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Organizing: Kitchen Drawers – Part 2 of 2

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Guess I left you hanging on my kitchen drawer organization project. Sorry about that. 🙁 Since some of my favorite posts did not make the Top 10 List of 2011, I chose to include a preview day which trumped this second posting of this short series.

Though you had my steps to get from chaos to order, I know you are waiting for the before and after pictures. Yes, my house is lived in, gets dirty and disorderly, but it gets cleaned and organized.

If you are dealing with out-of-control clutter, then take it one room at a time. Work a little each week on one section of that room. Your progress might be slow, but don’t give up or get distracted. Just concentrate on brightening that corner. You will gain momentum as you make progress. Just carve out 15 minutes a week and go.

Drawer #3

On the day I organized drawers 1 and 2, I also cleaned out drawers 3 and 4. This third drawer houses utensils that are necessary, but not used daily.

   

Before Organizing                                  After Organizing

As the resident “junk” drawer with Box Top labels, Kraft Singles wrappers, and other small miscellaneous items, I began whipping this drawer into shape by:

1. Pulling out all the utensils and putting them on the counter

2. Sorting the items into piles

3. Wiping out the drawer

4. Replacing the drawer liner

5. Placing similar items together in the drawer

6. Giving each utensil a home

7. Putting away the remaining items that did not belong in this drawer

8. Examining the organized and now clutter-free kitchen drawer

Drawer #4

This drawer is in a row of three drawers. The first two drawers were clean, organized, and working well. However, this bottom drawer was crammed full and needed decluttering.

  

Before Organizing                            After Organizing

Once again I followed the above eight steps and removed lots of excess and unused items from this drawer.  When I replaced the needed items back in the drawer, I was left with room for all the straws, Box Tops labels, and Kraft Singles wrappers. 🙂

Leftover Items from Drawer #3 for Drawer #4

The rest of the items were donated, trashed, or put away, i.e., the extra hand towels placed with the linens in my half bathroom downstairs.

Leftover items from Drawer #4

When all the extra items from these drawers were removed and the remaining items neatly organized in the drawers, I could easily find the utensil needed. No longer did I need to sift through the cutter. As I spent less than an hour to organize these four drawers, I rid our home of clutter while using time wisely. Now, I am ready to tackle more clutter in my home. Welcome January and 2012!

Question: What household organizational project are you choosing to start this week? Please add your answer to the comments.

Personal Insurance: Privacy Policies and Travel Insurance

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Welcome 2012! With the arrival of a new year and a new month, I celebrated this afternoon by decluttering, cleaning, and re-organizing my dining room. Love to start the new year off getting organized. If you are setting goals to get organized this year, then Using Time Wisely is your ally.

On Sundays, I highlight an area of document organization. Having covered in 2011 Box 1, which has credit cards/credit reports and scores, personal, home ownership, and vehicle documents, we continue our insurance document organization housed in Box 2. This series reveals my organizational system. Please adjust and adapt this system to meet your needs. Finding a home for all those documents will make retrieving them a snap.

Thus far in Box 2, our first category, personal insurance, resides in the first file opening. In my file, the summary page, annual enrollment reports, and former severance package fill most of this first file slot. The next two sets of documents are privacy policies and travel insurance documentation.

Privacy Policies

At one point, I housed all the privacy policies from all the insurance companies in this file. But as we have added policies, I found that keeping the privacy notices with the insurance policies is the best use of my time. I do not need to search two different file folders (one for the policy and one for the privacy notice) when I need these documents.

With all the other privacy policies with their associated insurance policies, I have one privacy policy that remains: the health insurance program for South Carolina. This state agency does not write any insurance policies, but they are the administrator of our group insurance policies. Keeping their privacy policy documentation housed in this file with the annual enrollment documentation works for me.

Travel Insurance

As holders of Visa credit cards (Yes, I use credit cards for 90% of my purchases and pay off those amounts each month!), we receive worldwide automatic travel accident and baggage delay insurance when we pay for our flights with our Visa credit card.

Visa sent us the Description of Coverage which outlines the plan, eligibility, cost, beneficiary, benefits, exclusions, and effective date. In the event I need to file a claim, I can find the information quickly from the documentation, kept safe in this file.

In keeping my family’s personal insurance documents organized, I have placed the privacy policy and travel insurance documentation behind the former severance package paperwork. In continuing this series next week (without anymore Top 10 interruptions), I will complete this first category in Box 2.

Keep plugging along. By breaking down your goals to little sections, you will get there. Choose to organize one file this week. Work on a new one next week. Within a few weeks, you will have a category complete. You can do it! Happy organizing!