Dresser Drawers

How Organized Are YOUR Dresser Drawers?

Here is my dresser…. before.  A mess isn’t it?  I have two jewelry boxes.  One is my Mom’s, one is mine (I have organized and that will be coming up soon).

The pillow – is the bodice of my wedding dress.  (Yes, I had my wedding dress taken apart. Hmmm.. another blog post opp. isn’t it?)
The candles and flowers are from my wedding.  (Dave and I were married 4 1/2 years ago).
The stuffed bear is from Dave from Valentine’s day. I love stuffed animals. The little elephant I got at the Murphy’s trip in January.
The pillow on the right behind the bear is a needlepoint pillow my grandmother made.
I have a weight and a ruler on there too.. no meaning.. just more clutter.

The actual dresser is from my Aunt from when I was first married (first marriage back in 1983). I’d love a matching new bedroom suite, but I’ve never had the extra money to spend on one. So a remake of these might be coming up at some point in the near future.  I want to redecorate my bedroom soon.

 

 

I have never micro organized my dresser drawers.  I have always sorted my clothes into specific drawers, I fold my shirts and clothes and pair socks, but I have never taken the effort to organize my undies, t-shirts and socks.

Before pictures

I’m going to be brave and show you my messy dresser drawers…. are you ready?  (ugh.. embarrassing!)  See…. for the few of those who think I’m perfectly organized everywhere in my house… you will see… I’m certainly not.

Undies….

T-shirts that I wear under a lot of clothes

Kind of a mess of a drawer. I have my PJ’s, lounging outfit (winter) and a swim suit in here.

Work out clothes. (They haven’t been used in awhile.. ugh)

I decided to give it a go!  I found a couple different drawer organizers.  I bought a couple sets from Ikea. I made the cardinal mistake of not measuring my drawers BEFORE I bought them.  I bought two packages of the Skubb organizers them at $9.99 each.

Once I got home I realized they did not fit in my top three drawers.  The top drawers were too shallow for them.  But I knew I’d be able to use them in some of the other drawers.

I did measure them before I went to Old Time Pottery. I found these drawer organizers there.  These were $3.99 each.

I knew they were going to be shallow enough to work.  You are able to add the dividers in if you want them.

I put all the dividers in.

I then went through and sorted everything in my drawers.

I asked myself these questions:

1) Do I wear it?
2) Do I like it?
3) Does it fit?  (The killer since I’ve gained weight)
4) Are there any holes or can I not wear it because it need repaired?
5) Is it seasonal?

Then I had to decide if I was going to:

1) Keep
2) Donate
3) Store the out of season clothes is it fits, is in good shape & you like it.
3) Pitch

After pictures

Undies drawer now!  I love this. I got rid a bunch of undies that I never wore.  Yes.. I did that too. Pick a pair up and realize they are ones you don’t like. So why didn’t I throw them out right then? I don’t know.  I’d just throw them back in and get another pair.  So, I got rid of all those I didn’t like. 

Bras on the left (my others are being washed) and undies on the right.

Look at my socks drawer. (I never showed a before pic because I forgot to get a before pic)

My T-shirts

My real Tee-shirts.  This is a top drawer and I didn’t have any organizers that fit it.

Second Tee-shirt drawer using the Ikea organizers

Third Tee-shirt drawer

Here are my other drawers – PJ’s

Workout clothes

Hose, slips etc..

I have to tell you, this is the first time I have ever organized my drawers so extensively. I love it!!  To go in and not have to pick through to see what I want!  Awesome.

I also cleared off some of the stuff on top of my dresser.  One of my jewelry boxes is gone (I’ll be posting on that later).  Until I redecorate this room with new colors and refinishes (of this dresser)… it will look like this. But one of these days it will look awesome!

Oh yeah!!  Doin’ the happy dance with my organized drawers.

