It's Talk Time Tuesday with Ask Jo and a Giveaway!

Hello my sweet friends!

Welcome back to another Talk time Tuesday! 

I am sure by now the news has circulated all over the world that the famous musician Prince has passed away. What a shame. I was born in the early 70's and so my era of music was in the 80's growing up. Prince was someone I loved listening to and I love everything he stood for. He was very humble, articulate, talented, religious and passionate. He gave so much to his community and charities, and while he was shy, those who knew him say he was also very dedicated and kind to his fans and those who were in need. Aside from all of this, he made amazing music. I feel like almost everyone that I grew up listening to has passed on. Luther Vandross, Natalie Cole, David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and now, Prince. My final thought on this .... Prince, I hope you are at rest and driving around in heaven in your "little red corvette", looking for some "starfish and coffee", while flirting with the "lady cab driver"!   I know I couldn't help myself! :)

Okie dokie so let's move on to today's question, which comes from Emily Ann who wants to know, " Hi Jo. I have so many supplies and find myself so overwhelmed. My husband says I am a hoarder lol. So my question to you is what is your advice on using up everything that you own, thanks!?"

  Hello Emily Ann!

Welcome to the wonderful world of hoarders! LOL!!! As much as I hate to say this, you are not alone. I know that I am guilty of hoarding too. I hoard paper! No matter how many times I have tried to part with some of it, I cannot do it. My paper stash is enormous and I am pretty sure that I have enough paper to build a real life size home for a family of six and still have leftovers!HAH! 

Oh boy okay... so realistically I do not think it is possible to use up everything that you own especially if you are a hoarder. Usually a hoarder in the crafting world, has enough stash and supplies to fill up a 10' by 10' room in their house snuggly. And in this situation, I find it impossible to use it all up lol. But I will say this... and this is something that I have been doing for my own craft studio for the past few months now. Schedule the time into your normal schedule to do your craft "inventory". Literally make time to go through each section of your space and analyze what you have. As you start to go through everything, a number of things are going to happen. You are going to start realizing that you have things that you will never use. These items you should part with. Have a yard sale, put them on sale online (Ebay, Etsy, Craigslist, etc), donate them to a friend or local organization that could use them or at the last resort, simply throw it away. You are also going to realize that you have things you forgot you even had. You are going to get that feeling like you just won the jackpot or like Santa came early! With those things, you need to decide to keep or purge. And lastly, you are going to realize that with some of the things you own, you have no clue how to use it or what to do with it and you don't know where to put it. And these are things you need to make a decision about whether or not you are going to take a class, read up about it or find a home for it, and if your answer is no, then sell or donate. 

Once you have finished this process of going through your inventory, you will have a clear understanding of what you DO have. The next step is making sure to organize it all so that you can visibly SEE it all. If you cannot see it, you will not use it and it will sit there for another year or two, untouched. 
Ask me how I know :)  I have been going through everything in my own stash and I am surprisingly able to purge a lot of it. And because I have been doing this, I now know what I have and it is becoming much easier to see it and use it. Once you do this process and organize everything so that you can see it all, You will start using it all. The more you use it, the better you will feel that you have used it. You won't feel guilty that you spent all that money and didn't use it anymore. I think every crafter should inventory their stash at least every six months or every year. So while I do think it is impossible to use up everything that we own, I do know that it is very possible to use a lot of what we own when we can visibly see it. 


So I hope this helps you Emily Ann. Sorry for the long post but I answered your question the only way I knew how to, and that was by experience. :)  Thank you so much for writing in and I hope to hear from you again. Have a great week!

Okay and now for the giveaway.... I will be using random.org to select one winner to win this Stamp and die combo set by Hampton Art. All you need to do to be eligible to win, is to go visit my other blog, Jo's Stampin' Studio, subscribe to my blog and leave a comment on this post below letting me know you did. That is it! Easy enough! I will announce the winner next Tuesday. For extra chances at winning, refer a friend to subscribe to my Stampin' Studio Blog and leave their name in the comments below once they have subscribed!  Good luck! :)

Well friends, that is it for today. Please write in with questions you want answered or topics you would like to see talked about during our Tuesdays together :) 

 Thanks for stopping by and until next time.... Enjoy life's blessings~