Welcome to 2018!
Is this the year you decide to get more organized?
Is organizing your home on your Resolution List again this year??
Please know that my monthly newsletter will be offering all sorts of inspiration and quick easy remedies to help your intentions become reality.
For the month of January, I’m going to highlight an easy one. The Junk Drawer…dun-dun-duuuuuun!!!
Now for some of you, I know this is NOT an easy one. The reason I’m choosing this area of the house first is because this can give you a little sense of how long organizing takes, it’s ALWAYS LONGER THAN YOU THINK, and it’s also a FANTASTIC momentum ignitor in other areas of your home.
I had let mine go for at least a year. To me, it was chaos and also really really stagnate. When I showed a friend what my before looked like, she scoffed and said…Umm, you think that’s messy and organized ?? It’s all relative, we are all affected by different levels of chaos. I knew it was time for me to take the time since it was taking me far too long to find what I needed when I opened the drawer. A sure sign for anyone!
After a grueling 45 minutes of being ruthless with myself on what to keep:
To set upon this task, I would suggest blocking an hour in your calendar and purchasing as many of these organizers that will fit inside your Junk Drawer, ultimately they will keep the structure of the drawer organized by giving each category a specific home:
Before ordering, make sure to measure your drawer so you can ensure the correct fit. MAKE CERTAIN TO MEASURE THE VERTICAL SPACE OF DRAWER, so you don’t get something too high for the drawer to close easily.
The depth on this particular one is on the higher side, be aware:
These are interesting to me because they offer flexibility to your unique space due to being separate pieces that interlock to one another. Ideally, your drawer will be completely covered with as many as you can get in there.
This one is best suited for a shallow drawer…
These clear ones are similar by being individual pieces, but don’t have the interlocking capability. Unless they fit snugly into the drawer and feel stabilized by the structure of the drawer, the’ll be sliding about all the time-not the ideal.
This one has actually got two separate pieces to it. One can stack on the other and slide to front or back. They can also reside next to each other if the drawer is not that deep
Once you have the organizer/s of your choice in your possession, move along with “painful” process.
Bite the bullet of fear and dump it out on the kitchen floor.
Say What?@!@!??
Yes, really. It’s The Way. Trust Me.
Once the chaos is in a crazy pile on the floor, have a seat and start sorting. Joyfully. Even though you would rather be doing anything else than this, focus on the satisfaction and anticipation of having it DONE!
Get in touch with that upcoming feeling of happy each time you open that drawer vs. feeling overwhelmed and frustrated that you have to sift through all the chaos to find what you wanted in the first place.
Sort categories: office supplies, coins, sunglasses, lipsticks/lip balm, mail, etc.
- Put like with like first-this helps the brain categorize and see the item once
- Have 4 bins at hand: trash, recycle, donate, other area in the house(separate the rooms if you want to to make dispersion easier later
- Once you have finished sorting, now distribute the kept categories to the necessary locations in the house: office, family member’s rooms, garage, tools, etc.
- Determine what you actually want available inside this drawer.
Got any action items from that sort?
- Bills to pay? Make sure to have an ACTION FILE for the paper actions
- Items to fix? Make sure to block some time in your cal to fix and fix them!
- Stuff to return to stores, other households, library, friends? Make sure to have the receipt and put them in your car to complete this loop.
If all that seems like you would rather insert a pencil into your eye, I think you might consider giving me a call.
