My New Blog

Wow--

Back to school time already!  I definitely believe that time quickens as you get older!  Summer is quickly drawing to a close as moms begin to smile and children begin to complain.  Back to school time is a great time to clean out those closets and drawers of unneeded items.  My mother always told me if you are not using it, there is someone in need out there who could use it.  She would always tell us that her grandmother taught her that and it was a way to give to those who are in need.  She is the ultimate "tosser" and Deseret Industries is the benefactor. 

As a child I recall clothes mysteriously disappearing from my room.  I usually could find them down in a bag in the storage room.  My mother figured if I didn't miss them after a few months, she could safely get rid of them and I wouldn't notice.  Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.  Either way my closet was never packed full of items I didn't use. 

I "encouraged" my daughter to go through her room last week when I dumped out all of her drawers and boxed up everything she owned and painted her furniture.  It took her two days to put everything back together, but she got rid of four bags of items!  She actually enjoyed going through everything and dejunking.  Her room looks a thousand times better!  She told me she feels more organized and ready to tackle her sophomore year in high school.  I felt a little guilty and a little nervous as I dumped everything out, but in the end it was a good thing in more ways than one.

Here is a system I use when dejunking:

1.  Label four boxes.  1.  Keep at current location (I use this and this is the proper place for it!)  2.  Move to proper location (So that's where that pair of earrings was hiding!)  3.  Donate to charity (still in good shape but I haven't touched it for 6 months or longer  4. Toss (not in good shape, don't need, of no worth to anyone)

2.  Dump out one drawer and separate into the four boxes listed above.

3.  Return keeper items to the drawer they were pulled from.  Move the items that were in the wrong place to the right place, bag up the charity items and take to the charity of your choice (MS Society will pick them up, DI is convenient for getting rid of the items quickly as you drop them off yourself.) and take out the trash.

4.  Repeat on another drawer.

You can then move on to a cupboard or closet.  Drawers can be reorganized quickly and without a huge mess.  Closets, however, can take much longer and so you need to plan part of a Saturday to tackle one of them.  I find it always looks worse before it gets better, but it does get much, much better!

Organization will energize you and decrease the amount of time it takes to clean--wow will you feel better!  Let me know how it goes and good luck!

Andrea Cahoon, CRS, TCRES