enough to make the rooms not really functional for other purposes, but also not really functional specifically for craft purposes” 😂

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