YOU already know what to do

I don’t know about you, but I actually know what needs to be done for to declutter and get organized.  You probably also know what to do.  You have probably read it in book after book -
       
        1- Go through what you have
        2 - Purge anything that you have not used in X years (generally one or two years depending on the book.
        3 - Separate items that don’t belong where they are into one of four boxes - keep, put somewhere else, throw out, donate, sometimes, a fifth box - return to the owner.
        4- Survey what you have left and figure out how to store it, buying storage containers only after knowing what you need and measuring the space and items to go into storage.
        5 - Keep up putting items away every day.

Oh, this reminded me, I am looking to buy plastic storage to organize the freezer compartment of the fridge better.  For some reason lately a lot of food items we buy are in bags - they used to be packages in boxes, they lie on top of each other and I forget what I have.  I want them to stand up so I can see what I have.  Hold on a minute while I measure the freezer section - hmm mmm mmm - sorry, okay, I am back - that’s less than 10.5 inches tall, 14.5 inches deep, and 19 inches across and I plan on 2 containers across - that would be 9.5 inches across each maximum.  I put the measurements in my cell phone in the Walmart section of my “to buy” list.  I will have to see what is available.

Oh wait  - the timer in my cell phone went off - I have to down to the basement and switch loads in the washer and dryer.  Be right back....hmm mmm mmm.  Okay, back again.  I forgot that there was a blanket in the dryer from last week.  We sleep with two in winter, one in summer and I had this one on the bed, but put the other one on the bed last week and washed the one that was there as we both had colds over the past month and thought it best to wash to wash the one we had been breathing on.  It is now sealed in a plastic bag to keep it clean until it is needed again.  It will go in a small storage piece in our bedroom. Back to all of you, cell phone will go off again in 50 minutes to switch loads again.

Okay - while the above is true, I do other things while I am writing my posts, it is also why the common “simple 5 steps” to get uncluttered and organized don’t always work.  Oh, I also updated the browser in my other laptop while I have been writing this.  It is not that I don’t care about all of you - (I do wish there were more of you, but I am glad to have every one you reading my posts - feel free to tell friends to join us) but we all have to multitask these days.  It is not as easy in the real world as it is in organizing books.

Yes, the basic 5 steps are what need to be done, but sometimes they have to be done in small bites - catch as catch can.  When my husband was screaming about his sock drawer - too many socks, too little room.  He has trouble finding socks which are comfortable and the ones he liked are wearing out quicker and quicker so he is searching for new socks - as the ones he like are, of course, discontinued.  Of course he buys MORE socks and then hates them.  It is hard to convince him to let me donate them - “I haven’t even worn some of the pairs yet - and what if I can’t find new socks and neeeeeed these?  So I went through his dresser drawers - yes, more than just that drawer - over a period of 2 days - on and off when I had a chance. 

What did I find, well, his missing “space pen” for one thing.  I found that the bottom drawer was filled with more James Bond toys.  I managed to add them to the boxes we had bought and put in the spare bedroom (aka the teddys room) closet.  Ah, most of an empty drawer to work with. I put some empty shoe boxes in same.  I use them for drawer dividers - two boxes make 3 delineated spaces across - box, space, box.  I put the socks he does not wear in the bottom drawer. I also went through stuff he keeps on the left side of his top drawer (which is where his underwear and socks are also kept).  He has a small jewelry box  - mostly junk, the few nice pieces he has are in my jewelry box, empty eyeglass cases (yes, I keep same also) and other small items - under these I found the space pen.  Those items were sorted through and mostly stored in the bottom drawer.  Why did all of this go to the bottom drawer?  Well, he could not get something out of same unless he was sitting down as he would get dizzy, so it is a good place to put things he will rarely, if ever need.  I then rearranged the space in the top drawer and sorted the socks he wears into the boxes (the beige set in one box, the ivory set - he calls them white) in another box and the new socks behind them in the same boxes - white socks in with the beige socks and black socks in with the ivory ones - so they are easy to tell apart by color looking in.  Underpants are no longer squeezed into a shoe box, but in the space between two shoe boxes, so they have a bit more space.  (His underpants like mine are rolled as this seems to make them fit in the space better and easier to grab out - he needs to buy new ones of same soon - he complains all the time.) He also has some ankle height socks which he finds comfortable to sleep in during the winter as they keep his feet warm but don’t “bother him”. 

In doing this I did find some items which I knew he no longer needed and would not be attached to - especially the socks he won’t wear - and packed them to be donated.  Also in doing this I had pulled out some shoe boxes from the top of my closet - some were empty and set aside for use in situations such as this, others had shoes in them, and I pulled some shoes off my closet door rack, that I don’t wear, to donate also to make room for some of the ones in the boxes - although the door rack is about 1/3 empty after I was done - and I don’t have a lot of shoes.  (If I let him know, his extra shoes will end up there, so I won’t mention it.)

All of this - socks, underwear, James Bond toys, shoes, etc. took about 2 hours spread over 2 evenings.  I believe in doing things as one can.  Oh, I had no boxes for donation, etc. just some shopping bags.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Use the time YOU have available and try using your innate knowledge of what to do.  You know to throw out garbage  - you just have to figure out what is the garbage in what you have.  You know to donate what can be donated - don’t look at it as you are getting rid of something you loved (or hated and regretted), but rather finding the item a new home with someone who needs it. 

Think about what you use and how you use it - and how often you do.  Something - such as underwear and socks that are worn daily should be able to be reached as easily as possible. 

But remember we do things by habit which may not be the best way to do so.  What you do not use as often, can be harder to get to.  Since I was in junior high school I had a sock drawer and an underwear drawer.  In my current dresser these were two small half size drawers, the underwear drawer being the top drawer, the socks, the next one down.  The underwear had my underpants that I daily wear one of, my bras - 3 of them rotated through wear and laundry, and half slips - short white, long white, short black, long black - which I very rarely wear - only if the skirt/dress is a bit sheerer than normal.  My sock drawer had my every day socks, my panty hose (rarely worn - once a month to work and if there was an event to which I had to wear a dress), my knee high stockings (worn even less), and the socks I wear to keep my feet warm.  Husband said to me one day after we had been married for decades “every morning you open the top drawer and take out underpants and close the drawer.  Then you open the next drawer down and take out socks and close the drawer.  Why don’t you put the items you wear daily in the same drawer and put the other items in the second drawer?  Makes sense - why did I not think of this?  Well, I had been doing it the same way for so long, it never occurred to me that there was a better way.  I now have my everyday socks and underwear in the top drawer - panties are 3 pairs across, 3 pairs up and two sets of same deep (the set in the front is not a full 9 pairs) and the sock balls stand next to them filling the rest of the drawer - no separation between the two necessary.  The second drawer holds my bras in front on one side, my sleep socks across the front on the other.  A box of stockings - pantyhose and knee highs behind the sleep sock.  I have wool socks which I have acquired over the recent freezing cold winters we have had in the back of the drawer.  The slips are stacked between the bras and the wool socks.  One drawer to open every day instead of two - labor saved.

So think as you declutter and organize about how you can change where items are stored - even in something as common as your dresser  - to work better.


My thoughts and prayers to those in the path of Florence.