In my last post, I talked about some big things. Simplifying my life has meant recently quitting my job in order to keep my priorities straight.
But simplifying doesn’t have to be about big things. Little wins are really important when you are trying to change your life. Today we are going to do a little thing that can have enormous advantages: we’re going to simplify the junk drawer!
Why this? How can it make such a big difference?
Well, the junk drawer is a great starting point for simplifying, because….stay with me here….it’s full of junk! There’s usually nothing there that takes a lot of thought or big decision making. And when you are able to simplify a little area like this, it gives you the motivation to keep going to bigger things.
Just think: after today, you’re going to have one little spot in your home that is simplified and organized. It might be the only spot, and that’s totally okay. What we are trying to do is learn the skills that will carry us through to bigger and better simplifying tasks. When you get bogged down, you’ll be able to open up that junk drawer and see that you can absolutely do it–you can make the choices that align with your priorities and let everything else go.
Here’s the story of my junk drawer. Darryl and I have been building a house for the last two years, and we finally got moved in on January 1 of this year. As we were building (we did a lot of the work ourselves, especially during the final stages) we spent a lot of time in the house and constantly brought things over that we would need as we worked. We picked a drawer and kept things there so they wouldn’t get dusty or dirty, and over the months we accumulated an eclectic assortment of items. Then, when we finally got moved in, it seemed easiest to just add to the junk. It became the place that we put anything that didn’t have an actual home. Sound familiar?
So today, I took 15 minutes and cleaned out my junk drawer. And you know what? It made me feel good! It seemed like such a small thing, but it really made a difference in how I felt about my house and my simplifying journey.
In the interest of honesty, here’s a picture of my actual junk drawer this morning. It has not been retouched in any way, nor did I stock it on purpose to make it look worse than it really is. This is real life, people!
I gathered my supplies to do the job. I had a garbage bag, for (obviously) garbage. I also had a box for anything I found that didn’t belong in the junk drawer but did need to be kept. I’ll throw it in the box and then put it in the right place at the end. I also had some little baskets from the dollar store; I’ve been keeping them for just such a project. I usually don’t recommend keeping a whole bunch of organizing supplies, because 1) they take up space and don’t accomplish anything lying around, and 2) they can make you feel guilty every time you look at them, knowing they could be helping you but instead are just in storage or creating clutter. In this case, because we have recently moved, I had supplies from my last house that I knew I would use to organize my new home, and I also gave myself a deadline to “use them or lose them.” We’ll talk about that in a future post!
Now, before I actually started with the task at hand, I needed to stop and think for a minute. Remember, simplifying, whether in big ways or small, consists of three steps: Make choices, Set priorities, and Let go. So I started by deciding the priorities. What do I want my junk drawer to accomplish? What things are important to keep there, and what things should go elsewhere? If you are going to do your junk drawer, I suggest you start the same way.
I’m a big proponent of keeping things where you use them. I would be willing to bet that most of us have our junk drawer in the kitchen, and there are definitely things in the drawer that are used in that room. On the other hand, there may be things there that you are storing in the drawer simply because you can’t think of where else to keep them, or you threw them there temporarily and never changed it, or you grew up with that item in the junk drawer and so that’s where you keep it too.
But let’s actually decide what needs to be there. Let’s make choices about the things we find. And then, let’s let everything else go!
Here we go. I decided I wanted my junk drawer to be the place for the things I use frequently, like pens, scissors, tape. Really, it’s a mini-office space for me. I have another space in my home where I keep my office supplies. I’ll tell you the truth, I’m pretty picky about my office supplies–especially pens. I have my favorites and I get cranky if anyone else uses them!
But I also know that there are office-type things that are used by the whole family, and the junk drawer is a central place to find them. So I know I want pens, and rubber bands, and scissors, and the like to live here. I don’t want masks (who doesn’t have SO MANY of those lying around??) or construction supplies, or pens that don’t work, or random receipts and coupons in this drawer.
Here’s what I did. I did a really quick sort, moving fast and making decisions without really dwelling on them. I threw garbage into the garbage bag, stuff that didn’t belong into the box, and things that needed to stay in the drawer onto the counter above the drawer. Then I gave the drawer a quick wipe, put the baskets in, and sorted the things that needed to stay into the baskets. Just look at the result!
But I knew that this was the point when I was in the danger zone. See, in the past, I would have stopped here and patted myself on the back for having accomplished my task and being SO. ORGANIZED. I would have walked away and complimented myself for a job well done. And that bag of garbage would have sat on the counter for days, and the box of stuff would get shuffled around until many of its items either got lost or thrown back into my newly organized drawer. And the whole purpose would be defeated.
See, it’s not really simplifying if you don’t WORK TO COMPLETION. If you don’t learn anything else today, please learn this: you are not done until you are totally, 100%, nothing left to do done. If you don’t work all the way to completion, you haven’t simplified. Sure, you have a clean drawer, for the moment at least. But now you have a lot of other things with no homes, and you are just going to need to deal with them later. This doesn’t simplify your life; it complicates it!
Simplifying means you have less to deal with, not more. It involves making decisions until all the decisions of a particular task have been made. Only then can you truly let go and relax in the knowledge that you’ve just changed your life.
So why should you simplify your junk drawer?
- It’s an easy win. A simple task that takes very little time but yields a big result. Just look at those before and afters!
- It gives you a chance to practice your three steps in a low-risk environment. You decided that pen was low priority and threw it out? No harm no foul.
- It allows you to learn the skill of working to completion. Even after taking everything in the go-back box and putting it where it belonged, I had only worked for less than 30 minutes.
Hey, if you are truly committed to simplifying and changing your life, it doesn’t have to start with quitting your job. Believe me, I didn’t do that until I was well on my simplification journey. It can begin with something small and easy, like cleaning out your junk drawer. Or if you’re not feeling it, choose something else that’s an easy win for you. Just remember to work to completion, making all the decisions until they’re all made. This is life-changing stuff!
So, did you do it? Did you simplify your junk drawer, or something else? Let me know in the comments!
Blessings, Mindy.