Drawer A Day 2016

Having returned from a trip on August 31, I wasn't ready to jump into Drawer-A-Day on September 1. I had to recover from traveling, go through a mountain of mail, process piles of laundry, get my circadian rhythm back, and deal with the reality that there would be no one waiting in my kitchen each morning who wanted to know exactly what I wanted in my omelet.

So that took until Monday, the 5^th, at which time I realized that the first “drawer” that needed attention was the bed in the guestroom where we had dropped our suitcases the night we got home. Officially, I don't really think unpacking suitcases counts as drawer-a-day fodder - it's sort of like getting credit for hanging up your coat after you've come home from the store. But clearly, progress in every other area would not be made until the suitcases were dealt with. Besides, having sat untouched for 5 days, the suitcases were becoming an institutional mess that made that room of the house look like the home of a hotshot hoarder. (See photo.) So, I spent the afternoon putting all the travel goods back in place – places that unfortunately revealed even more dysfunctional storage areas...but that's material for later in the month.

To atone for my late start, I decided that on Tuesday, the 6th I would confront the laundry room closet. To call my laundry room a “room” is a gross misnomer. It's really a small closet. A cruel builder decided it would be a good idea to put a closet within that closet. A narrow, deep and tall closet that ensures that only the last items you placed in there are ever accessible.

Maybe that explains why I had 3 half gallon containers of cleaning vinegar and 2 half gallon containers of amonia. I had a gallon jug of Windex, as well as 4 separate spray bottles of window cleaner. There were two party favors from my daughters bridal shower. (2012!) I found 2 spray bottles of Febreze. I remember buying one because my son was playing in bars and clubs where people smoked (how long ago was that???) and I wanted to get rid of the smell on my coat. But I realized that I hated the smell of Febreze even worse that the smell of stale cigarette smoke. So when and why did I get a 2^nd bottle?

I have cleaning supplies for all occasions and surfaces...marble cleaner, granite polish, leather soap, wood floor cleaners, jewelry solution, Spic N Span, vinyl siding spray. Having found and used all that stuff at one time, I could have created the world's cleanest house and, simultaneously, an ecological disaster.

There was an 18 gallon storage tub that was filled with supplies for washing cars – car wash liquid, wheel cleaning stuff, armour-all for the dashboard, car wax, compounding cleaner, special sponges and cloths, headlight lens cleaner, leather cleaner (our car seats are vinyl and microfiber) and so much more. If you've been in any of my cars anytime since about 2001, you know that I obviously am not washing my car on a regular basis so how did we (a) manage to accumulate the inventory of a Pep Boys franchise and (b) allow that behemoth of a storage tub take up such valuable real estate in that tiny closet?

It took all afternoon to sort it out. I combined duplicate containers (I only have one bottle of vinegar and one of amonia now!) and threw out stuff we'll never use, distributed the bottles of windex among our kitchen and bathrooms. I got the car cleaning stuff into one small plastic file box. I considered taking a trip to Target to buy baskets or boxes to organize everything but I stopped my self. The idea is to pare down and the collection of shoeboxes and cartons I have saved in the basement would work nicely to organize it all.

So... closet conquered! I think that's a pretty good start.  

2014!

Drawer A Day 2014!

Sept. 1

I decided to start small. I have a china closet in my dining room that has three shallow drawers at the base. They are stuffed with anything that has been designated keepable but uncategorizable. My attack on the first one yielded a small delft jar, three pewter Jefferson cups, a little package of those umbrellas you put in festive drinks, assorted cocktail napkins, a few crocheted doilies and a mysterious box labeled with Japanese characters.

One of the Jefferson cups is a trophy, awarded to me for raising funds for a charity. The other two, and the little umbrellas stymie me. When did I ever think I was going to make drinks that required Jefferson cups and/or umbrellas?

The Japanese box contained a bunch of buttons and political memorabilia that include a card promoting the re-election of State Senator Tex Barton, (who???) a button celebrating Gino Marchetti and Bill Pellington  (who?) Day at Memorial Stadium in 1964, a button acquired at the October, 1967 anti-Vietnam war March on Washington, a few plastic coins that indicate that Louis Goldstein wants God to bless me "real good," and a glass paperweight commemorating the inauguration of Delaware Governor Ruth Ann Minner (again… who???!) in 2001. Oddly enough, the paperweight came from my son who had to very reluctantly don a tuxedo to attend her inaugural ball. (It’s a long story and anyone who has seen my son knows that this was not a place he wanted to be.) My favorite is a membership card my husband received in the mail, showing that he is a card-carrying member of the GOP…which he is definitely not.

If I truly want to live the simple life, I should toss ALL of this away. There’s nothing that I need, or even particularly want in that whole drawer. But I didn’t. I rearranged it all neatly, and put it back in the drawer. I don’t know why but I didn’t want to throw it away. I need to justify this. It would be helpful if sometime in the next few months, you would invite yourself over for mint juleps and ask if you can see my collection of political memorabilia.

Sept. 2

Second small drawer in china cabinet. More paper umbrellas for the drinks. If you invite yourself over for mint juleps, bring a friend!

Sept.3

Third and last drawer in the china cabinet. I have a set of 6 steak knives. Who knew? They’re dull but maybe you could poke a steak apart with them.

Sept. 4
Woo-hoo! I organized a large file on my computer and disposed of 200+ documents in the file. I can now actually find the things that I need in this folder.

Need space?

