Simplifying For Fall – Taming Drawers

Are any of you following along with the Simplifying For Fall Challenge?  I’ve been doing some of it, but mostly tackling areas that were particularly bad and in need of attention.  I’m constantly de-cluttering kids’ toys and clothes, so those areas didn’t need much.  This is our younger son’s closet for example, which I haven’t done anything with this week:

The bin at the bottom holds his brother’s marble tube track.  The rest of the closet holds all of our younger son’s clothes, plus all of the hand-me-downs that he’ll grow into over the next three years.  I’m feeling pretty good about how few items we have, given that it’s three years worth of clothing.  The things hanging up are 12 month – 24 month.  Most of the 12 month stuff we’ve already donated, but there’s some that still fits him.  18 month fits now too, and the 24 month stuff will fit this winter.  The white bin is pajamas, and the two bins next to it are mostly 2T and 3T clothing (as is the bag at the left on the top shelf).  On the right side of the top shelf is Halloween costumes for the next three years, and the bottom shelf has baskets with toddler shoes ranging from size 6 to size 10.  The only other place he has clothing is in one drawer in his big brother’s bed where we store his shorts, swim trunks, rash guard and socks.  Nothing is stored away in the basement or another closet.  As our older boy outgrows things, I either donate them or set them aside for the little guy.  And then I weed things out of this closet to accommodate the new additions.  It’s a good system so far.

Anyway, since we’re pretty organized in terms of toys and clothing, I decided to tackle some dreaded drawers today.  Specifically, the kitchen junk drawer and the drawers in our bathroom.  Yikes.  I clean out the junk drawer in the kitchen every few months, but it’s a magnet for clutter and junk.  Everything ends up on top of everything else and it’s just scary.  Here’s a before:

Not proud. 

But I recently spotted this awesome DIY drawer organizer idea and decided to give it a try.  I spent $13 on wood at the craft store yesterday (Basswood instead of Balsa, since it felt a bit sturdier – but I was still able to cut it with a utility knife).

This is the after:

Much better!

Of course it wasn’t just the drawer dividers – a lot of stuff got tossed or relocated.  But the dividers should help to keep it looking nice now, unlike every other time I’ve cleaned it out.  We’re a lot less likely to just toss stuff in there if every cubbyhole has a purpose.

Then I tackled the bathroom.  We had three not-so-organized drawers in there.   Hair stuff and general miscellaneous went from this:

To this:

Looking at that basket makes me realize that I have about 20 times more ponytail holder than I need.  I will be removing a good chunk of those this afternoon.

The next drawer started like this:

and now looks like this:

On the last drawer, I forgot to take a picture before.  But trust me, it was bad.  Here it is now:

They’re all so much better!  I’ve filled a small box with stuff for the thrift store, and tossed quite a bit of stuff into the garbage and recycling bins.  And now everything in those drawers has a place. 

I dropped off two big boxes of stuff at Goodwill yesterday, and I also cleaned the garage earlier this week.  I gave away a double stroller since our older boy either walks or rides his bike all the time now – no need for a double stroller out there taking up space.  Our garage is being used as a holding area for stuff from the basement right now, while we finish the basement.  But even still, we’re able to park our car in there (we just have one car now – we sold our other one last month) and have plenty of room to move around out there.  Once we get to put the basement stuff back downstairs, our garage is going to feel huge!

So that’s my organizing, decluttering, cleaning progress so far in the challenge.  If you’re following along too, I’d love to hear about the projects you’ve tackled!