Drawer 11 - Week 11 - Done

Just a little straightening up and disposal of one item. Remember which one? And yes, if you need to "borrow" a pair of eyelashes, just let me know.

Drawer 11 - Week 11 - Bathroom

What a collection of glitz and glamor...or, is it junk? I vote for glitz. Where do you store your supply of false eyelashes? I admit to wearing them when emceeing fancy evening events, which frankly, hasn't happened in a while. I have a collection of lapel pins in the fish dish and the cosmetic bag is loaded with sparkly hair accessories. This is also where spare pairs of eyeglasses have ended up. When you're as near-sighted as my family, this is an important supply "just in case" a regular pair breaks. And how funny, there's a tube of diaper rash cream in there. I don't think we need that anymore. (our daughter is 9)

Drawer 10 - Week 10 - Done

It's nice not to have to re-purpose drawers every time they get a check-up. I think it's important during this organizing journey to have some easy weeks.

Drawer 10 - Week 10 - Bathroom

Yeah - we have a lot of bathroom drawers. This one is stocked with hand towels and washcloths. All it needs is a little straightening up. And the greenish towel on the left is a hand towel that belongs in the other bathroom, not this one.

Drawer 9 - Week 9 - Done

It seems weird to end up with drawers with not much in them. At least they might stay more organized that way. This drawer has a set of curlers, a jewelry roll with a few items in it, spare disposable razors, and in the orange bag - a collection of nail polishes.

Drawer 9 - Week 9 - Bathroom

Another bathroom drawer, and another project that will take mere minutes. It's nice to have these easy ones. There are dangerous ones still lurking in my home. And what a surprise. I found my little cat clock. I'm putting that in my office.

Drawer 8 - Week 8 - Done

All the projects should be this easy :) Put some stray items in the cosmetics bag - which is stocked with extra tubes of my favorite lipstick, and scooped up the extra cotton swabs. There is a tube of caulk in here for touch-up projects in the bathroom.

Drawer 8 - Week 8 - Bathroom

Another bathroom drawer to tackle. This doesn't look too scary. Mostly full of hair implements and stray cotton swabs.

Drawer 7 - Week 7 - Done

The items in this drawer found better homes. The plastic bags and parchment found their friends in the pantry. Small kitchen pans went to the kiddo play kitchen. Lip Smacker is now in my purse. I will fill this drawer next week when I divvy up the ultra-cluttered gadget drawer.

Drawer 7 - Week 7

More kitchen miscellany. The inventory include snowflake plastic bags, parchment paper, glass mini measuring cups, butter dish, tiny baking pans...and a watermelon flavor Lip Smacker. I do have better plans for this drawer. I'm going to divide up a gadget drawer to the items used the least will go here (twine, corn holders, special spatulas). This drawer is the least convenient for the cooking area.

Drawer 6 - Week 6

This is the drawer on the left hand side of the oven. Perfect place for oven mitts. So, how did a blue beanie wind up in there? And a bib from my daughter's baby days (she's 9 now).
Several oven mitts are still in the laundry and the KitchenAid mixer pieces found a home closer to the mixer.

Drawer 5 - Week 5 - Done

Tubes of hair conditioner, travel-sized personal items, foot-soak salts, hair implements, nail polish. Many of these items had "real" homes elsewhere. I think I just threw them in the drawer when doing quick clean-ups. They were returned to their homes. The travel-sized items went into the airline travel-ready quart plastic bags.
Not much left, really, but the simplicity is nice.

Drawer 5 - Week 5

Well, yikes! This is getting personal...but then all drawers are game for this year-long project. My drawer in the bathroom. It's quite the jumble and I see things in there that really have "other homes." I'll post the inventory and end-result tomorrow.

