Fabric Organization

Organization.  Some of us are great at it, our lives thrive off of it.  Gaining so much pleasure from the order and structure of it all.  And then there is the rest of us, who for lack of a better term, really struggle with it.  

Time to get real, my brain works with all the tabs open at all times.  I constantly cut out a project, sew up the project, and leave all the excess fabric and patterns out.  My brain just jumps to the next project without thinking about putting the rest away.  I promise, I want to, but my mind just jumps to the next project.  Try telling your kids to put their stuff away when they see mom's hoard of patterns and fabric sitting in the corner of the living room.  
Or how about when you've searched and searched and searched for a piece of fabric you just absolutely know you cut something out of already.  You know you just used it...but now it's been far too long and you have no idea which pile it's in.  Or maybe it's not even as much as you remember having left.  

Just like with anything in life, if your fabric stash is in chaos, you feel like you're in chaos.  There's something to having everything in an organized manor that really helps the creativity process move smoothly.  We don't have to feel guilty about the mess, but we can recognize that we flow better when we have everything in its place.  Fabric organization is a key step in that.  

Categories

First things first, what kind of system do you want your fabric in?  Do you want all your solids together?  Prints separated?  Kid's fabrics in their own area?  My personal favorite way to separate is first by fabric types.  All the french terry together, all the double brushed poly together and so on.  It helps troubleshoot my searching process to know which area of fabrics I'm looking for.  After I've gotten all my fabric types together, that's when I start sorting it by solids and prints.  Because then, you guessed it, all my solid double brushed poly goes together and all the printed double brushed poly goes together and on and on.

Containment

Now obviously everyone's space is going to be different.  Different amounts of room for different life circumstances.  My first and favorite thing to do is repurpose.  Do you have an old bookcase you're getting rid of?  How about an old cabinet that needs a new home?  One my my favorite fabric storage spaces is an old dresser that was in my kids room.  It now has a home holding all my child and baby friendly prints.  If you're looking for something bigger you'll probably want some sort of shelving.  A great option is the 'cube' shelving you often see.  You can fold up your fabric and stack them in the cubes, or if you don't want to always see your fabric you can find cube's to put in the slots and then the fabric in the cubby.  If you have pets that are always trying to lay in your fabric, the cube's may be a better option since the fabric is a little more closed off.  Another great option is just good old clear plastic tubs.  Clear so you can glance without having to open up to see what's in each bin, but you can also label the outside depending on how you organized your fabrics.  Maybe your fabric is somewhere like a basement with a chance of flooding?  Having your fabric already in a waterproof container will not only help immediate storage but also in the case of an accident.