Wednesday, September 02, 2009

works for me: de-junking the drawer

every house has a junk drawer, right? oh please tell me we're not the only ones.

you know, the drawer in the kitchen that is filled to the brim with rubber bands, thumb tacks, dried up pens and unsharpened pencils, nail clippers, stickers, stamps, twist-ties, batteries, 35mm film canisters, bits, pieces, odds, ends.

that junk drawer catches everything. hurry, put it away! and in the junk drawer it goes.

well, one day i had nothing better to do. Woman's Day magazine convinced me it would only take a few minutes, and frankly, i couldn't take the junk any more. i tackled the junk drawer. and it felt so good.

before


during
i put the junk into piles 1) pens/pencils that work 2) kids markers/pencils/crayons that don't belong in the drawer 3) junk that goes somewhere else (garage, office) 4) junk approved to live in the junk drawer (Scotch tape, my screwdriver, calculator, etc) 5) trash. piles are so theraputic for me. it felt so good to trash those barely-black Sharpies.



after
nice & neat!

and then i showed hubby.

he was happy that the clutter had be cleared. but, after 10 years of having a junk drawer together he finally decided to tell me that "pens need to be vertical." i thought about it, and he's right. and with Bubba getting bigger and more *curious* [opening drawers and writing on walls] i thought it would be a good idea to put the writing utencils in a cup and up in the cabinet.

now the drawer is really un-junked! we had to re-name the drawer. it's now The Supply Drawer.

that's my organizational tip o' the day! want more organizational tips? visit We Are THAT Family for this week's themed Works For Me Wednesday.