cookiemonster

My opinion that is organized and lived in.. Shelved where you can find everything and anything right away.. Everything in top front. My own place had such organization, until last week I cleaned and put things away 3days later, couldn't find nothing..

Quilt Fan

You might want to sort out some of the non quilting fabrics and some of the lesser quality fabrics. That may free up some space. Good luck and have fun.

bearisgray

I would start by dumping everything on one table into a laundry basket (or two or three) so you have a bare spot to work on.

Then I would survey the places to store things in and the measurements of them. Then I would get a piece of plexiglass cut to whatever dimensions will work well. Then ruler fold whatever fits on them.

Then I would start folding and stacking so things pile neatly - just one area at a time - I would not even worry about sorting or piling by color until I had some neat stacks and a few more bare spots. Maybe at this point sort by TYPE of fabric - knits in one area, wovens in another, etc.

skothing

Good news + Grandma has some good storage areas. All the comments are good so I wont repeat them . I went through 2 rape trials lasting 10 years . Life got in my way of quilting. Now I am 20 years post trials I am once again beginning to pursue my hobby and dream quilt studio. I started 6 years ago and life got in the way. My area resembles your pictures . I made a big board (instructions here on QB) and started ironing on the comic watching movies. I can iron about 20 yards in 2 hours. Keep at it . Mine has a large dent now. 4,000 more yard to go.LOL

bearisgray

After thinking about this some more:

I think almost everyone has forgotten a couple of very important things -

Is Grandma still using her stuff?

Can she find what she wants when she wants it?

Does she want help with folding, etc? or at the very least, is she willing to accept help?

Have you asked /offered to help with getting her space back in order?

I think I would accept help IF OFFERED and I had a chance to say yes or no.

I also think I would be very annoyed (p*ssed off, is what I really would be) if someone just came in and started messing around with MY stuff while I thought I was very capable of still doing it myself.

If someone came around and said - "Would you mind if I refolded some of these things for you while we chat?"

that comes off a lot differently than
"This place is a frightful mess and I am going to step in and take over reorganizing it for you because I want it to be orderly when you croak."

I think it would be good for you to do this together - if possible - if you do it - so she has some idea of where to find things after they have been rearranged.

My Mom and Aunt thoroughly cleaned their Mom's house (my grandmother) while she was hospitalized with a broken hip. They put things back approximately where they were - but they did have the NERVE to throw out things like empty dog food bags (after checking them to make sure there was nothing stored in them) - Grandma was ANGRY at them about the whole thing for a long time.

solstice3

OMG!! I would start by color then divide them by size. ..... Yardage, fats, etc

michelleoc

If possible, I'd take everything out of the room, start folding fabrics (I do ruler fold) and organize by color. Even if all the fabric just goes into a pile outside the door, you aren't continuing to look at how much needs to be done while you are folding.

misspriss

Why do we do this to ourselves. There is enough fabric there for more than I can make in my lifetime.

Granchris

Pay some girls from your church or HS to help. They will love the challenge. Get some Rubbermaid tubs, already colored would be wonderful. Throw the odd ones, like non cotton or decorator in say black tubs. Then just put big label on the tubs if they are not colored and toss it in there. When you are done, come back and fold and resort any mistakes. We did a woman's room for her that had 150 large tubs, 4 girls and me in 2 days. We had a blast and she was so happy.

bearisgray

The big unanswered question:

Does Grandma WANT you (or anyone else, for that matter) redoing her stuff?