Tips for WIPS, UFOs and PhDs in beading Tips for reducing WIPS, UFOs and PHDs in your beading life

Whilst many beaders own UFOs not all do. Some have WIPs (Work in Progress) or PHDs (Pieces Half Done). Whether you own UFOs, WIPS or PHDs what to do with them when they start to multiply (as they often do) vexes many beaders.

Are you vexed by your UFOs, WIPS or PHDs?  Do you let them multiply or are you determined to reduce their presence in your beading life? If the latter, how do you do that? Would or could any of these ‘tips’ work for you or someone you know? What else works for you?

• Carry your UFOs in a special ‘tote’ whenever you go out to places you might need to wait – for doctors, friends, etc. and take the opportunity to spend 5 minutes on completing your project.
• Promise yourself 5 mins a day on a project until its finished.
• Keep UFOs in their own separate container with all the beads, thread, etc needed to complete it. You can then more readily work on it when the desire takes you.
• Pick four or five UFOs and work on them in a rotation system until one is finished. Then add another to the rotation group (if you need to). Rotating which UFOs you work can stop you getting bored or frustrated with one and never returning to it.
• Take a good hard look at your UFOs be honest about those you will never finish. Put these in a ‘won’t ever do’ box and donate them to the local charity shop.
• Swap them with a beading buddy.
• Try learning a new technique for making findings or finishing a piece – this might just inspire you to use on an UFO.
• Have a UFO ‘bead in’ with some beading buddies or your local beading group.

Some of my UFOs - a set of beaded beads I don't know what to do with, a half-finished rope and a bracelet I can't decide how to finish