Doing a Mini KonMari: Tidying Up

I have the house all to myself today! I thought I’d use the alone time to catch up on reading or pamper myself with a hot bath. My guys went to the in-laws’ for Thanksgiving 2.0, and though I’m missing out on some delicious ham and some good conversation, I’m happier than a puppy with two tails. I needed this alone time intensely for my sanity and sense of self.

I tried some reading and fell asleep in my recliner. No bueno. It was such a waste of an empty house! I poured some caffeinated beverages down my gob and decided to ditch the bath as well. And instead of relaxing, which I’m almost never inclined to do being a Type A, I got to work.

I’m approximately two-thirds of the way through Marie Kondo’s book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and although I’m not ready to go full-force with her program – especially since I haven’t finished the book – I am ready to pull a mini version in preparation for the purging and tidying craziness that will later ensue.

I started with the utensils drawer. What do I need two soup ladles for? I tossed the one I liked the least. Nor did I need several copies of the same-size bamboo spoon or four spatulas. Tossed four spoons and two spatulas, keeping only one of each size.  After ditching a few more unneeded and extra things, I finally have a utensils drawer I can find stuff in without digging for a half-hour. I moved on to the drawer with the cutting boards, oven mitts and pot holders. I couldn’t see getting rid of cutting boards since I tend to use two or three at a time, so those stayed. But why on earth did I have fourteen potholders cramming up my drawer with cotton oven mitts I haven’t used since the year 2000? I kept my Ove’ Glove, which is my favorite for ease of use since it’s floppy, and a silicone oven mitt I got from Ikea, dumping the stained cotton nasties.

Next I attacked my tea drawer, and I wondered why I needed an entire drawer for tea. Seriously? Wasted space fo’ shizzle. I think I had eight boxes of tea in there with varying numbers of unused teabags each. So I tore off the tops of the boxes and consolidated. I previously had myself convinced that I wouldn’t be able to find the tea I wanted unless it was still in its original box because apparently I’m stupid, but today I called bullshit. I whittled my tea down to two boxes, and now I have almost an entire drawer I can cram a bunch of other junk into. Or not.

The junk drawer was the worst! Y’all have junk drawers, right? Do you even know what’s in there? If you do, it’s only because you just cleaned it. Am I right? Did you end up putting half the junk back in there because you didn’t know what else to do with it? Yeah, that’s what I usually do. It’s also what I’m struggling HARD with today. The stuff in my drawer?

• 2 padlocks
• 3 different sized rubber stoppers that go to what? Nothing?
• 15 used twist ties
• 8 rubber bands from bunches of produce
• 5 used brads
• 3 paperclips
• 1 broken flashlight
• 4 bottles of Superglue, 1 glued shut, 1 rock hard
• 2 screw tops for 16oz bottles of water
• 1 checkbook cover filled with scraps of paper
• 2 tips that had broken off pool cues
• 1 tiny spring
• 3 watch spring bars (for repairing watch straps)
• 1 multi-tool that takes a circus strongman to pry it open
• 1 clear vinyl ID holder
• 1 little bag of bike/ball pump tips
• 1 glow stick
• 5 dead batteries
• 3 pill batteries for the cats’ laser pointer that broke months ago
• 2 dried-up ballpoint pens
• 1 little metal clip
• 2 loupes
• 3 cell phone charger adapters
• 1/2 of a broken pencil, and not the eraser half
• 2-dozen assorted key rings, mostly tarnished or bet out of shape
• 3 carabiner clips
• 1 used kleenex (WTF?)
• 1 Tic Tac box containing 2 Tic Tacs
• 1 small Ziplock bag filled with Box tops for Edumacation and…
• 1 pair of garden clippers

This is a SMALL drawer, people! I swear it was like Mary Poppins’ carpet bag the way stuff just kept coming out and out and out… yikes! I would really like to know what’s in your junk drawer, so go clean it out and come back and tell me, okay? Okay.

I think I might need that bath now.

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