Spring Cleaning

No, not the kind that involves rags, vinegar and lots of hot water, but that which has to do with going through old stuff, seeing what is still useful, and what would be better off somewhere else.
It all began with trying to find a pattern I knew I had just seen, somewhere in the paper stacks ( all of them neat, but unorganized) or in the books of patterns that had been copied off free sites on the internet, but couldn't find. As it is a pattern we are doing at the retreat in a month, it behooved me to NOT wait until the last minute to find it, not with everything else going on; first grandchild due near that time, getting ready for a show 3 weeks afterward, etc.
No time like the present to just dive on in, and get all that stuff sorted and put into some semblance of order!
Spring, Glorious Spring always brings a feeling of newness to my life, so it was truly a pleasure to get out the different binders, stacks of papers, and dig through drawers for the odd pattern that had slipped into them. Taking a good look at each, deciding if it was really anything I wanted to do, learn, or even use for inspiration, they went into either the correct pile ( bracelets, necklaces, 3-D, instructional, earrings, wire), a different pile to give away to new beaders, still another pile to go to the retreat for folks to dig through- stuff I thought I would like, but on second look, was never going to make, and the last; the pile of junk- stuff that faded beyond recognition or was generally useless, partial instructions, etc. The latter I cut into scrap paper to take to the Friends of the Library bookstore. Had a tiny stack left over that was printed on both sides, to start the Spring cleanup fire with. WOOO-HOOOOO!
I now have 4 empty binders, and can find any pattern or instruction easily. I even took the time to stuff pattern, even those with multiple pages, into those plastic holders, and make sure that within each folder, patterns using similar stitches are next to each other.
No more will I spend hours looking for something!
Now I can spend hours scanning these lovelies into the computer, enhancing the ones that are faded (yes, inkjet ink fades, even kept in the dark!), and putting them onto thumbdrives in even easier-to-find (and share) formats.
Ahhh, Spring!