Good luck down sizing.

We have lived here almost 50 years. I have kept stored stuff down to a minimum. Everything I have is stuff I want. We are not planning on moving.

I have told my Daughter and a Granddaughter they will have to get rid of my stuff when I leave. They are fine with that.

One note about thrift shops... I have a local quilting friend who buys much of her fabric at thrift shops. She is thrilled. Granted, it is sold very inexpensively. I don't know if they go through a cycle with fabric as most thrift shops are wont to do with other items - x days in the shop at their full price; then x days at y discount; then the z $/lb table.

I only buy for projects. My 'scraps' are, to my friend, 'yardage', lol. She does much charity sewing so all of the above are great finds for her. I keep a bag/bin on hand and as I finish a project any leftovers go in there for the next time I see her. Works for both of us.

Another friend recently needed to purge her sewing room. Much of her leftover fabric was 'donated' to my other local friend knowing (by the purging friend) that much of it would be used for charity quilting. What she (the local sewist) is not able to use she will donate/freecycle to others.

Sigh! I can only imagine. My focus is to organize what I have now. The thing is I like putting together small pieces of fabric so I keep them. There are styles of fabric or things I have outgrown that need to move on.

I think the idea of what will you want to sew with is a what others have said and is a good place to start. Also, donating directly to charity quilters who will appreciate your fabric.

I suggest a donation to a school. A local hs art teacher takes everything - from scraps to yardage - some for art class and some for teaching young people to quilt.

HI Betty,
We sold our 5300 hundred square foot home and next month will be moving into 1780 square feet next month. It was hard to know how where to start. I started with my gadgets and quilt books. I took the ones I never used to our quilt bee as give a ways. Next came my extra sewing machines. I sold them on Craigslist and ebay. There is a Yahoo group called sew it's for sale, I sold some extra embroidery hoops on that site. After all that, I realized our house was just full of stuff. Our reason for moving was due to my husband's illness. By moving it was less work for him to do and less cleanng for me. We let the kids take what they wanted, took antiques to auction, donated tons of fabric to Senior center and quilts of valour. Once an item was in the go pile, it never liked at if again. Well except for a a few pieces of fabric.

Once we went to settlement, we both felt the weight of the world lifted off our shoulders. We are living in 750 square feet with two dogs until our house is finished. Loving life and not looking back. We loved what we had, now it's time for someone else to love it.

God Bless you
A

How about checking with your local senior center? I know one that supplies everything needed for quilting including sewing machines and they have a large room for people to sew from 8 AM to 4 Pm and they make charity quilts, many going to fire and flood victims and also gives seniors something to do. I have even seen men in there working

Just reading this post stresses me out! I am the opposite of a hoarder. As much as I love looking at beautiful fabric stacked neatly on shelves it makes me crazy if I exceed my allotted storage space! DH is a completely different animal. If we didn't have a designated, out of sight storage area for his junk I would feel homicidal all of the time! Really hoping that I don't outlive him and have to deal with it!

I think you will find that most people who have made a big purge of possessions of any kind have few regrets and find the experience to be quite freeing.....because it isn't just physical baggage you are carrying with you when you are so attached to your material possessions, it is emotional baggage as well.

Good Luck and I wish you much happiness in your new home.

I use to have a big fabric stash but realized I wasn't using all of it, I was always buying more. Now I let the shops store the bulk of my stash and I get it when I need it.

I can't even imagine. We have a large house and have talked about downsizing to more land/less house, but one of my stipulations is that I still have a large sewing room. I looked at one house online that I really loved had a reasonably sized house (2,000 sq ft) as I remember and then it had a "guest house". It was a complete house, kitchen, bath, living room and bedroom. I could have my own sewing house! I told the DH that I could be sold on that one.

4-H clubs sometimes teach sewing to children (some in lower income areas) and they probably would welcome a lot of your fabrics and sewing tools. Some schools are now teaching quilting and they might want it also. I donate craft kits and patterns to my local library and they sell them at a low price and the money goes to the library. Good wishes for your new home.