Welcome to my junk drawer. Contrary to what you might think, I did not clean it for this picture. It always looks like this because I am an anal retentive, obsessively organized, type A control freak. And I love my junk drawer. Bizarre? Yes. But it is a good demonstration of one of my favorite simplification principles {say it with me}:
A place for everything, and everything in its place!
Wait, isn't that a preschool mantra? Or a toy room mantra? Or a mantra we, as adults, drill into the heads of our children from the tender age when they start coming to us with whiny voices saying, "Mom, I can't find my {insert five billion important kid items here}!"
But somewhere along the way, we seem to forget that this principle totally applies to adults and all our stuff, too. This forgetfulness leads to frustration and confusion and bouts of wondering if we have early onset Alzheimer's because we can't find that one thing we know we just saw the other day . . . somewhere.
Which is why I love my junk drawer. I know exactly where staples, rubber bands, superglue, tape, nail clippers, spare shoelaces, chapstick, tiny little eyeglass screwdrivers, highlighters, dental floss, allen wrenches, tape measures, hole punches, thumbtacks, paperclips, clothespins, needle and thread, paint deck, and ruler are at any given moment. Better yet, they aren't all just thrown in the drawer to comingle and become one tangled mess of junk draweriness. They've each got a little place within the place to sit, ready for finding by me, my Hubby and our kiddoes.
Now imagine the junk drawer on a greater scale. Apply it to your winterwear, your closet, your kitchen cupboards, your games, DVDss and CDs. Give everything a SPECIFIC place to reside. Put it there after EACH and EVERY use. And you will ALWAYS know where to find it.
And that, my friends, is a happy, happy thing.
I'm off to recharge my pantry, which does not look like my junk drawer. It looks more like a bomb exploded in it, leaving a trail of cereal crumbs, chocolate chips and flour dust in its wake. There is always room for improvement.
9 comments:
I'm planning a big declutter for our big move. While I'm looking forward to decreasing our household junk ratio, I'm not looking forward to the sorting process.
I think your junk drawer needs to be renamed because, as you acknowledged, nothing about it looks junky. Our junk drawer on the other hand... well, maybe I should dive in today.
Wow! That's one impressive junk drawer. I would rate it an A+. Thankfully, mine's in A- condition as we speak thanks to my cleaning/organizing challenge.
My goal when we move is to try and apply this principle of everything having a set place when I set up the new house. But, wait...that seems so overwhelming! How do you make it look so easy???
Jessie,
Think of it this way: it may be overwhelming to find places for everything initially and teach the family where things belong, but it will be SO MUCH LESS overwhelming that how you feel every time something is misplaced and you can't find it, or isn't put away and you trip over it or nag about it. Know what I mean?
Dragonfly
My junk drawers look like junk drawers.
Lily says, "How is that a junk drawer?" That's exactly what I was thinking.
Slow down!! I'm still working on formulating the binders! Although, this does give me another excuse to go to Office Max or Target:)!
Wow... I can't beleive that's a picture of your junk drawer. It looks like something out of a magazine! I opened up my kitchen junk drawer the other day, threw 2 things out then gave up. It's really trashed....the last time I gave it a good cleaning was 4 months ago as i was breathing through contractions. But now that baby's out of me and the drawers a mess again.
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