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Decluttering Certification

Decluttering A VERY SCARY Drawer

April 25, 2019 By Dana White | 9 Comments

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I decluttered my junk drawer.

What’s that?? You just recently read (or re-read) a post when I did that before?? Back in 2010???

Welcome to (my) reality. Decluttered spaces don’t stay decluttered forever.

I had done some minor re-decluttering of this drawer over the years, but lately I’d been avoiding it. There were a few things I would expect to find when I opened it, but mostly I just let it nag at me as something I had to deal with someday.

But for the Tackle Your Scariest Space Challenge, I thought this drawer was perfect.

This space was scary, and it was scary because it was random.

It needed tackling.

I started by pulling out trash. Focusing on trash (the easiest of the easy stuff), gets me going.

And pulling out trash makes it ever so slightly better. Slightly. But better.

Better is good.

Trash includes things like a kid’s meal token that we’ve obviously had for a while.

My youngest child is 13. 

I then kept removing Easy Stuff. Stuff that has an established home somewhere in the house.

Little by little, it got a little better.

And then, I had to stop.

Life happened. I was only a week out from my hysterectomy, and my energy evaporated at the end of an already long day.

But because I’d been following my game-changing rule to “take it there now” instead of making piles or filling a Keep Box to empty later, I could stop. Without being any worse off.

And with the space being better than it was before.

Yay for progress and only progress!

Seriously, y’all. Even if I never got back to this project, this drawer was better than it was before, and much more usable.

But I did get back to it the next day when I had energy again. I kept working through the drawer, item by item.

Final decision (and action on that decision) by final decision.

Which meant when I found a shower curtain hook from my kids’ bathroom (yes, in the kitchen junk drawer . . . ), I took it straight to the bathroom (muttering all the way about people who put shower curtain hooks in kitchen junk drawers) and put it in its actual, final, forever spot.

That’s how the “take it there now” thing works. That literal 47 seconds of walking and hooking (all three photos below have “3:11” as their time stamp on my phone) meant that whatever happened, my house was better.

The drawer was shower-hook-free.

The shower curtain was saggy-spot-free.

And my kitchen didn’t have a pile of stuff waiting to be put away later.

decluttering a drawer shower curtain rings at ASlobComesClean.com

And eventually, I ended up with a decluttered drawer. No fancy organizing systems, but it was decluttered.

I could see everything in it, close it properly without a single grunt, and easily grab anything I needed.

Scary space tackled.

decluttering drawer BETTER at ASlobComesClean.com

Aaaaaaahhhhhhhh.

Are you tackling a scary space?? I have a secret, special video in which I talk people through their scary space. You can watch it if you sign up for my newsletter! Go here to sign up and you’ll get a link to the video in your first email that comes immediately. 

 

Decluttering a Very Scary Drawer Before and After at ASlobComesClean.com pin

Related Posts:

Read Newer Post My Newly (and Actually) Decorated Living Room
Read Older Post 211: Updates on How My Basic Strategies are Working Right Now

Filed Under: decluttering | 9 Comments

Comments

  1. Corinth Milikin says

    April 25, 2019 at 3:46 pm

    Sorry, I have to ask, why do coins belong in the junk drawer?

    Decluttering at the Speed of Life is fabulous. Just this morning, a collection of 50+ brass candlesticks left my house!

    Reply
    • Shelly says

      April 25, 2019 at 5:38 pm

      If she would look for coins in that drawer, then that is where they belong! 🙂

      Reply
      • Dana White says

        April 25, 2019 at 6:20 pm

        Yep! Exactly this!!

        Reply
  2. Susan says

    April 25, 2019 at 9:19 pm

    While I was reading this, I spontaneously exclaimed,
    “I LOVE this lady…”

    And I didn’t do it with like…enthusiastic excitement because you said something super cool and it gave me great ideas, I actually said it with a crack in my voice and with tenderness. I love your heart, and that YOUR heart loves hearts like ours.
    Thank you.
    Sorry for the mush, just thought you’d like to hear that you’re loved. 😉

    Reply
  3. Julie says

    April 25, 2019 at 9:39 pm

    Dang, you did good. 😊

    Reply
  4. Peg says

    April 26, 2019 at 7:24 am

    Loved this post–particularly the “Take it there now” mantra. Immediately wrote it on a post it and placed it on my monitor. My word for 2019 is “Finish” and this goes along so well with reminding me to Get ‘er done on my never ending road to decluttering and right-sizing our home!

    Reply
  5. Christine Wilson says

    April 27, 2019 at 10:14 am

    Just finished reading Decluttering at the Speed of Life. I have 6 scary drawers of clutter.

    But I will tackle them later since my trash and visible clutter are in really bad shape. This will come in handy when I get to the drawers. Thanks for understanding my creative mind!

    Reply
  6. PurpleSlob says

    April 29, 2019 at 6:49 pm

    Oh Nony, good health, and quick recovery from your operation!! After mine, I sure wasn’t decluttering after only a week!! You get it girl!!
    (BTW- best thing ever!! the operation, not the decluttering! lol, which is good too.)

    Reply
  7. Lisa Phillips says

    April 24, 2022 at 8:17 pm

    I have a jar that is labeled what do I belong for those weird screws parts that used to land in junk drawer. Now when we find something missing a part, we check the jar. Sometimes it’s there!

    Reply

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A Slob Comes Clean is the completely honest (and never-ending) story of my deslobification process. As I find ways to keep my home under control, I share the truth about cleaning and organization methods that actually work for a real-life slob. And I'm funny.

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