Mission #7: COMPLETE!

I'm more than a little proud of finishing this mission. It's not just a matter of my nightstand now being clean; it's that it barely looks like its former self.

The top of my nightstand now just has the essentials - my alarm clock, remote controls, tissues, water cup, lotion, and a lamp. That's it. And the only reason that the lotion gets to be on top is that not only am I disorganized, I am cheap. I buy lotion in ridiculously large containers at Costco, and the over-sized pump doesn't fit in the drawer. (and yes, if you are fan of Cetaphil, you too can own a vat of the stuff from Costco for the same price as a small tube at the grocery store. You're welcome.)

Inside the drawer are just the essentials - the medications and vitamins that I take every day, Tylenol PM, nail clippers, fancy hand cream, and the like. I got rid of all of the nail polish that was living in there, along with a slew of expired medicine and questionably old lotion. A surprising find in the drawer were buttons. Lots and lots of buttons. All of the extra buttons that come attached to a new shirt had somehow found their way into my drawer. I don't know why. Since I apparently throw them in my drawer anyways, I felt like they should probably live there permanently. I took a small candle holder, put it in the corner of the drawer, and filled it up. I know the picture isn't the best (by the way, if anyone knows how to reset the settings on a camera, please let me know - I apparently have set my camera to make all indoor pictures fuzzy, and I can't get it back), but you get the idea. It's a pretty simple fix, especially considering that the candle holder probably cost less then a dollar (buy a 4 pack at Ikea & put candles in the other 3!). And if I ever really do need a button, I'll know where they are. (you can see lots of other great tips over at We Are THAT Family's Works for Me Wednesday post)

Mission #7: Nightstand

Oh, the nighstand. Holder of alarm clock and remote controls; hider of all sorts of personal junk. I wish I was one of those people who had a tidy nightstand. You know those people - the top of it has their alarm clock, their remote control, maybe a box of tissues. Inside they hold their hand cream, some vitamins, maybe some other personal items. But not me. My nightstand is essentially a junk drawer for my bedroom. Some stuff in there is necessary - I take a few medications at night, so it holds those, plus vitamins & Tylenol PM (I could write an ode to Tylenol PM...oh, how I adore you...). And I suppose that the nail clippers and lip balm are necessary too. But the expired medications & old nail polish? Probably not. So this mission is simple - clean it out & organize it so I can get to what I need and let go of what I don't. Let's just hope that it goes more smoothly (and more quickly) then my desk. :)

Mission #3 Complete!

Mission #3 is completed, and, quite frankly, not a moment too soon. I can't believe how good it feels to walk into my bedroom and see six closed dresser drawers. Yes, for a normal person, this always happens. But for me, my drawers were all stuffed and overflowing so they couldn't be closed (Don't believe me? Check out my before pics.). I had no idea that this was a big deal until they were all closed. That, and the fact that I probably have shown my husband my neatly organized drawers about twelve times today (that will teach him to work from home on a Wednesday). So what that he isn't impressed - I'M excited.

A couple of the drawers were easy - the pajama drawer was fine (and the only one that closed), and once I weeded out the older bras (ladies - if the underwire pokes you, throw it away), that one looked good too. My t-shirt drawer didn't need any weeding - it just needed to have some of the shirts re-folded and put back neatly. The other drawers were more of a challenge.

As I wrote before, I only work out of the house a few days a week, so short sleeve shirts are a staple of my wardrobe. I have a drawer that just has short sleeve shirts (and my tshirts - anything with print on it, like Red Sox shirts, W&M shirts, souvenir shirts, etc. - have a drawer of their own), and it was overstuffed. I ended up pulling out an entire bag of shirts to be donated to our local thrift store - some that don't fit right, others that are just not my style any more, and one that would look great on an 18 year old...I am 33. And I threw away a couple of favorites away that were just too worn out to wear anymore (a side note: please do not donate clothing that you don't wear anymore because it is worn out - donate the stuff that would look good on someone other than you).

