I Organized My Dresser

Happy MLK Day (well, happy day-after-MLK-Day)! I hope lots of you enjoyed a day off…I had to work, but then again, I’m an hourly employee, so that’s not a bad thing (yes, an office with hourly employees. My job sucks. But I get paid, so oh well).

Last weekend, I went on an organize-my-dresser-drawers kick. I’ve been getting really excited about getting a house, and for some reason I feel a lot more driven to keep my future house neat, clean, and organized than my apartment. After all, I’m used to moving every year (or twice a year in college), so although I’ve kept things relatively clean, I haven’t worried about keep things super organized.

Well, that all is going to change when I move into my house, and I decided to start getting ideas now. This is partially because waiting is hard, and also because moving will probably be fairly overwhelming (it usually is), so I’d like to get as much done ahead of time as I can.

 Now, I generally fold things haphazardly and toss them in a drawer with somewhat similar items, but I’ve decided that should probably stop if I’m going to be a motherfranking adult homeowner. I don’t like digging through heaps of semi-folded clothes, nor do I like the veritable junk drawer in my night table that seems to collect all of the odds and ends that don’t have a place when I initially move…and then never get removed.

My mom’s dresser drawers, conversely, always looked like they belonged in a Better Homes and Gardens catalog. And although I'll never be as good at cleaning and organizing as my mother, I'd like my drawers to at least be passable.

A common theme on the internet is the use of bins and baskets to organize stuff. I hope to implement some of these ideas in my new home, but bins and baskets cost money, and drawer organizers seem weirdly expensive. And, as we already established, my budget is, um, a bit strict. I saw that some people make these things out of cardboard boxes (i.e. cereal boxes) covered in wrapping paper, which I thought was a great idea. However, I’m not crafty and I didn’t want to spend ANY dollars on this project…so I just cut up an old (and large) tea box and made dividers for my socks & underwear drawer. And oh my gosh, it worked incredibly well! I also changed how I fold my socks (I actually folded them instead of balling them up) and arranged my bras in a way that WOULDN’T damage them…and a previously overflowing mess is now pretty!

I also cut up an old electronics box to organize my night table drawer, and although it’s not quite as pretty, it’s at least somewhat organized. Whoo!

Making the drawer dividers took about 10 minutes, and refolding all my clothes and stuff only took about an hour…and that was a distracted hour since I was simultaneously watching football. Of course, I’ll have to give it a few weeks to see if this organization actually LASTS…but I think it will; it should be fairly easy to maintain.

Although I was out of cardboard, I did re-do my workout clothes & tank top drawer and my jeans and dress pants drawers. It freed up a lot of space (believe it or not, all of these drawers were stuffed and overflowing before I did this), and made it so that I can actually SEE everything I own. I took folding tips from Melissa Maker, a cleaning guru on Youtube (search cleanmyspace to find her videos).

And the beauty of it all? When I move, I’ll move each drawer individually, without removing any of the contents…and the drawer dividers should keep everything arranged properly in transit. So organizing my dresser should just be one less thing to do when I actually get my house!

PS. My closing is on Thursday, so expect a Housing Part 4 post on Friday as I describe the process!