Drawer 4 - Week 4 - Done

Lots of room for...more gum! The inventory is below. This drawer also contains cough drops and throat lozenges - which are important tools because I depend so heavily on my voice for my "real job."
Now, the sugar packets. My husband brings those home because he takes extras when he buys coffee, just in case. Those went into the sugar area of the pantry. Some of the gum was o-l-d and so hard it could have caused a dental bill. The VIA coffees went to live with the rest of the coffee supply in a cupboard. The Trident is my favorite gum :)

Drawer 4 - Week 4

Look! It's a mostly-gum drawer. Really. Oh boy. That's a lot of gum, and sugar! We actually like having a gum drawer, but the sugar packets need a different home and some of this gum may have turned into rock candy.

Drawer 3 - Week 3 - Done

Digging to the bottom of the dish towel drawer, I found napkins and seasonal dish towels that really don't need to "live" in this drawer by the sink. I also found some towels that were so ratty, I had to part with them.

I also had a "helper" for this project: Jazzy Kitty. She loves to catch a warm towel right out of the dryer and was misled into thinking this was a nesting place when she saw a pile of linens.

This is the drawer done. The seasonal towels were stored with other ones in a linen closet. These towels were organized by type: terry cloth, sack cloth and napkin-grade.

Drawer 3 - Week 3

Drawer 3 is another kitchen project: dish towels. This drawer is always crammed, and I suspect that hiding under the top layer are unneeded linens, or misplaced somethings. Inventory tomorrow.

Drawer 2 - Week 2 - Done

Well, the inventory for this kitchen gadget drawer includes quite a few duplicates and a couple of misplaced items. I scaled down to one rolling pin and one can opener. I had to keep both pizza cutters because the shark has strong sentimental value, and although he was just used over the weekend, the blade on the second cutter is thinner and works better for fine pastry projects. This drawer is right next to the stove, and a few regularly-used spatulas were missing because they were in the dishwasher. Additional regularly used cooking tools are in a container right next to the stove.
Here is the finished drawer. And while it looks rather empty, the idea is that these more commonly-used items will be easy to find. BUT this kitchen gadget drawer has an evil twin sister right next to her. One that's filled to the brim with more and more and more gadgets. It's on the organizing list for the week of Jan. 24. Extra items found in this drawer went into the ARC donation bag, by the way.

Drawer 2 - Week 2

I have two kitchen "gadget" drawers and they're equally messy! I'm pretty sure I don't NEED 3 rolling pins and 2 identical can openers. Do I? Stay tuned, I'll inventory the disaster tomorrow.

Drawer 1 - Week 1 - Done

Whew! I don't know why I thought this would be an easy drawer to tackle for this year-long mission, because it wasn't. I decided to keep a couple of flashlights in the drawer because that's where they've always been and it is a handy location of all family members. Office basics are in the baskets. Label-maker in the back. And an extra garage door opener. Hmm. That doesn't really fit. I imagine it will get a better home during another drawer project this year.

Drawer 1 - Week 1

Plunging right in today on this year-long project to tackle 52 drawers, shelves and cupboards in 2011 - whether they be in the house, car or garage. Drawer 1 is a small drawer in the "office nook" in the kitchen. It's right next to the refrigerator. My first challenge: what exactly should this drawer's job be? I am going to make it a household office supply drawer. Above is all the things I emptied from the drawer and um...not many office supplies were to be found. It has turned into a catch-all drawer.

On my first pass at the contents, above are the items to be discarded. Mostly trash, except batteries go into the special battery disposal bag.

Here's what's left and these still aren't office supplies. I have household tools, furniture protectors, 4 flashlights, catnip, bracelets that are really cat toys, a planter hook, various nails, screws and brackets, measuring tape, padlock that I don't know the code for but I'm guessing my husband does, a travel alarm clock, hand-warmers, a cute little Paddington Bear from our trip to England a few years ago, a toothbrush for household cleaning, night light, hand lotion and some garden seeds are just some of the inventory. I guess a big part of this drawer reorganization is just getting items back to their proper places...to be continued...