 

Organizing clothes for changing seasons

Winter is coming!!  The “Changing of the Clothes”

Do you dread the “changing of the clothes” as much as I do? Getting out the winter clothes and putting away the summer?
I do not look forward to it. In fact, so far this season I have not done it.  I always leave a few warming things in their drawers for the summer, so they aren’t wearing shorts on a 60 degree day)

We do use the “hand me downs”.  How could we not?  The older two have clothes that I have saved (that they liked… we didn’t save everything) for the younger boys.   Since we only have the one girl, we tend to either have one of a couple people give us clothes for her, shop in the resale shops or buy new. (Oh darn….how I hate to buy girls clothes.. Not!!)

Here are the tips that I used in the spring of 2009 when I did a post on transferring clothes from summer to winter.

7 Easy Steps to Transferring The Clothes

1) Get your supplies ready. White (donate) and black (trash) trash bags, sharpie
marker, labels (sticky address labels work great, bins (clear are best).

2) Get out the winter clothes from storage.

3) Start in the kids rooms and pull out one drawer at a time. Determine with each
piece
* Will it fit someone in the family in the future? (If not dontate)
* Is it in any condition to save? (If not then throw away, don’t donate clothes
that are torn, stained or are better for rags)
* Will the next child wear it? Was it worn at all this season? (Do they like it?)

4) Make piles.
* Save for next year
* Donate (white bag)
* Trash (black bag)

5) Go through the new season clothes and do the same thing as you put them away in
the kids drawers. Make sure they will fit your child this year and it is
something they will wear.

6) I prefer you use clear bins. Get ones that fit your space to store and latch closed. They will go from season to season.  Now for really long clothing storage, you might want to look into another form (but I don’t suggest long term clothing store of any one item …usually)

7)) Take the bins you have for next year and be sure to label them.
Put sex, season and size on each label. For instance, Boy – Summer  - Size 10

7) Donate can be taken to friends who can use them, sold at a garage sale or resale
shop or taken to a facility such as Good Will.

Passing down Clothes – That’s being Green too.

I love getting a call from a dear friend of mine saying, “Sandy – I have gone through the kids things and I have 2 big bags of clothes for your triplets!” It’s like Christmas time going through the bags to see what will fit and what we can use.

Not everything fits or will work, and if we can’t use it I pass it on. I have a couple girls that I work with that have children who I pass the triplets clothes and toys down to. If it isn’t something they can use, I take it to the Goodwill store that is in my town.

My older boys clothes go into a bin that are labeled and I save those for the triplets. (at least the boys)

Personally, I do not keep most of it for garage sales. I do not want to store things through the year waiting for a garage sale to make .25 off a shirt. I would rather give it to someone that I know who can really use it for free, or second best give it to Goodwill. I know someone has to buy it from there, but it is out of my house and I have my space back. Garage sales aren’t bad, if you have the space to store the things until you have it.

I have no problem looking at garage sales for clothes to fit the kids. I am not too proud to use hand me downs or buy clothing at a garage sale. These kids grow fast and aren’t in them more than a season. I wish I could afford to always buy them new, but I am practical and even if I could afford to buy them the best of clothing….it makes sense to reuse things. Recycle…be green with clothes too.

Organizing after Christmas

Use Christmas as a great time to Sort!

Christmas is over and you have lots of new memories, presents along with bags of trash, boxes and things out of place!
I think this is one of the reasons that we get the bug to get things cleaned up and organized. It can also add to the sadness that can feel after all the excitement and anticipation is over.

Grab a white trash bag (for donate) and black trash bag (trash). As you are taking the clothes to put away in your drawer, take 3 minutes for each drawer and quickly go through and pick out the things you have not worn in over a year, or that is too tight or too big and load into the white bag. If it’s torn then put it in the black bag to throw away. If you are seriously going on a diet and realistically think you can fit back into some clothes within the next 6 months, then make a pile for those clothes to go into a bin. Label that bin with a date for 6 months from now and if in 6 months you are not close to getting into them, donate them.
If you have 6 drawers then you have just gone through your dresser in less than 20 minutes.
One way to get through some sorting without taking all day and being too overwhelming.