Monthly Organized Round Up ~ Drawer

When seeing what the organizing challenge was for October (drawers) at I'm an Organizing Junkie and then seeing the condition of my kitchen cooking utensil drawer, I was inspired to participate...so here is the process (which took about 20 minutes to complete)...

STEP ONE:

My before picture...a very full and not so organized drawer. Items seem to accumulate, then when many hands are in and out of this drawer, it doesn't take long for disorder to happen. At this point, I evaluated what the purpose of this drawer was based on it's location...and envisioned what I wanted it to look like when the project was complete. For me, the drawer is right next to my stove, therefore it's purpose will remain to be storing all my kitchen cooking utensils and gadgets. My vision of completion...items will be sorted by type and kept neatly separated using storage bins/dividers. Purging will be necessary to accomplish this!


STEP TWO:

After emptying the drawer completely (the heap of utensils set aside for a later step) and cleaning thoroughly, I used the rubber mesh drawer liner (easily found in the kitchen gadgets section of discount stores for around $2 per roll). This will keep my utensils from shifting each time the drawer is opened and keep the drawer from getting scuffed.



STEP THREE:

Bring in the organizational bins...love bins and baskets! For this project, I choose to use a divided wood cutlery tray, one over-sized plastic drawer bin and a small plastic bin (all of which I had on hand). These would provide adequate space to keep like items together and neat.

STEP FOUR:

The sorting process begins...the heap of drawer contents are sorted by type. After all the utensils and gadgets were in neat type specific piles, I took out the items that were not being utilized (a few items were transferred to our 'camping bins' for use on camp trips, other items were put in the 'baking drawer' and the remainder of purge pile were put in our donation box). I eliminated about 1/4 of the original drawer contents and moved another handful to more applicable locations.

Below is a picture that shows the sorted piles before the purging process occurred.

STEP FIVE (my final step):

The remaining type specific piles were then transferred back into the drawer according to size and type. I tried to keep regularly used items toward the front and middle of the drawer, then placed small gadgets and less frequently used items toward the back of the drawer in the appropriate bins/dividers. Mission complete...drawer neat and less cluttered!

My Scriptural inspiration (although this verse relates to orderly worship ~ it shows that God is a God of order...from the beginning, He created all of creation in a perfect order).

Were there is order, there is can be peace...

"For God is not a God of disorder but of peace." 1 Corinthians 14:33

It's easy to participate in Laura's Monthly Organized Round Up challenges. Visit her blog for tips on organizing, decluttering and meal planning...just to get you started.