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The Junk Drawer Epidemic

junk-drawer_optYou are not alone.  Don’t beat yourself up for having a junk drawereverybody has one.  But fess up, how many do you actually have?  You know that drawer.  It’s the infamous miscellaneous drawer filled with random stuff.  It’s the drawer you throw everything into that doesn’t have a home.  It might be where you keep your collection of pens, batteries, flashlights, spare keys, matches, instruction manuals, bills, receipts, and much more.

No doubt, there are endless categories but the problem is, there is not endless space.

It happens so organically, doesn’t it? An overlycluttered drawer that barely closes  leads you to shove new things into other drawers.  And before you know it, like  creeping crud, the junk is spreading like wildfire into multiple drawers!

Your intentions were good initially, I’m sure.  You probably started out monitoring the junk drawer, but eventually it was invaded with random loose change, crumpled post-it notes with scribbled phone #’s on them, newspaper clippings, coupons, phone chargers,  Tylenol, and all sorts of new junk. With no free time, and little regard for designated landing places for these things, you were doomed.

I know life is hectic and it’s much easier to just tuck the clutter away inside a drawer. Everything “appears” neat on the outside.

But unfortunately,  this only results in time wasting consequences.  You’ll likely be spending valuable time opening too many drawers, digging through all the clutter and not finding what you need, when you need it. This would be the wake-up call time to organize and get some control back.

Sort through the junk and consolidate items into “like” categories.  Create designated spaces and consistent homes for items.  No need to tangle your rubber bands with band-aids, paper clips, or old pieces of chewing gum.

When you sort like with like items, you will be able to retrieve and return them with greater ease, efficiently evaluate your inventory, thereby minimizing duplicate purchases. Separate office supplies, clip receipts together, and store medications in a safe and exclusice space. Create a grab and go area for sunglasses and keys.

Stay on top of that drawer and weed often.  Don’t let the junk takeover.  If you let it, it can potentially live in every drawer.  Uh-oh, T-R-O-U-B-L-E.

You can reclaim order in your home by starting small,  one drawer at a time. 🙂

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The Junk Drawer Epidemic

You are not alone.  Don’t beat yourself up for having a  junk drawer….everybody has one.  But fess up, how many do you actually have?  You know that drawer.  It’s the infamous miscellaneous drawer filled with random stuff.  It’s the drawer you throw everything into that doesn’t have its own exclusive landing place in your home.  It might be where you keep your collection of pens, batteries, flashlights, spare keys, matches, instruction manuals, bills, receipts, etc..

No doubt, there are endless categories but the problem is…there is not endless space. 

It happens so innocently, doesn’t it? When a drawer gets overly cluttered and barely closes, you just start shoving new things into other drawers.  And before you know it, like creeping crud, the junk is spreading like wildfire into multiple drawers!  Your intentions were good  initially, I’m sure.  You probably started out monitoring the junk drawer, but eventually it is mysteriously invaded by random loose change, crumpled post-it notes with scribbled phone #’s on them, newspaper clippings, coupons, phone chargers,  tylenol, and all sorts of new junk. You can’t help yourself, it seems unavoidable.

I know life is hectic and it’s much easier to just tuck the clutter away inside a drawer so that everything “appears” neat on the outside.

Bottom line is that you’re often opening too many drawers, digging through all the clutter,  and can’t find anything you need, when you need it. The perfect storm…this would be the time to organize, sort the junk and consolidate items into like categories and get some control back.  Create designated spaces for items that need to be accessible. No need to tangle your rubber bands with band-aids, paper clips, or old pieces of chewing gum. If you sort like with like items, you will be able to organize accordingly.  Separate office supplies, store receipts together, keep all sunglasses together with their cases, and create a segregated space for medications.

Stay on top of that drawer and weed often.  Don’t let the junk takeover.  If you let it, it can potentially live in every drawer.  Uh-oh, T-R-O-U-B-L-E.

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Organizing for Charity Donations

Day 18: (May 24) Another weed, another purge.   Now that the kid’s had parted with so much stuff, I really needed to micro-organize my foyer area with like items with like items, separated clothing by seasons, and bagged them.

