So we all have one right? That infamous Junk Drawer….ours is big and holds way too much junk. I bought some baskets at Target in various sizes and they worked really well! There were a lot of random things in here. Tons of koozies, several pairs of scissors, lots of mismatched hardware such as screwdrivers and nails and quite a few odds and ends that ended up in the trash. I found some good stuff too!

I used four plastic containers (from Target) to contain the junk. In the big one, I put the tools and hardware, in the medium one I put the household items such as tape, scissors, batteries, box cutter, velcro etc. and in the two small ones I put the heartworm pills for the dogs and all the random cords that seem like they possibly go to something we actually use. I have thrown away tons of random cords! It worries me a little but I tried to think of the things we actually use that have cords and they are all accounted for so I trashed the others. I have found TONS of koozies…they got their own taller container that goes above the microwave.

In our kitchen island we have four deep drawers. They each hold different things. The “ziploc drawer”, as we call it, is a MESS! It holds ziploc bags, cling wrap, foil, my iRobot and a few other things. (A side note on the iRobot – it’s an excellent little tool for a quick dry or wet mop. It helps me with my dog hair issue quite a lot.)

This drawer is a classic case of “if you can’t see it, you don’t realize you have it”. For example, I had two rolls of parchment paper. I use parchment paper a few times a year at most so I definitely don’t need two rolls. I trashed the older looking of the two. Same thing with cling wrap – I had three rolls! Again, it’s not something that I use often so the two smallest rolls went in the trash. I also found that I had more of my beloved iRobot sweeping and mopping pads since they had been pushed to the bottom of the drawer. That was a nice find! Also, I have slow cooker liners??? Who knew! Again, it’s not perfect, but it looks a lot better than it did in that first picture!

So it’s pretty obvious that we use these cabinets not so much for detergent and dryer sheets, but to shove old clothes that I had the intention of donating or putting on ebay. First, if you have a similar situation and need to go through your laundry room cabinets, please take my advice and do NOT decide to do this while the washer and dryer are both going! OMG…so hot! Anyway, I found a few random items….a very pretty circular burgandy table cloth…BUT I cannot recall ever having owned or used a circular table so I have absolutely no clue why I have that. Needless to say, I trashed it. I also found THREE Downy balls. Do you remember those? Does anyone even use those anymore?? And the strangest thing I found that shows just how long its been that stuff has been piling up is an (unused) boys swim diaper. My son is now 16 years old!

Now I know the experts say that slobs like myself should just throw everything away or donate it and not try to pile things up that may or may not ever be sold on ebay. This was hard for me because I found a new with tags pair of Nike shorts still in the bag. (I guess I had the intention of returning them and never did) and I found a pair of ADIDAS pants and a few older, but in great condition t-shirts from Abercrombie and Fitch. I only kept about 5-6 things for the either donate or immediately put on ebay pile. I’m having a hard time with the idea of just giving away clothing that is either brand new with tags or in excellent condition. I know I need to let go of this, but I’m not there yet. I am telling myself that if I can sell these few things on ebay, then it can make up for the cost of what I’ve bought for this project (heavy duty trash bags, a step ladder, and several tubs and containers). The other thing I kept were old shirts of my son’s from childhood and from sports teams he was on. I shoved them in the cabinets with the intention of possibly making a memory quilt for him someday. My daughter has already graduated and I can’t find the old stuff I kept for her so that opportunity is gone, but I would like to possibly do this for my son for his 18th birthday or high school graduation. I’m going to rewash those items and put them in a tub.

I can’t believe how much cabinet space I now have! Of the four cabinets, two are now completely empty and the other two just have laundry stuff, dog sweaters and a few other odds and ends. I have a home for these rags that my husband loves that we’ve never had a place for and a home for the elastic cotton bottoms for my steam mop!

