Continuing
on with my self imposed office challenge I climbed the stairs early this fourth
day mulling over the possibilities for the day.
I considered various hot spots in the room and different overall
organizational things I wanted to do. By
the time I reached the top of the stairs I had decided today was the day I
would organize the dreaded souvenir drawers!
If you
follow all my blogs you know we are folks who like to travel and in those
travels I collect ephemera (souvenirs) to scrapbook with at a later time. Well, as with everything else around here I
am a true S.H.E (Sidetracked Home Executive)
when it comes to that. So I have a set
of plastic drawers that I cram those souvenirs in. It’s three deep drawers and
all three are generally so packed I can barely open and close them. There is so much in
fact that there are also bags sitting nearby of other items to “be filed”.
On top of
this big cabinet there is also a much smaller drawer set that is suppose to be
holding specialty scrapbook items, chalks, colored pencils and the like, but at
this point I don’t even know what all is still in it.
My ds has
also added things to the top of that. So
today’s challenge. Clear that
tower! Look out I am going in!
So I started
from the top and started working my way down.
I discovered much of the stuff on the top of the little set was artwork,
projects (more to bag up like I did the previous day) and trash. That section went fairly quickly.
I was
surprised to find most of the little set of drawers was empty---ahhh PRIME
territory to store things in! I’ll fill
those later as I sort other areas of the room I am certain.
The top
drawer of the big set of drawers actually was fairly empty too—then why were
there sacks of stuff sitting on the floor?
Because the sacks had been taken out of the big drawer when I was trying
to get to the marker brushes below it one day and I got sidetracked. Hmmm, first challenge. A better way to sort all those markers,
chalks and such. Think, think,
think…basement time!
Down to the first landing, down to the sunken living
room, up to the second landing and down the basement steps to the first
landing, then on to the basement floor I went.
I knew I needed
something that was heavier than a plastic container, but not so heavy it would
make the drawer hard to slide. I also
knew it needed to be something that would not fall over easily.
I looked all around my stash of “stuff” down there,
ruling out first one thing, then another.
Finally my eyes fell on the tall baby food jars a friend had given me
years ago to put jellies in. I had never
used them for jelly, so there they sat gathering dust and taking up valuable
shelf space.
After a visit with the dishwasher they became my new
pencil and pen holders for in the big drawer.
I sorted implements of my trade by type, ie: water color pencils, color pencils, brush
markers, permanent markers etc. That way
when I was doing a project I could just pull out the appropriate jar as I
needed it.
One thing I ran into was my colored pencils were just a
fraction of an inch too tall for the drawer, so they’ll go in my craft carousel
on the table where my watercolor pencils already were for the same reason.
As I organized the jars by type and color I realized how
much space I was going to have leftover.
Looking around I wanted something seldom used to go behind the jars of
the often used pens and brushes, but easy to access. I finally decided on a large Ziploc storage
container/bowl to put my cords (gold, silver, red etc) in that I seldom use
except around the holidays. This will not only keep those strings from rolling
around and unraveling, but will provide back support for the jars in the
drawer.
A second one was turned the opposite direction at the end
of the first one. In this one I placed a
package of washable markers that were too long to put in the jars, exacto
knives , film cans of magnet buttons and similar other small seldom used items
that I could get to as I need them. These
I labeled so in the future I could grab just the right film can without having
to open each one to see what was in it.
During that search my eyes also landed on a very large
barrel of gel pens I purchased long ago.
They have been taking up over a square foot of space on dh’s desk for
the longest time because I had nowhere else to put them. A quick measurement showed I could put them
in the drawer too! BONUS! Dh will be thrilled they are gone off his desk.
To help keep the jars from sliding and tipping over I
lined the bottom of the drawer with some foam packing material that had came in
a recent order we had received. Once
again recycling and repurposing as I went.
By repurposing these items I had less to put in my
non-burn (the packing material—wish I could find a place to recycle it). I
gained that space in my soon to be food storage area with the removal of the
jars. Plus the freeing up of that space on my husband’s desk. So it’s a major plus all the way around, and
that was just basically one drawer.
I find this often happens as I am working the Princess
Plan. While organizing one area I actually improve several other areas around
the house and property. So with each progressive project the entire property improves more and more.
As I did
this sorting I found more rubber stamps and punches, but there was still room
for them in the shoe caddy so that didn’t create any problems. It was nice to be able to turn around and put
them in without a second thought about what I was going to do with them.
I also found
still more completed cards that needed filed.
Again with that system already in place that was accomplished easily.
If you don’t
already have tall glass baby food jars (do they even still sell baby food that
way?) any scrounged jar of the right height and neck opening would work. Because I am constantly using jars for
sorting items, splitting out large container purchases, infused water and storing leftovers I
wash every jar that we empty in this house and store it. So I always seem to have the right size jar
when an organizational project comes up. Once all my organization is complete I
will recycle any non-essential jars to keep from having clutter there as well.
If your jar
mouth is too wide to keep your pens upright one person on a list I’m on
suggested using dried beans, rice or marbles in the bottom of the jar to keep
the pencils in place. With the baby food jars I didn’t have that problem.
No packing
material? Again trot over to Wal-Mart or
your favorite Dollar Store and look in the shelf paper section. They sell some no slide rubber shelf liner by
the rolls that I also use an abundance of in the camper. Since I am not worried about color for these
in the cabinet out of sight type projects I always look for whatever color they
may be closing out that week. Closeout discounts are not as good as free, but
they are close.
While I had
hoped to get that whole cabinet done today it soon became clear that because of
several issues I would have to be satisfied with just the little drawer set
being nearly empty and the top drawer now totally organized.
Guess I’ll
work on the ephemera tomorrow.
Jan who took time away from the office today because she is
trying to maintain a bit of clean in the rest of the house as she brings the
office under control in OK
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