Every time I sit down at my desk to do anything besides write I get frustrated at my inability to find anything! My desk drawers are a mess, all six of them. The cabinet the printer sits on is stuffed full of stuff. The top of my desk and the file cabinet, another mess. I need to get control of this.
First I emptied all the drawers on to the floor, where did this stuff come from? I hate to admit that I’m a shover, if I find something and I don’t want to put it away or I’m not sure where I should put it, I shove it in a drawer. I tell myself it’s just for now, until I find it a home but looking at the stuff that came out of my desk drawers I realize this is a problem.
Phones and phone chargers, cable wire, batteries, packages of pens, the owner’s manual for my car, greeting cards, emery boards, and a wind chime. What the heck was I thinking! I went through this huge pile and asked myself if the desk was the logical place for it. I usually try to think if I someone came in my home and needed something, where would be the logical place to look for it?
I used plastic bins for the stuff that didn’t belong in my desk, one for each room that things needed to be relocated to. I did this because I know me, if something needs to go to the kitchen I will take it and then decide the drawer I was going to put it in needs to be cleaned and before you know it I have ten half finished cleaning jobs going on. Focus!
After getting rid of what didn’t belong in the desk I got all the duplicates together and put the ones I didn’t need in a bag to donate. Does any home really need nine packages of pens? Once I had everything pared down to what should be in the desk I gathered up little things to use in the drawers to keep them organized. Macaroni and cheese boxes cut down are great for holding paperclips, push pins and the like. If you are really ambitious you can cover them with scrapbook paper to make them look pretty. The important thing is not to let lack of expected containers keep you from organizing your drawers. Pens don’t care if they are in an empty soup can covered with fabric, just find what works.
Now I can find what I need, next I’ll need to tackle my files. Eventually my house will be organized.