Organizing Drawers the KonMarie Way

There's not much decluttering going on these days, but today I decided to finally try organizing my drawers the KonMarie way.

Most have probably heard of Marie Kondo by now, author of The Life Changing Magic of Cleaning Up. I read the book years ago and while I didn't follow it to the letter, it did inspire me to declutter even more.

One thing I didn't try at the time, but have been increasingly intrigued by is her method of folding clothing into small squares. With my drawers feeling increasingly stuffed, I finally decided to try it today. So I watched a few YouTube videos to fully understand folding method and dove in.

First I tackled my t-shirt drawer. I neglected to take a before photo, but here's my stack 'o shirts that filled the drawer.

It does take more time to fold the KonMarie way, but you quickly get the hang of it. Plus, I'll only have to fold the freshly laundered clothing each week.

Here's the after. I purged four shirts. While the 30 remaining shirts still fill the drawer, now I can easily see all of them instead of just the top three. Big improvement.

I'm even more pleased with the progress of the other drawers, which are much more shallow than the one above. The MarieKondo method works very well for these.. First up is a jam-packed drawer full of work shirts and sweaters. 

And the amazing after. Look at that empty space! I purged one top and moved a t-shirt to the t-shirt drawer, everything else is still here and completely visible.

My pajama drawer has always been a mess. I used to roll my PJ pants and tops, but they still barely fit in here.

And after, with lots of new empty space here too, which is truly amazing. I relocated a curling iron, but kept everything else. My hair straightener lives here, because I do my hair in the bedroom (with only one bathroom, ya gotta do some things differently). 

I also organized one of the half-size top drawers, which is full of work socks. I should probably purge everything on the right side of this drawer, because I hardly ever wear them, but for now I'm keeping them. Even so after refolding everything and tossing a few singles, there's empty space in here now and I was able to add a small box to store my extra Fitbit bands neatly.

I'm definitely a fan of all of this new space. In fact, I'm feeling inspired to tackle my remaining drawers and the closet next.

Do you use any special organizing or folding tricks on your clothing drawers?

Spring Has Sprung so Grab a Mop

photo by Melissa Ann Barret 
I'm pretty sure spring cleaning was invented by a man with a maid fetish.

Spring has definitely sprung. And you know what happens in spring, don't you? Why, it's that special time of year when the little lady's thoughts turn to cleaning. I mean really, what the hell else do we females have to ponder?

The spring cleaning furor seems to have dulled down a bit now, but for a while there I couldn't click on a link without seeing some mention of spring cleaning (although I am happy to see that using green, homemade cleaners seems to be the "in" thing this year).

I don't know about you, but when the weather turns nice after a long winter (ok this winter was pretty tame here, but bare with me), the last thing I feel like doing is staying inside and scrubbing. I mean I love cleanliness as much as the next borderline OCD person, but anything that requires a long checklist, likely written by some homemaking maven who probably has a maid for that kind of thing, is not something I feel the need to follow. And if there are some heavy duty cleaning jobs around the house that need some tackling, does doing them once a year really cut it?

I thought spring cleaning harkened back to the days when heat sources caused a heck of a mess. Since that's hardly the case, or at least not for those of us reading this post, isn't it time we kill this antiquated tradition?

All of which  leads me to wonder, do any of you actually spring clean? 

I tackle heavier cleaning jobs throughout the year whenever things get out of hand, but I can't recall ever spending hours spring cleaning. Nor do I remember seeing my mom do so, not even during her "June Cleaver" years. Sorry to out you there, Ma.

Although, come to think of it, my aversion to spring cleaning may just be another way of trying to block out the horror that was my experience as an au pair. For Americans unfamiliar with the au pair concept, it's really just a way of getting cheap slave labor and childcare. In other words, I don't recommend it. Now those people could have given Martha Stewart a run for her money. Walls, baseboards, doorknobs and floors had to be washed every week. Cupboards and the fridge were to be emptied and washed monthly. Three times a week I had to dust, vacuum and clean the bathrooms. THREE. TIMES. A. WEEK. I failed my first week because they found dust in between the stairway spindles. I shit you not. On the upside, I now clean things that would never have occurred to me without that experience.

So the moral of the story is, drop the mop and go outside dammit!

The Kitchen Cure

I wanted to sign up for the Apartment Therapy Cure again this spring to help with spring cleaning and sprucing up the house, but I knew I didn't really have the time to devote to it so I resisted the impulse. Luckily, I saw that the AT Kitchn Cure was kicking off this week and believe me, my kitchen needs a good scrubbin'. Since the Kitchn Cure is spread out over five weeks, it looks entirely manageable.

This week the assignment is to declutter and clean the fridge and pantry, which I spent a couple of hours doing on Saturday. I'll spare you the befores (though they're on flickr if you really want to see), they don't look that much worse than the afters below, except that the fridge and pantry are sparkling clean now and there is no expired food in sight.

So if your kitchen could use a good scrubbing as well, why not join in? Week two starts tomorrow, so there's no time like the present.