When my mother worked as a full time artist making art dolls she collected a bunch of fabric, beads, and bits and bobs. When the market for that completely died, she offered me all her stuff. The only things I didn\u2019t take were most of her tools and her clay but I did take all the fabric and the bits and the bobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then they sat in my closet for several years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over these same years we have also been accumulating a lot of clothes and even managed to donate some clothes. But the piles were huge and they completely consumed our closet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During our latest home reorganization effort, we decided not to put in more storage into the art studio because it would all be for storing all this craft stuff. My art stuff (the stuff I do continuously, all the time regardless of any new interests) already had more or less permanent homes in the studio and so any new storage would only serve to house all this stuff I\u2019ve accumulated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s too much stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And it would have cost too much to acquire the sort of storage that I would be happy with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And so I\u2019ve decided to start a challenge. I\u2019m going to use up all my stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At first I thought I wanted to set a deadline for myself: use up all the stuff in a year (or two). As I\u2019ve thought more about it today I think it makes more sense to not set a goal but to set up a system: ie, instead of saying I\u2019ll use it all up in a year\u2019s time, I\u2019m going to use it all up by working on projects more or less everyday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This shift in attitude towards the creative effort is how I\u2019ve managed to write consistently. Sometimes I write one sentence. Sometimes I write nothing, but I\u2019m doing research for a thing I\u2019m writing. But the effort is consistent. I do this every night unless I\u2019m sick or traveling (and very occasionally when I\u2019m just SO FUCKING DONE with the day). But this way I\u2019ve actually stuck with it for almost two years of daily writing and writing adjacent activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If I can apply the same framework to this crafting challenge, I think I\u2019m more likely to be successful than setting some arbitrary deadline, which I will ultimately not meet and then feel discouraged about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The main rule is that I will not buy more crat stuff, I have to use what I have. The only caveat I forsee needing is if I\u2019m making something that requires a bunch of jump hoops or wire or glue or something, I\u2019m willing to get that. Though now that I think about it, I\u2019m ok buying more glue, but not more jump hoops or wire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I will use what I have!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now in service of this, I have taken every single box, bag, and pile and dropped it all into the studio. It\u2019s a horrific mess! I\u2019m hopeful though that once the spackle that my husband put on the walls to fill the anchor holes for various furniture we\u2019ve had against that wall over the years dries, I will be able to at least make some walking room in there and put my easel back in there. Right now all the stuff is all over the place and it\u2019s TOO MUCH.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I go through pendulum swings of \u201cI have too much stuff and have to get rid of everything!\u201d and \u201cI love collecting stuff!\u201d At the moment I feel like I need to get rid of everything. A common grievance in our household is that we\u2019re constantly tripping over stuff and unable to find anything. So this is why I\u2019m trying to downsize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n