Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed when you think about cleaning and organizing?
Sure, there might be some initial excitement to getting things in order, but when you actually look at the scope of a project, you might feel discouraged, buried, or paralyzed by all you want to accomplish. And then when you do get started, it can be so easy to get distracted by the smaller tasks that seem to pop up along the way.
Today we’re going to help you out.
We’re going to start simply–with just one drawer…cleaned in one sitting.
I want you to feel EXCITED about this drawer. (I know it sounds crazy, but stick with me!)
Because this is actually not just about cleaning “a drawer”. It’s about seeing how this small effort is going to help you move forward in other areas of your life.
So get your drawer-organizing fingertips ready because we’re going to show you how to get it done WHILE you’re listening to this podcast. You can either pause where needed or listen to the whole thing first and then jump in and implement the ideas you learn – although I’d recommend skimming through the steps below, to see the big picture before getting started!
Let’s dive in.
Before you get started, choose your drawer (or most-often-used hot spot) and get these tools ready:
- Trash can
- A designated place to put things to donate
- A designated place to put things that go “somewhere else” in the home or office
- A Context-Based Next Actions list (with sections titled as follows: home, phone, computer, to discuss, and errands). I’ve included one in the “Clean-A-Drawer” printable. You can learn how to use the Context-Based Next Actions list more fully in the podcast and our free webinar.
Click the image below to receive the Clean-A-Drawer printable!
Step 1: Empty the Drawer
Take everything out of the drawer–without getting distracted. Just make a big pile.
Step 2: Clean the Drawer
Wash out any crumbs or dust and then dry it. Don’t stress if you don’t have shelf paper or if you see a stain. If you can polish this up in two minutes, great, but otherwise, don’t worry about it!
Step 3: Identify the Drawer’s Purpose
Before you put anything back, ask yourself this KEY question: “What do I come to this drawer to find?” Try to answer that without looking at the piles. Just think about what you hope to locate when you go to open it. For example, one of our kitchen cupboards is where I go for a screwdriver, batteries, bandages, my camera, coins, and the place cards for our table. When cleaning that cupboard, I found random things that were definitely not “supposed” to be in there, like orthodontic supplies, an old digital frame, speakers we never use, and a random basket. Identifying the purpose of this drawer will help you in the next step. 🙂
Step 4: Put the Right Things Back
I know it sounds ridiculously simply, but at this point, you just put those things you DO hope to find BACK in a nice, organized way. This is also a good time to note what the drawer needs. What do you go to this drawer to find that is not currently there? If you can grab what is needed from around the house in 2 minutes or less, do it now. Otherwise, use your Context-Based Next Actions list to write down what you need to buy (errand or computer order), gather (home task), or get back from a family member who misplaced it (to discuss).
Step 5: Sort Through the Pile
Go through each item that is left in the pile. There are only three options for where they will go: the trash, the donation spot, or the place for things that go “somewhere else.” If you do decide something from that pile really does belong in the drawer, that’s fine, but make those decisions CAREFULLY. The last thing you want is to shove everything back into the drawer and end up where you started.
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- Do I actually use this?
- Can I bless other people with this?
And always – “If in doubt throw it out!” (Or donate/recycle.) For more ideas, check out the links at the bottom of this post
Step 6: Add Tasks to Your Context-Based Next Actions List
Often, ideas come to mind as you are cleaning that may not be linked to the actual drawer-cleaning process. If that happens, add it to your Context-Based Next Actions list. This can be done anytime in the process. For example: I need new batteries (errands), we need more photos on this digital frame (computer), someone needs to sharpen all these pencils (home), I should buy organizers for the drawer (errand).
Step 7: Identify Routines to Help you Maintain Order
This is the step that most people skip, but this is one that will help you maintain order. Identify the routines that you’ll need to have in place to keep your drawer organized and tidy moving forward. A conversation with your children might sound like this: “These markers don’t go in the drawer. They go in the art cupboard…” Or, “When you use the scissors to cut open a package, don’t leave the package remnant you cut off in the drawer…. Put it in the wastebasket.” (This would be a great time to start a training session for your family. Then after the initial training, set a calendar trigger to remind you to follow up with the family to see how it’s going!)
Why does this matter? Isn’t this just a drawer?
The principles we are using to clean out a drawer are simple, but they carry over to other areas of our lives. Whether we are organizing drawers, maintaining order in our homes, or handling projects at work, we are establishing patterns to follow. If you are living in piles (mental, physical or digital), there is a path to get out! Yes, it takes effort, but you’ll feel a sense of progress and momentum that will keep you going day after day. We simply encourage you to start today–with just one drawer.
LearnDoBecome Challenge:
If you want to clean out a drawer and share your results, we’d love it! Email us at [email protected], or post your pictures to our Facebook post and then share with your friends! What are some of the unexpected things you found in your drawer? Share your experience in the comments below!
