I’ve been thinking a lot about change and “stuff”. As the year begins, I’m feeling overwhelmed by the amount of stuff in my sewing room. I’ve spent the last couple of years doing a first level “Swedish Death Cleaning” in my basement. It’s an ongoing project. I don’t want to purge my life of everything.

I just want to make it more manageable. I have a big house and a fairly large sewing room.

I get overwhelmed just walking in.

The thing is, I’m not disorganized. I know where everything is.

I just have way too much of it.

These are just a few fabrics I’ve been saving to make garments. Some are well over a decade old. This does not include any of my quilting fabric or scraps.

When you embroider, you need the right color. Again, fairly organized but just way too much. I have 3 containers like the one above.

These threads above? I haven’t used any of them in a decade, maybe twenty years for some of them. Why? Because they are a mix of cotton and polyester. The oldest ones are a brand that I don’t use any more because I don’t like their quality.

So really. Why can’t I let them go?

I partly know. It’s the same reason my father, at 91, still has a shed filled with tools and nuts and bolts and bits and pieces. Because you just never know when you’re going to need that one thing you just got rid of.

It’s the same reason my husband keeps all his electronic doodads and cords and flotsam and jetsam. Because one day, the day after you get rid of something, you will need that very item.

I know very well that I have fabric I will never live to sew. But with the cost of cotton going up and up and up, shouldn’t I be recycling and upcycling it all? Finding a use for it?

Or would it be better to pass it on and let someone else make use of it?

That’s the question I’m struggling with right now.

Aging has a way of bringing a new perspective. Maybe I don’t have to be the one to do it all. Maybe it’s time to pass some of this along to the next generation.

So I don’t know if I’ve been changed for the better in this new year. But I hope I’ve been changed for good.

Here’s a lovely treat for you. My favorite part is when the conductor turns around to see who is singing. And Kristen Chenoweth bursts out in a giggle.