Organization Dweeb Battles Drawers, Closets

This weekend, I went on a little bit of a cleaning frenzy. That doesn’t necessarily make it a weekend different than any other – without a yard to tend to, children to chase or a pool to clean, I have to tinker with areas within the condo.

Here’s what I did. Saturday I tackled a bevy of drawers. Behold my handiwork:

Kitchen Utensils
I really wanted to get rid of this canister that I had in the corner of my kitchen because it was crammed full of crap I didn't use. Lesson learned: just because Gaida DeLaurentis has eight spatulas and 60 different kinds of slotted spoons doesn't mean you need them too.

So I emptied out everything on the counter, sorted out the stuff that could be donated to Goodwill and voila:

Junk Drawer
Next up was the junk drawer. Yeah, I had tons of tape. Invisible tape, packing tape, mover's tape. I don't need any more. I put stuff in this plastic "junk drawer" organizer I picked up @ the Container store years ago. The result is slightly less junky:

Other Junk Drawer
Yes, I have two junk drawers. This one holds adhesives (Goop, super glue) batteries and sewing supplies. And my new label maker (I killed my other LetraTag last week). I put tiny stuff in snack-sized Ziploc bags and labeled them. It helps keep stuff out of the corners.

Sleepwear Drawer
I had bought some spring loaded drawer dividers in the hopes of using them in the kitchen. As it happens, they were too deep so they made their way into my dresser. I used the first of the two sets in my sleepwear drawer to create three areas: PJs, sets and other stuff.

Also notable in this picture is my Van Halen shirt (which always reminds me of that scene in "The Wedding Singer" where Robbie wants Linda to take his VH shirt off lest she curse the band and they break up):

Gym Stuff Drawer
For someone who doesn't regularly go to the gym (any more), I sure have a lot of workout clothes.

Sunday I confronted the hell closet in our Guest Bedroom. I suspect everyone has this closet in their house - the one where they just shove stuff to get it out of the way. It's a hodgepodge of husband's clothes, guitars, random computer stuff, etc.

And we shoved stuff in every last corner:

The first step was to get everything out of the closet. I dumped it all on the bed and started sorting through what was trash, what we'd keep in there and then what would be moved into other bedrooms/closets. Then I sort of sketched out what we needed and headed to Wal-Mart for supplies.

Powered by Diet Coke, I managed to churn this out in about four hours:

You'll notice the box of envelopes is no longer spilling out. I bought cubes to store the pants that hand been hanging (I used a magazine to fold to a uniform size; finally my time working the stock room @ the Disney Store pays off!). I also bought a hanging hat rack to store the husband's growing collection of baseball caps. Suits are housed in garment bags to keep them dust-free.

By putting the cubes on the right hand side, the guitars are still accessible but completely out of the way. I rule.

This is what happened to the stuff I dumped on the bed. I created a storage area of 12 15-gallon clear totes. Each is labeled with it's contents for easy sorting.

My purging yielded an unbelievable number of cables and cords. If you need to plug something in, chances are excellent I have something to help. There are other containers filled with software, peripherals and office supplies. I'm also happy to report that I had two EMPTY ones for future use:

Full set is up on Flickr with notes if you’re interested. I’m proud of my handiwork, but I’ll be damned if I didn’t wake up completely sore and exhausted today.

Comments

[daysies]

i need get me a label maker, too! great job! :)

speaking of Giada de Laurentiis... i'm such a sucker... i always want to have what she's having! she uses the neatest stuff...

[Org Junkie]

Holy smokes, you do rule!! What a fantastic job you did. LOVE the closet, I love those closetmaid type shelves and of course all the clear bins. So most excellent! Thanks so much for giving me my fix...woohoo :)