Hide and Seek

Since our big move, chronicled in the post Organizing Again, it has been harder and harder to find places to store my sewing machines. Even though I am now in a bigger room, my "inventory" has continued to grow while my space has not. I really, really try to keep the machines in just one room with the exception of one cabinet (sans machine) in the guest bedroom and I always have three in front of a breakfront in the living room (I call this my showroom). Really. There is no machine in the kitchen nor in the porch. Well, there's a few sewing machine heads in the porch but they aren't staying long.

With warm weather finally upon us, the garage is reserved for sewing machine projects. I'm trying my best not to move every cabinet out there but I do have two in the house that need refinishing and need to be moved out but in due time since I'm not ready yet. Right now I have about six cabinets waiting for some work and several heads that either need repainting, a spa treatment, or just have no other place to hang out. My car sits outside for the duration but that's no real sacrifice when the weather is so mild. But here's the problem: we are having a party and the overflow, especially if it rains, will end up in the garage. With the sewing machines. That doesn't really bother me (and dare I say it wouldn't bother you since you are reading all about sewing machines) but not all of our guests are as crazy about sewing machines as we are.

What to do....about half of the garage in disarray. should we discretely cover the machines? Block that section of the garage off with yellow tape? Arrange the sewing machines like a showroom in hopes for a sale? None of this sounds right. I'm hoping for some inspiration as I clean up and move things around but at the end of the day it will still be a garage that usually holds our cars and a variety of tools and outdoorsy types of things. We had a big party for one of my decade birthdays and were concerned about the garage but it turned out to be a great day, sunny and hot, so no one wanted or needed to be in the garage.

There will be a large scale cleaning of the house, inside and out, with many of the sewing machines hidden away. I actually look forward to getting this done as the end result is always so satisfying. Bathroom got painted in May, fascia board on the back of the house was replaced and painted, even the new post supporting the garage overhang got a new cover but the inside of the garage has me worried. Then I came home last night to find my hubby had cleaned things up:

An improvement! The wood is from the fascia repair and is leaving soon.

Neat and tidy for such a collection!

And a close-up of the machine heads and bentwood cases

This was a relief and gives me hope for making this look better. The wood is going up north to someone's cabin and the other long pieces are going back to the store since they weren't used. I better get hustling or I won't be ready for the party. Let's hope I can make something less garage-y by the time of the party!