To the Rescue

While I was waiting for the dude last night, (he was finishing up his library final after work) I was looking over the usual suspects and some blogs I don't normally read. I heard a familiar refrain--in fact, it was one that I had just been singing myself. When I found the knit-but-unfinished hat in a bag on the floor in the "office", I thought, "I have got to clean up in here." I wish I had a big enough room for all my crafting stuff, but face it, even people who own their own homes don't often have the gift-wrapping room*. Barring a whole craft room to myself, what I really need is more organization. I need an area for the cross-stitch, an area for the knitting, and one for the scrapbooking. Actually to rearrange that by "amount of stuff" it's more like cross-stitch, scrapbooking, then knitting. The difficulty is everyone would rather craft than organize. I mean, what's the fun in cleaning? If cleaning were as enjoyable as crafting thousands of undocumented workers would be out of work in Los Angeles alone. And, let's face it, crafters hoard shit. You can make a [describe project] out of that [discarded item]: Adorable cross-stitched box out of that altoids tin. Wooden spoon holder out of that coffee can. Woven paper card out of those paper strips. Join the fun!

But we don't need to throw it all out. What we need is a team of crafters who can organize. The Craft Control Squad. You don't need less stuff. (Okay, maybe that "where's the beef" cross-stitch pattern needs elimination; you are not a cross-stitch archive.) You need better control of your stuff. And the people who can best help you control it are people who understand why you've kept it in the first place. Not that evil troll on Clean Sweep. People who would pick up the cereal box and see that you need it as a form for the booga bag and then find a place for it. One where you could find it when the booga bag had been through the laundry a couple of times. Wouldn't it be fun to have this group of crafters over to get your room in order in a day (maybe two)? The Craft Control Squad would get something out of it too (besides first dibs on the "What you talkin' 'bout Willis?" sampler pattern). You could all take some time to sit and stitch and check out the shops in different areas. I'd do it. You know, if I didn't have to do this other job every day.