Organizing and Decluttering...

I have been busy organizing closets, dresser drawers, kitchen and hutch cabinets, armoire, basement, garage for weeks (actually months). For some reason because all my cluter and chaos was hidden behind a closed 'door' I considered myself organized...wrong! Even though it has been a lot of work it is all worth it...just the feeling of calmness that you get when you are in need of an item and realize you know where it is.

I am not sure how it is that I have gone six years with two drawers of kitchen utensils strewn everywhere. I thought about buying the proper organizing tools when the Oprah show has the Container Store coupon back in November/December...but no...in my 'older as I get, the more I procrastinate' mode I didn't get there. Instead I waited until this week to go to the Container Store and pay full price. And I may not have even done that if my friend Kathy hadn't recently gone and showed me the clever dividers she purchased for her drawers. Here is the before shot of one of the drawers.

By the way for those that read my earlier post about cleaning, I actually have 9 corkscrews not 5 and had 2 staple guns not 1 (which means I now have 3 staple guns since I begged Santa for 1 because I couldn't find the one I thought I had) as I previously noted. Planning to donate the tools that haven't ever been used (and 4 of my corkscrews) and the tools that I don't even know what they are to be used for, moved other tools to other drawers and now the drawer looks like this.

When I was at the Container Store I found the following containers for round or square crackers. I have found it a challenge to keep crackers fresh once you open a pack, even if you put them in a zip lock bag. I am not sure about these containers as the instructions state that 'your crackers are to be in their original package'...well if I had the original packaging or it wasn't ripped, then I wouldn't need this container. Also, the containers come with these little packets that are to be used to help keep the crackers fresh...so that tells me that once they are gone, I will have to spend money on more packets...supposedly there is a two year supply.

My friend Melinda and I went to LeAnntiques (leanntiques.com) in December and I spotted a great toolbox. It has been on my mind ever since. On this past Saturday I called LeAnn and asked if it was still there and it was...now the question was...would it fit in my armoire? It was 3 feet long, 14 inches deep and 9 inches high. Good news it would fit. Got in my car and snapped it up. I had two plastic containers that were holding my various tools (screwdrivers, pliers, nails, hammers, staple guns, etc.) and it was driving me crazy as they were a mess and certainly don't fit my look.

I took the items out of the plastic containers below and from other places around the house, and reorganized them using the toolbox. The plastic containers will now make their way to garage to hold miscellaneous tools.

Check out the toolbox now. It may not look organized based on the view...but it is.

Even used the space where a saw would have been placed.

It fits perfectly in the armoire, matches the wood color, and looks better than the plastic containers. Now I am going to go on the hunt for cheap, colorful containers for the screwdrivers, nails etc. so I can get rid of the various containers (cans, jars, gladware, egg cartons) currently being used.

And the best part...I can close the doors and not see the toolbox, but yet it is at my fingertips. I may gain weight though now that I won't have to run up and down three floors, to the basement and the garage to find something.

Stop by Thrifty Decor Chick's websites and see what others are using for organizing...