The “Clean-A-Drawer” Printable:
This resource has 2 pages that will be helpful to you, as you clean out your drawers:
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- Page 1: Family Training Sheet – Use this page to teach your family the seven-step method to cleaning the drawers in your home.
- Page 2: Context-Based Next Actions List – Use this page to record any next actions that come to mind (related or not!) as you are cleaning out your drawer.
Click the image below to receive the Clean-A-Drawer printable!
Helpful Resources:
Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing
My FAVORITE decluttering book, “It’s Here…Somewhere” by Alice Fulton-Osborne & Pauline Hatch
The podcast I recorded with Julie Morgenstern, “Secrets for What to Do When You Want to Keep EVERYTHING.” In this heart-to-heart interview, Julie gave some break-through ideas on how to answer the often-asked question, “How do you know what to keep and what to throw away?”
Want to clear ALL the piles in your life?
This was a great article but I wish more information was shared about the actual dividers that are being used to keep everything organized in the drawer.
We’re so glad you found us & that you enjoyed the article! Thanks for taking time to comment! The dividers can be found almost anywhere they sell organizing supplies. Send us a message at [email protected] if you’d like to know more specific details. Have a great day!
Thank you, April! What a refreshing microburst! I thought I had pretty much established order in my kitchen, but when you asked us to identify a drawer, I realized ther was one I hadn’t thought much about. So I took a break from my other work and only took 16 minutes (20 including putting away the things that belonged elsewhere) to go from what looked like a rat’s nest, to order, and Now I have room to spare for things I needed to have there, but had long ago given up putting in there!
How do I get to emptying your emails? I 42000. Help!
Hi Mariellen! Thanks for your interest in the email to zero challenge. I’ll send you the link via email. 🙂
I would appreciate the email to zero challenge link as well! Thank you for this podcast about organizing a drawer….very helpful!
Carol, I’ll send it right over! Thanks for reaching out to us. Have a great day!
Would you send it to me too?
Of course! I’ll include the link to our post about it here as well: https://learndobecome.com/emails-to-zero-in-90-minutes-or-less/. Thanks for being part of our community!
I would also like the email to zero info please.
Leslie, I sent the link by email. I’ll include the link to our post about it here as well: https://learndobecome.com/emails-to-zero-in-90-minutes-or-less/. Thanks for being part of our community!
Once the items were out of my drawer, it was so much easier to part with them. I’ve had hundreds of paper clips floating around for years, but once they were all in a cardboard box, I thought, “I’m never going to need all of these, and I hate the plastic ones, anyway!” Coins went into a coin jar for donations, I threw away all of my old scratched sunglasses, and keepsakes went to special places where they can be enjoyed so they don’t get lost or damaged. Now that the drawer is clean, I see that I actually have three rolls of tape because I keep buying more when I can’t find it. I’m embarrassed about accusing my kids of not putting it back! Best of all, your cheerful narrative kept me company while I did something I had been dreading for a long time. Thank you, April!
Yay!! So awesome, Ann!! Thanks for the update! 🙂
Thank you SO Much for this podcast! Just listened while getting ready for work. I know exactly which drawer/space I’m going to tackle when I get home this evening, and am energized about the possibilities awaiting for me! 🙂
This made my day, Bev! So glad you’re with us!
April thank you so much for this awesome podcast! I cleaned the drawer while I listened, I made my next actions list, and put back only what belongs in that drawer. I really needed this ‘muscle memory’ challenge to really get it, and to know how to handle the next drawer without feeling overwhelmed. I hope you offer more of these types of challenges in the future. This was excellent!
So glad this was helpful to you!! It’s fun to see what a difference a clean drawer makes. Enjoy–and keep practicing! 🙂
Thanks, April! I loved this challenge as well. The idea of writing down everything you go to this drawer for and ONLY keeping those items there, is so simple, but a great shift for me when I organize. It makes me realize that there are a lot of things that take up space in a drawer that I will never use, because I don’t look for those items EVER. It makes it much easier to let go of them.
This was an AMAZING STEP-BY-STEP on HOW to declutter!! I’m so glad you have broken it down to such simple actions that anyone can follow. Now, I am excited to tackle my kitchen drawer today (something I have been intimidated to do and have procrastinated in doing for the past year). You have taken all of the guesswork out of it and I now know exactly how to do it! I am also going to have my 14-year-old son listen to this podcast when he gets home today. Now he can get instructed in the art of decluttering as well!! THANK YOU APRIL!!!!!!!!
SO happy it was helpful! Take pictures and send them to us! 🙂 It’s fun to do this with kids, and usually they are surprisingly good at it. xoxox
We are painting the master bath and everything is out and about. I took the opportunity to empty the sink base cabinets and drawers, clean them, following your instructions and make my lists. Now when painting is finished so will our bathroom organizing. Thanks for motivating and guiding April.
