I'll be honest, I really don't like cleaning and housework. I'd much rather spend my time cooking or knitting or reading a good book. My house has dust, the windows are so fingerprinted and dirty that I do believe it acts as another protective layer against the sun's rays. If you visited (unexpectedly without prior notice) you'd most likely find that you could in fact eat off my floors (crumbs everywhere), or be treated to a free acupuncture session (step on a stray lego piece) or better yet...try your hand at the world's most challenging puzzle (walking through the maze of clutter in my home). Seriously, that's how I feel some days about the state of my house. I know in the scheme of everything, will it really matter? No. But it does help my sanity when the house is at least picked up and organized.
So for 2012, I've begun a tiny baby step: organize the kitchen drawer. You know the one. The catch-all one (Not to be confused with the other catch-all drawer from several years ago. Once again, that one needs organizing.) near the phone that holds the address book(s) which may or may not be up-to-date, business cards, pencils, pens and all kinds of odds and ends that you don't know what else to do with. Ours was overflowing to the point that I was having trouble closing it and papers would fall down behind it onto the shelf in the cabinet below. It was a mess!
I emptied it, threw out a whole slew of papers, changed my address books to something else (which I'll show you next week), and bought a Fohoja cutlery tray from Ikea to hold certain essentials. The small box on the left was a thrift store find that I bought for a quarter. It holds all the odds & ends that we don't know what they're for but don't want to throw out yet.
So now I have a place for pencils, tape, sticky notes, scissors and sharpies. There's still a little room in the back of the drawer for collected business cards (which I rubberbanded) and a copy of church's directory (only the most recent one).
Admittedly, this is only a little step forward in organization, but a big step for more clear thinking. While I was at it, I reorganized a few other kitchen drawers. Presently, I've got a nice pile of 'stuff' to give away or as the kids are urging me to do, add to our tag sale bags so that when springtime comes, we'll be ready. Don't know if I can wait that long... may have to make a trip over to the thrift store for dropping off de clutta...




