3 Keys Thursday/Friday: 3 Ways to Approach that Drawer Makeover

Photo: Dodgerton Skillhause via Morguefile

On Wednesday, I wrote about revamping a couple of drawers in my house. In addition to decluttering, I'm hoping for a domino effect -- one that frees up space so I can find homes for some of the homeless items in my office. If I'm really lucky, I hope to get rid of a piece of furniture that is past its prime but still needed for storage. That, however, may be overly optimistic.

Despite my enthusiasm for this topic, my schedule has not allowed me to dig in as I'd like, setting aside an hour or so to dig in, sort, toss and reorganize. Consequently, I've been forced to come up with alternative approaches which can be used separately, alternately or together until the drawer is finished.

Give it five. Set the timer for five minutes and then open the drawer. Take stock of its contents, keeping your eyes peeled for anything old, broken, out of date or easy to get rid of. Can't find anything? That's okay. Use the remaining time to create a game plan or to dig in, working until the timer goes off.

Beat the clock. This is the multitasking version of Give it Five. The other night, I was waiting for pasta to finish cooking. That gave me about ten minutes to dig into the drawer and make some progress. I sorted one small stack of papers, tossed/shredded some out-of-date/no longer needed items and put what was left in either a new home or back in the drawer. There's still work to be done but, as with Give it Five! even that small amount of time made a dent and motivated me to come back and dig in again, even if I have only a small block of time. Perhaps this afternoon as I wait for the dryer timer to go off....

Section it off. Since drawers are rectangular, they can easily be sorted into quadrants. Mentally (or even physically, if you prefer), split the drawer into sections and work on one section at a time. Use a small bin that fits inside the drawer to separate the things you're keeping from the things that need to be sorted and perhaps consider sectioning the drawer off permanently, especially if your personal style is I need to see it or your organizational style is I know I put it somewhere. Breaking the large goal of the whole drawer down into smaller steps helps to create a sense of accomplishment along the way as we have visual evidence of the progress we're making.

The logic behind these strategies is two-fold. Setting smaller goals can help us to stop procrastinating and attack the project in a manageable way. In addition, doing this can build a momentum that can be just the impetus we need to finish the whole drawer, if time permits.

Looking at the weekend ahead, I'm not optimistic about an uninterrupted hour presenting itself so, if I want to dig into those drawers, I might just be using these strategies myself. If you're with me, share your successes in the comments below so I can celebrate along with you!