At the end of the day, my foyer was jammed pack with trash bags and boxes.  A friend of mine volunteers her time to pick up donations for a variety of charities.  I invited her over to sort through my piles and see which charities could best benefit from my things.  The Huntington Interfaith Homeless Initiative, (based in Huntington, L.I.) was in dire need of my clothing, my kid’s clothing, hats, toys, stuffed animals, blankets, andchildren’s books.  I filled my assortment of wicker baskets with hotel soaps, perfumes, body creams, and knew that the women who live in the shelter would be overjoyed.

It was an exhilarating feeling to be part of such a worthy cause. I felt empowered, wanted to give more. I learned about a group of students from Northport High School, who call themselves, “Students for 60,000″. This non-profit group was formed in 1987 designed to raise funds to support the 60,000 homeless at that time.   Today it is comprised of High School students who volunteer their time in Nicaragua to physically build homes, schools, and this year, the very first library ever, for poverty stricken children.  My “ah-ha” moment……My 7 pieces, of luggage was ideal to transport all donations, books, and medicines they would need to transport.  It was an honor and pleasure to participate in their effort.

Another wonderful place to donate to is the Confidence Closet (Huntington,L.I.).  This is a designated section within a thrift shop that offers poverty stricken people appropriate clothing to go on job interviews.  I was inspired to donate my husband’s suits, sport jackets, ties, dress slacks, and my finer clothes, handbags and shoes.

To know that your things can be useful and enjoyed by others is gratifying beyond words.

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Staying on Task with the Move

 

 Day 15: (May 14) Emptied the balance of items in the game and craft closet and the linen closet to sort and weed.  Had accumulated so many extra blankets to accommodate sleepover company, but today just saved a homemade crocheted patchwork quilt that my Mom made, and a favorite, cozy duvet from my Mother-in law. Put aside one random blanket just in case we need it at the other end of the move.

There seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel, at least on this level.  I’m thinking that the hardest emotional purge is now behind me, and now I am tossing the clutter at a much faster rate. 

I am noticing the rooms are looking bare and although this is clearly the goal, I can’t help but feel a little “empty'” and hollow inside.  This was once a room filled with so much laughter and commotion.The kid’s had countless, mass sleepovers for so many friends throughout the years, and now the quiet was almost deafening.

Arranged for a pick-up dates for my unwanted items, called Clothing Drive to support Alzheimer’s Foundation of America. Trying to spread the donations around to a variety of charities.  Bagged and labeled with their respective pick up dates.

The sorting and purging are completed on this level, next comes the actual boxing. Will need to organize that process with consideration for the unpack; what boxes will probably be stored in the garage temporarily, and what boxes will need to be accessible and unpacked for use.

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Photo-Organizing

Day 14: (May 10) Took all the photos out of their frames, sorted them into loose photo boxes I already had.  Most of those photos were duplicates and their originals were already organized in my albums. These extras were available for usage for school projects, montages, or for giving to friends and family.  Acknowledging that they were excess, I still decided to hold onto them, in case the kids wanted to access them or keep them, and therefore not disturb my original albums. Through the years, I must admit,  the boxes got sloppy and the photos were just thrown in haphazardly.  Today, although so time consuming, I enjoyed sorting them by years and had fun revisited my past once again. Glancing at my old photographs brings me lots of joy, but that’s just me. 

The really archival photo books were all in such diverse sizes and and were clumsy and broken as I blogged about earlier. So for now, I taped heavyweight cardboard to preserve their spines, labeled each one. Gave the heavy albums more support and will make the the packing easier. Another day, another time, I will consider scanning them all onto my computer, (it would probably take months????) 

My last 25 years of photo albums are all organized in uniform books and are displayed in a bookcase in my den, to be enjoyed at any time.  I refer to them often because they are accessible and housed in a beautiful space.  The new rental space will not be able to accommodate them in the same way, so I am sad they have to boxed and perhaps be rarely viewed. I will dread considering them as buried treasure. 

easily accesible photo albums in den wall unit
easily accesible photo albums in den wall unit

  

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Seeing What’s in Store for Me When Organizing My Past

Day 10: (May 3) Regrouped and actually compartmentalized the grief so I can stick with the plan. This is easier said than done, but in a way, it’s a metaphor for “literally” moving on.  And so I must.  