This basket is our catch-all area that holds all the papers we are scared to throw away…just in case we might need them. I’ve got school pictures, bills, contracts, coupons…I’m not even sure what all is in that basket. I don’t think I’ve gone through it in a year or two. It is right inside the door we use most so it’s a convenient spot to throw things, but it is also visible to anyone who comes in our house. This will be my first project because one thing I’ve learned from Decluttering at the Speed of Life is that it is best to start with things that are visible so you are motivated to keep going. I’m going to trash a lot of this stuff and thinking about coming up with some sort of way to organize what is in there…maybe labeled manila folders??

THE BASKET IS DONE!

I don’t have a picture yet to post. I am still trying to decide how to organize it. I mainly threw away tons of old papers that we no longer need. I found about a dollars worth of change, old report cards, expired auto insurance policies, and bills that were paid years ago in some cases. I have menus I want to keep, old pictures, documents we need to keep and various other things. The other thing that has me confused are all the KEYS. Tons of keys and I don’t have a clue what they go to! Obviously I will try them in the obvious places and I guess those that don’t seem to go anywhere, I will throw away. It scares me a little to throw them away because what if they are needed at some point. Then again, they have been there for years and we’ve never needed them….

The finished basket is pictured below now…

I’ve been needing to get my house in order for awhile and have finally come to a point that I am ready to do it! I am a high school English teacher and am finishing up my 16th year of teaching, I have two children ~ an 18 year old daughter, who is home after her first year of college, and a 16 year old son, my husband and I will be celebrating our 20th anniversary in July AND we have three dogs and a cat (all indoors) – pet hair is my ENEMY. It is also important to note that we built our house in September 2004. We have had almost 15 years to shove stuff into every nook and cranny. Our biggest issue is storage. We don’t have much extra closet space. We don’t even have an entry way/coat closet. This tends to lead to us creating places to keep things, we also aren’t good about using our attic space. Neither my husband or I are too comfortable with carrying things up and down the attic ladder. This has now lead to our garage being used to store all the left over randomness…Christmas tree and ornaments, lawn equipment, and many other things that should be taken to a trash bin. We entertain friends quite often, especially during football season, so we have gotten pretty good at hiding the clutter. We have shoved A LOT of things in cabinets and behind closed doors. For the most part, people can’t tell just how much crap we have stashed away.

Purging, decluttering, organizating, decrapifying (whatever word you prefer) my home is my summer project! I have read the book Decluttering at the Speed of Life by Dana K. White (available at http://www.amazon.com for $9.98) and have been reading some popular blogs (www.konmari.com) and I think I have found a system that will work for me. I totally agree that everything needs to be pulled out, touched, and evaluated although I don’t know that I will be thanking each thing I trash or donate for their service…sorry Marie. I also don’t know if I’ll stick to the all visible mess first…I kind of want to go room by room, but we’ll see once I get started.

I am one that has a hard time giving away things that I feel hold monetary value. I tell myself that I will save it until I can get it on ebay or a local varage sale page. The problem is then that those things usually just end up in a big pile, stuffed in a cabinet, or in the back of my closet. Ebay is useful and I’ve been able to make some decent pocket change selling my kids gently used clothes and other things on there but it does take time and then after buying mailers and postage I may make a few bucks. I don’t know that it’s worth it so I am going to try very hard to take Dana White’s advice and donate or trash EVERYTHING versus hang on to the hope to make $20. My goal this summer is to get rid of the crap and then once the house is under control maybe I can look at doing some of that in the future. My goal is to create “homes” for things so that it makes things easy to find and know where to return. I am using baskets and Sterilite containers (available in tons of different shapes and sizes at Wal-Mart or Target) for this. If I get on a roll I may use my Cricut machine to cut out labels for certain “homes”. My biggest challenge will be getting my husband and son to get in the habit of returning things to their place. My daughter will love this system once it’s in place.

I will be posting before and after pictures here and discussing what worked and what didn’t. Wish me luck!!!!

Thanks for joining me!

“Clutter is nothing more than postponed decisions.” 
-Barbara Hemphill