Skip Navigation Website Accessibility

 

 

Playing Defense Against Sewing Room Clutter


We’ve cleared away the holiday decor, swept the glitter out the door, and we’re ready to unclutter the next part of the house - our sewing spaces! So in the fight against clutter, to borrow a football strategy, we have to decide whether we’re going to play Man-to-Man or Zone Defense.


Man-to-Man Defense

Man-to-man defense, or man defense, in football means that a player on defense follows the movements of a single player on offense. In sewing room decluttering, that means tackling (pun intended) similar projects and tasks all at once. Get all your projects together and take notes of where they are, all at once. Organize your scraps and leftovers, all at once. Take care of your iron and the dust bunnies in your machine, all at once.


Start by making a general list of tasks you need to complete to get your sewing room back on track. Then break that down into smaller steps or goals.

Man-to-man defense style decluttering and organization is a great fit for all you list makers out there. You can really get in a groove for a particular task and make real headway. Initially, you’ll need a good chunk of time to get everything sorted and take stock of where you are, but after that it’s easy to handle smaller steps in the process without any prep.


Zone Defense

Now let’s talk about zone defense. In zone defense, a player guards an assigned area rather than a specific person. So for your sewing room, that means working on one designated area. Clean off and under that cutting table. Organize the shelves of fabric. Get that ironing board and iron looking new again.


If you have a big space or if your main method of organization is making a pile or three, zone defense is great for decluttering your sewing room. You can take on a smaller area at a time and not get overwhelmed by the whole task. It’s also good if you don’t have a large chunk of time to devote to organization; the space you declutter can be as big or as large as you wish. And you’re not left with a bigger mess than you started sorting through everything all at once.


Which defense works best for you and your sewing space?