Drawer Organization
Storage Ideas for the Drawers in Your Organized Home
Say YES to drawer organization in your organized home.
With application of the personal organization skills of sorting and categorizing and some good organizing products
you can say goodbye to the junk drawer and find things in your drawers again!
Drawers are spaces too!
The
OMS S-P-A-C-E model.
and a few simple personal organization skills can end your drawer disorder!
You have a drawer in every room of the house so pick one and get started.
Strip
- Empty the drawer completely.
- Clean it. Empty out all the crumbs, and dust and then wipe it out!
- line the drawer with drawer liner paper.
This simply protects the drawer from damage and increases its lifespan. If you have a number of very small items in a shallow drawer then use the
"non-slip" type of liner.
Now you have a beautiful drawer just waiting to be organized!
Tips for Maintaining an Organized Home
Reluctant to throw something away because you think you might need it?
Put the items that are not going back into the drawer into a box and label it with the date.
Within the next 6 months if you need any item in that box go and
get it. Return it to the drawer after you have used it.
After 6 months time if there are still any items in the box get rid of them. They have been there for 6 months and you will never miss them.
Purge
Go through the items you took out of the drawer and get rid of anything that does not work any more or you haven't used in six months.
Sort
Go through the items that are going back in this drawer and sort them by size. Long skinny items together, short fat ones together. You need
to have the items sorted into similar sizes in order to assess what type of organization system or products will be the best.
Assess Your Needs
Once you have your stuff sorted by size, you can use drawer organizers to compartmentalize
your drawers and keep things separated. The goal is to be able to open the drawer and pick up the
item you need.
If you have to sort through items in the drawer to get to the
one you need then you have too many items in that drawer.
The measurements of the stuff going back into the drawer and the size of the drawer itself will
determine the size, type and number of drawer organizers you need to purchase.
Get good measurements!
There is nothing worse that coming home with a new
organizing product only to find that the long spatula (you use most often) won't fit into the new drawer organizer so once again
you are cautioned to get good measurements so you can measure twice but purchase only once!
Also make sure you know the depth of the drawer. You do not want to purchase great organizers that are too tall for the drawer.
If your drawer is less than 3 inches (7.5cm) deep it is a very shallow drawer!
Containerize
Consider using drawer dividers to
create many different compartments within your drawer. These commercially available units are expandable to accommodate a variety of drawer sizes.
While there are a variety of
commercial drawer organization products available
don't limit yourself to containers labelled specifically as drawer organizers.
You can use
clear plastic storage boxes, or even
repurpose items that you have around the house.
- Shoe boxes can be inserted into drawers for an instant drawer organizer.
- The boxes that your cheques come in from the bank make great organizers for pens and pencils.
- plastic food storage containers with or without the lid make good containers for really small items in drawers
like paper clips in the office or hair elastics in the bathroom.
Evaluate and Enjoy!
Imagine going to a drawer and placing your hand on the exact item that you need at the exact time you need it!
Drawer Organization Makes Sense in an Organized Home!
Stumble It!