Cheryl
What a great tutorial! I love that it is a very practical step-by-step breakdown of how to do this task. There is one change I would make based on what I know about myself. I would move Step 3 (Identify the purpose) to the very first one.
Thinking about why I would look in the drawer and what I would go there to find BEFORE I open the drawer and get distracted by what is in there would probably be a good idea. Once I’ve opened it and taken everything out, it would be easy for me to start thinking that the items that are actually IN THERE are what should be there–it might color my thinking a bit.
Thanks! I’m off to clean a drawer out…
Thank you for you wonderful podcost. Listening to this makes so much sense and is so simple. I do have a question. What about the person (me) who buys 2 or 4 or 10 of everything. How do I learn to let go of perfectly good mostly new things ? For example, I don’t buy 1 notepad I buy 5 if the price is right. Same with towels etc. I really have a hard time letting go of things that are brand new, even though I don’t have the space for them. It is ruinng my life.
So glad this was helpful, Laurie! And a GREAT question. You are not alone. Whether it is a ton of awesome projects or piles of brand new products, it is SO hard to remove the GOOD from our lives. Part of it is learning how to stop the flow into our homes. Buying just what we need—even if the price is right. Sometimes bulk is good, but only if we have room. But you hit the nail on the head. All the good, when compounded together, can often ruin our lives. It’s giving up what we LIKE for what we want MOST. The podcast with Julie Morgenstern I recorded might be helpful. If you can explain to yourself that you are giving these items to someone else so you can create and protect space for your growth, that will be a huge step in the right direction. I will share this on Instagram to see if we get more good advice!
April
Thank you for validating me and my feelings and how you described feeling inadequate in life…..and I am a retired registered nurse after 45 yrs and at 67 yrs old, I finally feel peace that there is not something wrong w me but I just wasn’t taught about organizing especially something as little as a drawer (which I did do a kitchen drawer that is on my “Projects List” )
but this drawer has been bugging me the entire 3.5 yrs in my apt and during this podcast I completed that drawer and the funny thing was I did not get rid of hardly anything but it is organized and I can get things immediately now when I am cooking.
Thank you for your program.
Karen
That’s so exciting, Karen! It’s amazing how much it helps to find the purpose and create organization so that it works for you rather than against you. Congratulations on your retirement! We’re thrilled to have you with us and we look forward to hearing your success stories!
Thank you for this!! Would you also send the info on getting emails to zero.
Roxanne, I’ve just sent the link by email. 🙂 Check this post for more info as well, https://learndobecome.com/emails-to-zero-in-90-minutes-or-less/. Enjoy!
I clicked on the images but it does not send me to the link to download the file.
Thank you for a great podcast!
Cristina, thanks for letting us know! We’ll look into what’s happening and in the meantime, we’ve sent the file to you manually. 🙂 Enjoy and thanks for being with us!
So maybe I am missing an important step. I am having immense anxiety of my “somewhere else” pile. A pile of things that mostly have nothing to do with one another, and apparently no permanent home. What is the best method to actually tackle that and not just keep it hanging on a hook (out of sight, out of mind) for a year or more – lol!!!
Angela, this is such a great question! You’ll want to ask yourself if each of the items in this “somewhere else” pile are things that you want or need to keep. If you decide you do want to keep them then the next step is to find or create a “home” for them. Of course this could domino into another project, but that’s ok! This is how you find that peace and organization that you’re looking for. 🙂
If you’re a STEP Mastery member, be sure to join the Facebook group and you can ask this question there as well. The members there are so supportive and helpful, and they have great ideas on how to move through that anxiety that you’ve mentioned. We’re so glad you’re here!
I found this while on holidays (it’s summer here in Australia) and so sorted my handbag (is that what you call it in the USA? I carry my purse,
keys, etc in it when I go out) instead of a drawer. I’ll tackle one of them when I get home next week.
Same principles for my handbag just not anything to donate, apart from mini encouragement cards that stay in there to give to people. 😊
Larissa, I love that you applied these principles to your purse/handbag! (We use both terms in the USA 🙂 We’re so glad you’re here!
Can/would you make another Next Actions List for us to print without “work” on it?
Hi, Lori! As a member of the STEP program, you have access to additional formats for the Next Actions List in the STEP Library. There have also been several variations shared in the STEP Mastery Facebook group. We’d love to have you join us there if you’re not yet a member. The members there are so supportive and helpful!
I just saw a YouTube video that says to ask “What is this item’s purpose?” (from A Charming Abode), which is a really good question! the purpose could be to spark a memory, to feel good. But, for me, no skillet or pot can spark ANY joy, but it has a purpose!
Just a thought.
Andrea, this is a great question to add to the thought process. Thanks so much for sharing it with us. We’re so glad you’re here!
May I have the link to the help to get my a mail down to zero 😲
Thank YOU.
Tiet
Of course! We have tools and super simple steps to get emails to zero- and more… check out http://learndobecome.com/inbox-zero to sign up for our emails to zero training!