Three drawers in my apartment had gotten unbearably messy, and each time I opened them, I cringed. Still, I didn’t take the time to reorganize them, even though I opened them many times each day. Finally, when one over-stuffed drawer jammed again, I declared that the next day would be Drawer Reorganization Day. This quick project expanded slightly in scope, but at the end of it I had three drawers that were once again clean and tidy. What follows is what I did, and how I did it.
First, one deep thought about organization: You can’t organize a space until every item has a specific place. When I visited my parents last fall, I took one look at their kitchen utensil drawer (memorialized in its messiness here) and knew I had to organize it. I designated specific places for all their different tools, and, as far as I know, the drawer has stayed clean. I never employed that same technique on my own kitchen utensil drawer, so it got messier over time, as I just threw utensils back in the drawer.
We’ll return to the kitchen in a minute. The first drawer up is where I store all my appliance manuals.
The lesson from this drawer: An organizational system is only effective if it is easy to use.
When I originally sorted my appliance manuals, I organized them by brand name. This became problematic because an appliance’s name wasn’t always immediately obvious and sometimes I would misfile manuals by the type of appliance (refrigerator, oven) rather than brand name. I decided that a more intuitive system would be to sort manuals by room in the house.
In addition to tweaking the organizational system, I also did some tidying. I threw out old manuals and straightened them all up. I labeled the manual spines that needed it.
Let’s head to the kitchen, where the rest of this project takes place. The first drawer up is my linens/misc. drawer, which spells trouble.
The lesson from this drawer: If you aren’t using something, get rid of it.
Somehow I had accumulated five aprons. I almost never use an apron when I cook, so at the very most I needed only two – one for me and one for my wife.
I’m a little concerned that this drawer will get messy again, but I guess that’s the nature of “miscellaneous” drawers. I rearranged it so the items I always use are on top. I also put similar things that cause clutter easily – like cookie cutters – in bags for easier storage.
Finally, I tackled the utensil drawer.
The lesson of this drawer: Think outside your confined space.
The first thing I did was take out all the utensils and gadgets I had and lay them out on the counter. One quick glance told me that if I truly wanted to organize this drawer, and assign each utensil a specific location, I needed to get creative.
So I did. I moved the large spoons to the drawer above, and slightly organized that drawer as well. I got to employ one of my favorite tricks: put rubber bands into a paper cup.
In the main utensil drawer, I moved all the gadgets to the back. The far-right slot holds spatulas, the middle-right slot holds tongs and Microplane gaters (aka long skinny things). The far-left slot holds flat items, like spatulas. The largest compartment, in the middle-left, holds everything else.
To fully embrace my mantra of “thinking outside my confined space” I wanted to find a different way to store my measuring cups and spoons. There isn’t much free space in my kitchen, but I found a little bit of wall that is easy to reach and not blocked by a cabinet door. I hung eight small hooks, one for each type of measuring cup and spoon.
While I was at it, I bought a second set of measuring spoons. I’ve written before about the benefits of having two sets of measuring cups. When the half-cup measurer is dirty and you need it again, you don’t have to stop what you are doing to wash and dry it. For some reason I never got a second set of measuring spoons, even though I cursed myself each time I prematurely put the teaspoon measurer in the sink. Now that won’t happen again.
Each time I open my organized utensil drawer I smile, and putting away my measuring cups on their snazzy new hooks has been strangely satisfying. That’s the mark of a successful project!