Started in the basement (lower lever) and began emptying out the storage closets that houses all my memory boxes.  So much sorting, weeding, and purging ahead of me before I can pack up a thing.  Took everything out, one box at a time, realizing how much I needed to weed through.  Did a quick sort of everything else in that room and loaded up the ping pong table for items to donate, and reduce down. Actually utilized the center net as my divider, separating the things I planned on donating and recycling from the things I just needed to reorganize.  As more stuff came out of the closet, it was becoming harder to organize the memorabilia, so I imposed a resting point in order to focus and evaluate what was directly in my face.  At a quick glance, it was apparent that I was inundated with old photo albums and framed family photos, both small and enlarged. With each picture I looked at, a flood of memories overcame me.  I realized how fleeting life is, and wondered where the years had gone. My father has passed but his face was everywhere, and it was difficult to consider these items as clutter, so I immediately created a special corner for my most treasured items.  My family photos are my most prized possessions and I will always honor and respect them with the highest regard. The oldest albums themselves, were not in great shape; their spines were falling apart and some had lost their covers altogether.  Noted this was to be a project on my “to do” list, but certainly not for today. 

Today I addressed the stuff I was ready to part with:  The kid’s board games (kept the classics, like Monopoly, Life, Scrabble, Scattagories); stuffed animals; old coats; 7 pcs. of luggage without wheelies; a telescope; 4 sleeping bags;over 15 blankets; ass’t. camp bedding and ass’t. sizes of sheets and pillowcases; worthless naked Barbie dolls with random clothes; Kid’s art projects (took digital photos); art supplies.  On the walls hang the framed jigsaw puzzles that my daughter and I painstakingly completed, at wee hours of the night, throughout her adolescent years.  Those were such precious memories and each puzzle we labored over, inspired wonderful and intimate conversations together.  Once again, getting a bit sentimental now anticipating the emotional tug of letting go.  This is not easy, constant tugging at my heartstrings.  

Framed jigsaw puzzles removed from walls

 

The reality is that I cannot take them all, the memories will be cherished forever, and so donating them to a school or senior facility will soften the ache.  For hire, I can be the Professional Organizer and am prepared to be the facilitator, and/or the catalyst to motivate and guide the client to let things go.  It’s quite another scenario to guide yourself through your own emotional purge.  All bets are off, and some basic principles of organization can be neglected if you let it. Even a Professional Organizer needs an objective eye to aid in the decision making process to assist in letting things go.  

The support of my family and friends have played a role in shadowing this project and their tough love was an integral part of my decision making. Called a charity and arranged for pick-up tomorrow.  The Salvation Army picks up in my area on designated days and you dont’ need to be home.  Easy and convenient.  Sooner is better than later, so there is no time for overthinking and change of heart.  

 
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Addressing the Clutter Prior to the Sort

 

Day 4: (April 16, 2010) OK, so let’s start the tour. Let’s consider the accumulated possessions that are overabundant:  I am no different than any one of you…We all have way too much stuff, and whether or not we have the ample space, we still tend to collect things throughout our lives to punctuate our memories. With little time to constantly weed out, we just continue to accumulate clutter. I had the luxury of storage space so holding onto my old treasures (and organizing them) did not negatively impact my life, nor clutter my living space.  Until now……

 

Glass Vases: (refer to above photos).  Over 31 years of marriage, celebrating anniversaries, birthdays, and holidays, there has been a joyful parade of floral arrangements coming into the house, married with a myriad of glass vases in a variety of sizes.  “Clearly”, (no pun intended) one household does not need to compete with the local florist. Note to self, need to downsize from the 40 vases, seriously. Time to purge.

Additional Items to address: Tupperware, Hotel freebies (body lotions, conditioners),  excess kitchen gadgets never used,  excess kitchen utensils (too many options), array of wire hangars, an excessive amount of coffee mugs in variety of sizes and colors, as well  those wicker baskets (so unique in size and shape they do not nestle nor stack).  Discriminate and eliminate!

I was going to inquire at my local florist to see if they wanted to take my vases back, but thought that a charity could really benefit from them ,maybe utilize them for centerpieces at their fundraisers. Called Lupus Foundation , arranged for the pick-up and set aside an area in my hallway for its pile.

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