The drawer with the exercise/sports clothes was also crazy. I couldn't figure out why I never had space for my sports stuff - turns out it's because all of my old sorority shirts were at the bottom of the drawer. I don't know why. I can't even make up a reason. So they are all neatly put in the back of my closet, waiting to be made into a memory quilt, and there is plenty of space for the exercise stuff I wear. And once I weeded out my pajama pant collection, that drawer was easy to close.

So, what am I left with? A super organized dresser with drawers that close, two bags of clothes to donate to the thrift store, and a serious feeling of accomplishment.

I *MAY* Have a Problem

You know how most women are addicted to shoes? Well, I am addicted to pajama pants. Yes, you read that right. Pajama pants. I consider it a victory when I walk into Target and walk out without a new pair. I have a serious problem. I'm really lucky that my husband puts up with my addiction. The first few years we lived together I got up and went to work before he got up, and by the time he got home I was already in my tshirt and pjs for the night. I was convinced that he didn't know that I actually had work clothes. Now that I don't work full-time it's even worse. So I shouldn't have been but so surprised to pull out nearly 30 pairs of pajama pants today. No wonder I couldn't put the clean ones away - the drawer was already stuffed to the gills.

The shirts weren't quite as bad, but that is clearly a relative term. Yes, that is a Flip Fold in the picture. I am not one to buy things that I see on infomercials, but I am the proud owner of two "As Seen on TV" items that I adore - the ShamWow and my Flip Fold. I bought it at Target years ago, and it may have been the best $15 I have ever spent. I love that my shirts are all folded so neatly into nice little squares that fit perfectly into my drawers. I'm also not one for pushing a product, but if you see one of these, you should totally buy it. :) Anyways, there were a lot of shirts in my drawer that I could get rid of...I decided earlier this year that I am done buying the cheap shirts from Old Navy, since they are super cute but show wear so much faster than the nicer ones from Ann Taylor. So I sorted out all of those, plus a few that I never wear (could someone explain to me why I owned TWO shirts with horizontal stripes?). This is also the point that I wish I could call Tim Gunn. How many shirts should one person own? Seriously. I wear plain short sleeve shirts all the time - a huge joy of doing mostly freelance work - how many do I really need? For now I've gone with the number that I can reasonably fit in one drawer...but perhaps I need to expand.

Two drawers done, four more to go...

Mission #3: Dresser Drawers

Organizing my dresser drawers was not my plan for this week. Yes, it was on my list of things to do soon, but not right away - I figured it could wait, since no one but me and my husband see our bedroom. (In case you couldn't figure it out, I am one of those people who never lets anyone off of the first floor in our house, and certainly not upstairs - that's where I hide all of the clutter!) But life has a funny way of intervening - I folded my laundry last night, and when I went to put it away I realized that my dresser had gotten so bad that I couldn't. That's right - I couldn't physically put my shirts away. More than a little depressing. For a few minutes I thought that I could just live with having the rest of my clothes live in my laundry basket - I mean, they're all folded - how different is a stack in a basket from a stack in a drawer, right? But as I looked at my poor overstuffed drawers, I knew what I had to do. Mission #3 - dresser drawers.
Now that you've seen what I'm talking about, you know why. My goal is not just to organize everything, but to make it so my drawers can close. I have a feeling that this means I will have to get rid of some things, but that's ok. Those shirts at the bottom of the drawer never get worn anyways.

The plan is (relatively) simple for this mission:

1. Determine what goes in each drawer. I've already done this - believe it or not, the clothes that are stuffed into drawers are actually stuffed into specific drawers. I've organized mine based on what I own - 1) underwear/socks, 2) pajamas, 3) tshirts, 4) short sleeve/polo shirts, 5) exercise/sports clothes, 6) shorts/pajama pants.
2. Within each drawer, go through clothes and sort into stacks - items I wear all the time, items I sometimes wear, and items I never wear. Items I never wear go immediately into the donation box. Items I always wear go back in the drawer. Items in the middle pile get tried on and narrowed down to a number that fits in the drawer.
3. Fold the "keepers" neatly and put them back in the drawers.

And, of course, the last step is the same as always - pat self on back and pretend the "before" picture never existed. :)