Organizing & DIY Link Party – Week 5

Dresser Drawer Organization

Do your dresser drawers look like this?

 

Or do they look more like this?

It isn’t hard to organize your dresser drawers.  I did a post on Organizing Your Dresser Drawers and showed you how easy it is to do.  I used organizers that I found at Ikea and a few I also found at Old Time Pottery, but you could also use shoe boxes or other boxes that fit into your drawers and achieve the same thing.

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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.

 

Rubbermaid Drawer Organizer Review and Giveaway *CLOSED*

Rubbermaid Drawer Organizer

Rubbermaid is hosting a Quick Organizing Adventure: the Junk Drawer. Yes!! Right up my alley!

Next step, find a drawer in my house that needs organizing. It isn’t as hard as you might imagine. Remember, there are 6 other people in this house and not any of them have the passion for organizing (and staying organized) as I do.

Enter in: The kitchen gadget Junk Drawer:  What a mess!

This in all reality only took 15 minutes to turn this messy drawer into this!  Kitchen gadgets can be a hard one because they are all sized and shaped so differently. I would like another organizer in the back to have all the “not used very often” items in. To me, this drawer never looks as organized as I would like.

Step 1 – EMPTY

Empty everything out of the drawer and clean the drawer.

Step 2 – SORT

Sort what is in the drawer. Only keep what you use. Any papers, trash, broken pieces – get rid of. Any items that don’t belong in that location (for instance you don’t want your earrings in your office drawer)

Step 3 – SET UP

Take your Rubbermaid drawer organizer and configure it how you would like it in your drawer. The interlocking pieces make it fit together nicely if you choose to use it that way. You can use them in a couple smaller drawers too, if that is what you need.  The pieces are the following sizes. There are 3 small squares 3×3 inches. One rectangle 3×9 inch and one longer rectangle 3×12 inches. Then you have your larger retangle 6×9 inches. They are all 2.2 inches in height. There are a couple of other nice features that I liked. The inside has a rubberized bottom (so things aren’t so noisy and they don’t slide around. They they also are made so that they unit themselves don’t slide around in the drawer when you open & shut. I have had some that do that, if they don’t fit all the way back…you place it in front and when you open the drawer back up it has moved way back. I like that I won’t have that problem with these.

I would say the only negative I have was that I wanted to configure it a little different but the lip was on the wrong side to do what I wanted to do. I bet if I had played with it enough (like a puzzle) I could have made it work…but the way I have it worked fine too)

Step 4 – RELOAD

Reload the drawer. Use the space towards the front for items you use most frequently. The items you don’t use as often place towards the back of the drawer. As you can see in my picture, things like meat thermometers and egg white separator are in the far back of the drawer. Those are items I do want to keep, but I only use them a few times a year, so they do not need to be up front. Now my scissors, can openers and toast tongs we use almost daily – those need to be the most accessible.

Giveaway

To Purchase Your Own: Go to Rubbermaid.com and purchase, or find at any stores that carry Rubbermaid products. You can get a coupon for $1 off if you go to SmartSource Coupon Page

To Win:

Go to Rubbermaids blog called Junk Drawer Ingenuity and tell me something else you learned about junk drawer organization.

**Be sure to come back here and leave me a comment.

Your e-mail needs to be either on your comment or easily accessible in your profile.

For Extra chances to Win:

**Each of these HAS to have a separate comment written please. (I know its a pain, but other wise you won’t have as many chances if you don’t)

You can find all the links in my right hand sidebar.

1) Subscribe to my Organize with sandy Blog with feeder or e-mail. 5 extra chances.

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5) Tweet out this giveaway up to 3 times per day. Write a comment for each time you do with the link.

6) Add any of my 3 buttons (Organize with Sandy, Reviews, Chat with Sandy) to your sidebar and come back to let me know. Separate entry for each one you add.

See….lots of ways to enter to win!

This contest will run until 11:59pm est on Monday March 15th, 2010 *THIS CONTEST IS CLOSED. ANY COMMENTS THAT COME IN AFTER THE DEADLINE WILL NOT BE COUNTED*

This is open to US & Canada mailing addresses only. One person per mailing address only. Winner will be chosen by Random.org

You will have 48 hours to reply to my e-mail if you win to be eligible. If I don’t hear back then I will go to the next winner.

Disclosure policy – I did receive this drawer organizer from Rubbermaid at no cost. They did not require a review or giveaway but told us we were welcome to do one if we so desired. They also told us to please be honest about our thoughts on the product (that is easy because I always am).

Check Out my Other Giveaways Going on Now:

Twirly Hanger - Ends 3/4/10  Organize with Sandy

FUMI Pursehook – Ends 3/4/10 Chat with Sandy

Covergirl Smoky Eyes Kit – Ends 3/8/10 Chat with Sandy

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.