Declutter Challenge 2025 - Day 20 - Fabric

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Welcome to Day 20... the penultimate day of the Declutter Challenge 2025. We are just about at the end. Just today and tomorrow.

For most of us, it will be impossible to declutter your fabric in one day. And honestly why should you. As my friend Doris says, fabrics are our paint, if there was no fabric, there would be no quilting. It brings us joy, soothes our souls, and refills our bucket. And with all the hard work we have done in the past 20 days we have been making space and some of that space can be claimed by your fabric. 

But we still have capacity limits. And it’s unlikely that you can store all your fabric the same way and the same place. So today’s question:

How much space do I want this to occupy?

If you need to declutter some fabric, first start with the unwanted. I had two buckets of fabric dropped off to me last year, and that person was decluttering it from her home. It’s not my colours, nor the type of fabric I like to use so felt no obligation to use it. All of it was donated.

Next is the stained, the faded and the musty. Unfortunately, fabrics can get left in the sun, pets can love them too much and through no fault of your own, fabric can get damp. Considered letting these go.

Then take a look at the types of fabric. On top of quilting cottons, do you have batiks, wovens and other kinds? Are you using all of them? Several years ago, I decluttered all my batiks, but I still keep finding a FQ here and there. In 2023, I decluttered a stack of wovens. I tried quilting with them, I really didn’t care for the results so I let them go. I do have some denim that I have been collecting that I will keep for the future, but I will not be accepting any more. 

How about the designer? Are there collections you have purchased because everyone else was, or you thought you liked the style but now realize that isn’t what you like to work with?

How about by theme? Do you have holiday fabric for holidays you don’t celebrate or make for? How about baby prints? How many baby quilts do you make now? I have a bucket full of baby prints and I am at my limit.

And lastly if you didn’t yesterday, take a look at your bolts. The cardboard inserts take up a huge amount of space. If you only have 1 yard or two it will take up less space off the bolt than on. 

I have purchased bolts of fabric in the past, and have found 15 yards of fabric is too much fabric. And if you are like me, and really don’t like using a fabric more than once, the discount you received for the bolt, doesn’t save you any money if the remainder sits in your cupboard. So now I will only buy them if I’m going to use it for backing. And I now keep them at the studio with my longarm.

Last year I finally managed to sell off some of my surplus fabrics. I was not very successful in the winter months but things picked up in the autumn.  I have identified another set of fabrics I can put into kits and I'm going to try again this year.

It is a good exercise to go through your fabrics at least once every year. Touching, refolding and re-sorting them will give you an opportunity to look at how much you actually have. Last year I took the step of counting all my fabric. It gave me a clear picture of what I need to do to balance my stash to match my making.

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Also look for those fabrics that you have had for over 5 years. Why haven’t you used them yet? Do you still love them? Did you ever love them or were they just a good deal? Or did you purchase them before you knew what and how you like to quilt?

Have fun. Folding and refolding fabric is one of my favourite things to do. I hope you enjoy it too. But don’t forget to use your timer.  Once you have decluttered your fabrics take a look at this video for ideas on how to store it.

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And be sure to show your nicely folded fabric stacks online, in the FaceBook Group or on instagram with the hashtag #declutterchallenge2025.

Take care, and I’ll see you tomorrow for our final day. Day 21.