Junk Drawer Syndrome! clear the clutter

ORGANIZATION, June 2007, by Jenifer Merifield


Junk Drawer
Syndrome
Clear the clutter…there’s a place for everything!


You have a pencil, 3 lip gloss tubes, a bank book, a note from your friend, 4 pairs of earrings, a handful of coins, and 6 hair thingies... where do you put them all? One big swoop of the hand into your top drawer and voila! your room is looking good.

Before you do the happy dance, think of this... in a week from now, are you going to find these precious items?

I suppose if you had one GIANT top drawer, and everything you owned fit in it, you would know that whatever it is you are looking for... is in there!

Unfortunately, or fortunately, that isn’t the case. Let’s take lip gloss as an example. Sometimes it’s in the top drawer, but sometimes it’s in your purse, your school bag, your locker, the bathroom... you get it.

So how do we solve the problem of knowing where to find things?

Make a Place for All Your Stuff!
You don’t have to spend a lot of money, in fact, you don’t have to spend any money at all. It’s up to you how fancy you want to get.

Start by making a list of the different CATEGORIES of stuff you have. For instance: makeup, jewelry, pens and pencils, money, hair stuff, and so on.

Next, either collect shoe boxes or go to a department store or specialty store that sells neat stackable boxes and containers.

Separate all your stuff in piles and then put it into its own box or container. Do this BEFORE you label them in case you find you need to pick a bigger or smaller size once you get going.

You can stack your newly organized boxes under your bed, in your closet, on your book shelf, or against the wall.

Get creative! Colour code your boxes or decorate them as accessories for your room. They will look nice and it will be easy to remember what’s in them.

This idea works great for socks, undies and bras too. Instead of squishing them into one big drawer, have three separate smaller ones (stackables work great!) that you can open and not have to deal with the ‘big dig’ every morning!

Finally, bask in the feeling of being organized and knowing where your stuff is ...and resist the temptation of the Top Drawer Swoop!

~ Jenifer

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