Clearing the Clutter This March | Behind the Scenes

Carrot Cake (Studio Favourite)

March always feels like a natural “clearing the clutter” kind of month in the studio … a kind of quiet spring reset where things start to feel lighter and more intentional again. 

It also reminds me of one of my favourite baking memories.

When my son turned one, we celebrated his birthday on the beach in Abu Dhabi. We were part of an expat parents group, so the day was less about a formal party and more about a group of tired (but happy) adults gathering with babies, snacks, and whatever we could carry to the sand.

I made tiny carrot cake cupcakes for the little ones — bite-sized so they wouldn’t choke or waste anything — and a batch of larger ones for the parents. I baked well in advance and filled the freezer, feeling very organised.

And then… I forgot them.

Completely.

Between packing the car with food, blankets, toys, and everything else that comes with a beach day, the carefully prepared cupcakes never made it out of the freezer.

No one starved. The day was still lovely. But I came home to a freezer still full of carrot cake cupcakes and had to laugh at myself.

It feels like a fitting reminder this month — you can plan and organise everything beautifully, but sometimes the most important thing is simply showing up.

That said, this is still one of my favourite recipes, and thankfully much easier to remember when made for a quieter studio afternoon.

When March Clears Things Out

March has quietly turned into a clearing month for me.

Not in a dramatic, start-from-scratch kind of way … but in a steady, practical sense. The kind where you look at what’s been building up over time and start asking whether it still fits.

After February’s focus on structure, this month has been about something slightly different. Not just organising what I have, but deciding what stays, what changes, and what no longer belongs at all.

It’s been less about adding… and more about removing.

This month has become a continuation of the creative organisation I started focusing on earlier this year.

Part of that has come from experience, realising how much time I’ve lost in the past searching for files saved under inconsistent names, or designs placed into collections that didn’t quite fit, simply because I didn’t yet know how I wanted to present my work.

And surprisingly, that’s made the biggest difference.

Refining My Collections Across Platforms

I’ve gone back through my Spoonflower collections and made some fairly firm decisions. Designs have been renamed, rescaled, moved into more appropriate collections, and in many cases, removed altogether.

This process has also made it much easier to set up a new fabric-focused shop on Loominate for EU customers, using the same naming and tagging structure across collections.

It hasn’t been about perfection. It’s been about clarity.

It’s still a work in progress, but it already feels lighter. In many ways, it feels like I’ve cleared some of the clutter from my mind as well.

Bringing My Files Into Alignment

Alongside refining my collections, I’ve been working through the files behind them.

Over time, I’d created multiple colourways for designs that were never actually used, along with versions saved across different platforms that didn’t always match in name or structure. It made sense at the time, but looking back, it created a layer of quiet confusion.

So this month I’ve been aligning everything properly. Making sure the files I have in Illustrator and Procreate match what’s live across my print-on-demand platforms. Renaming where needed, removing duplicates, and deciding which colourways are worth keeping.

It’s been a steady process, but an important one. This level of creative organisation is starting to shape how I approach everything else in my business.

Presenting My Work More Intentionally

All of this work behind the scenes has started to carry through into how my work is presented.

As I’ve been refining collections and aligning files, I’ve also been looking at my website with a more objective eye. Not from the perspective of showing everything I’ve created, but from how clearly it represents what I do.

That shift alone has changed how I approach it.

Before, it was easy to fall into the habit of wanting to include everything. Every design, every variation, every possibility. But more isn’t always better.

Now I’m focusing on clarity. Showing collections in a way that feels intentional, making it easier to navigate, and allowing the work to speak for itself without needing to be over-explained.

It’s still evolving, but the direction feels clearer. Less about quantity, and more about how everything connects.

A Little Less Clutter, A Little More Clarity

None of these changes have been dramatic on their own.

But taken together, they’ve shifted how everything feels. Lighter, clearer, and easier to move forward with.

There’s still more to refine, and I expect that part never really ends. But this month has been a reminder that progress doesn’t always come from adding more. Sometimes it comes from stepping back, removing what no longer fits, and allowing what remains to make more sense.

Interestingly, I’ve even started to notice the difference when searching for my own work online. More of my collections and content are beginning to appear, which feels like a quiet sign that these changes are starting to work.

If you’re in a similar place, quietly reworking things behind the scenes, it’s worth it.

Creative organisation might not be obvious at first, but it builds quietly in the background. Even when no one else can see it yet.