My daughter claims that during Drawer a Day season, I have Purple Heart here to do a pickup once a week.  This is not true.  I have only had them twice so far this year.  But I recently found myself with some items too big and ugly for donation.  Let's face it, no one wants old mattresses, broken yard equipment, etc.  And I don't have a truck to take stuff to the dump.

This is not a paid advertisement, but I did just have the nicest interaction with two handsome young men from 1-800 Got Junk.  I set up the appointment online, they called before they came, and they carried my stuff out without hurting my back.  Of course there was a charge, but I was very pleased with the service so it didn't seem too bad.  They recycle what they can, so they probably make money on both ends, but I'm good with that.

They get my stuff, I get my space.  Seemed like a good trade to me.

Same Drawer - Every Day

When Sheila explained the Drawer-A-Day concept to me last year, I got it right away. Sheila defined "drawer" as any space where one might store things...an actual drawer, a shelf, a basket, a barrel or a bin. But here's my dilemma...my desk.
The top of my desk is constantly covered with work that needs to be done right away, work that should have been done yesterday, work that should be done sometime soon, work that I don't feel like doing, work that I don't know how to do, and work that I refuse to do. That means that I have a daily opportunity to clear off my desk. My attempts to do that have been futile. I can power through the jobs that have to be done and clear out that debris. I can throw away the jobs I refuse to do and gain some space there. But all those other categories are still hanging out there.

That red thing?...a Christmas stocking. How am I supposed to keep things organized when people are mailing me Christmas stockings in August? I've given thought to how to sort it with "in" boxes, file folders and other organizing gizmos but I can't seem to make them work. So my strategy is to clear off one side of the desk, make a pile of work on the other side and step back and admire the side that is clear. It works well as long as I don't look to my left.
So here's the question: Is a desktop a drawer?

You know the Drill

I like a lot of things about September.  One of them is the start of Drawer a Day season.  Getting a bit more organized won't help me lose weight, clear up my skin or improve my finances, but it makes me feel I can control something.  

This year, September began on Labor Day weekend at the beach, so I tackled a cabinet there.  I am overly proud of myself for having installed a Rev-A-Shelf two-tier drawer thingy in an otherwise somewhat useless box of a cabinet.  This required me to operate a drill.  

This is a drill

Jim owns a drill, but being Jim, he keeps the pieces of the drill in several different places, so step one was to find them.  Step two was to charge the drill.  Step three was to take my picture with said drill.  

I started with this:  

and this:

And ended with this.  Note my intentional installation off-center to allow room for items on the side. 

Now that I have mastered the drill, I can take this show on the road.  Happy September!

Intervention

We all have our weaknesses.

She says she's cleaning a drawer a day, but I think my mom has been carefully--even strategically--avoiding one particular drawer. Drumroll, please...

The Tupperware drawer.

I was unassumingly emptying the dishwasher last week when I stumbled upon an entire sleeve of Chinese food containers.

My immediate reaction? "Oh my god, count those so we can put it on the blog."

The Vidmar household was hoarding not one, not 12, not 25, but THIRTY THREE hot-and-sour soup containers. (In their defense, every dish on the Chinese food menu comes in one of these containers, so you only have to order Chinese food a few times to start accumulating them. But still--you don't need to KEEP them ALL!) I encouraged my mom to get rid of them, and she became distressed.

"But, what will I do? Where will I put my stuff? I hate to think of them just being recycled!"

Okay, so you can keep three and we're giving the rest to your BFFs at Purple Heart.

This solution proved acceptable, since Purple Heart is scheduled to come to our house every Monday from now until the end of time. Don't worry, they still have two dozen other Tupperware containers of various sizes and shapes...plenty of places to "put their stuff." The Vidmars have now parted ways with 30 hot-and-sour soup containers...along with two large trash bags full of random stuff that was in my closet. Like I said, we all have our weaknesses. Sometimes you just have to stage an intervention.

My Nightmare

I have decided to tackle my nightmare.

Handsome Husband was a news reporter for one year after college.  He fancied himself a photographer as well.  He takes a lot of pictures.   If one picture of a child engaged in some worthy activity is good, then 50 taken that day will be better.  And in the days of film, he always ordered duplicates of the whole rolls.  Too much trouble to pick out the good pics and go back for duplicates to send out to friends and relatives.

This cabinet (it's very deep) contains only a few years worth of photos.  Perhaps you can tell that they are in no order.  Many times over the years, people have gone through them to look for something, pulled everything out of envelopes, and left big piles of unrelated photos swirling around in the cabinet.  I have made previous attempts to do something with this mess, but I have been hampered by

1.  HH's absolute refusal to allow any photo, no matter how bad, to be thrown away;
2.  My own inability to identify the subjects of many photos, thus, I can't really organize them and don't want them in a book;
3.  My own laziness;
4.   Every school project, funeral, etc., which requires going through the photos, leaves me with a big pile of unidentified pictures spanning an entire generation.
5.  No one else seems to care.
6.  The door of the cabinet will still close.

In previous attempts, I have labeled the envelopes with a year and some general description.  I have also labeled the boxes by year.  None of this helps.

I should mention that the friends and relatives, who were happy to receive pics over the years, have begun to clean up their own lives.  Some of these people have decided to send the pictures back to us rather than throw them away.  (!!??!!)  I know they mean well.  But do not allow this strategy to take hold in your family.

And what do you do with the negatives?

Before you decide that the age of digital photos is better, you should see my computer files.  Same problem.  And HH will not even allow the photos to be deleted from the SD cards after they are put on the computer.  So we have a collection of memory cards as well.

Now you see why I call it a nightmare.