28 Day Cleaning/Organizing Challenge (Day 17 - Plasticware)

If you are anything like me, there's a drawer/cabinet in your kitchen that looks like this:
 

If you had seen this drawer over the years, there would have been every make and model of plasticware known to man in here.  Didn't matter, if we'd used the product (like margarine) or received it as a to-go (fast food), our house kept that plasticware for future reuse.  Thankfully, those days are long gone.  No more trying to match-up the pieces here - na uh!  Over.  A few years back I nipped that in the bud, only store purchase containers of the same brand.  Made that decision and have stuck to it, thankfully.

Having only one brand, however, doesn't keep the plasticware wrangled.  It winds up all over the place, half the time it's falling out of the drawer onto the floor.  Drives.me.crazy.  Thankfully, another housewife brought this issue to my attention which validated my thought that it happens to most everybody.  So here we are...looking at each other's plasticware.  How to fix the dilemma?
Well, as always I started out by removing all the items from the drawer so an assessment could be made of what there was to work with.  I took this opportunity to go through the items looking for anything that needed to be purged.

If you have plasticware that has white bubbling or is discolored, it's time to recycle it.  The item is starting to break down and will begin to leach into whatever is being stored in it - no matter what, toss!  Not worth the health hazard.

Then, I made sure there weren't any orphans.  If we had too many bottoms or tops they got recycled too.  In the long run, I feel its better to only have in here what can be used, not what could possibly be used in the future (maybe).

It was time to start loading the items back in and before today I would have thought to do this...

Which, is what picture #1 from the blog started out as.  No dice.

Yesterday, while at the coffee machine I had a moment of serendipity.  At last, an idea that is worth repeating and sharing with my fellow housewives.  Best part the fix, is quite possibly something you already have in your house!  I took a K-cup box and deconstructed it, then folded it back inside out and cut off the lid.  Wallah!

 

It's just the right size to keep all the lids together!!! 
(Now, I did think about all of you who may not use K-cups and I believe
the same can be done by cutting a large box of cereal down.)

 

...but when I put it all back together and loaded up the drawer it looked like this:

 

May even try wrapping the boxes in some pretty designed duct tape to make them last longer.  I think it's the perfect remedy! 

28 Day Cleaning/Organizing Challenge (Day 16 - Master Drawers)

Another area in our house where the method of folding is purposeful (so that the items fit better) is the bureau in our master bedroom. As seen in and earlier blog (Day 11 from 2/13/14), all of my clothes are on shelves and in bins in the master closet. So, the full contents of these drawers are my husbands. It could be that his clothing is bigger in nature or that he has a collection of TShirts that can't be parted with...but that's a whole other blog.

Thankfully, most of his clothing was in fair order as I keep it pretty tidy along the way (when clean stuff is put away). But, it does get a little disheveled here and there and could use a bit of straightening. 

I started by removing the items and taking a look at what he has.  There were a few pieces of clothing that had holes in them so they were thrown away.  I however, used great restraint in not donating any of the shirts, which occupy 2 of the six drawers...but I digress.  You may want to go through and determine if anything should be put in the second-hand pile.  I've been setting aside all those items and am going to schedule a pick-up in the near future.

TShirts are folded the same way as our school-agers (shown in Day12 from 2/14/14), shorts in half with the rear-end out and then half again (with the crotch tucked in), while his undershirts get folded like a bath towel (Day 3 from 2/3/14) and his drawer-drawers in thirds while holding the waistband and then down in half from top to bottom while tucking in the crotch (they are boxers).

Needless to say, I also took it upon myself to clear the top of the furniture because there were items from our weekend project or installing an new vanity top and removing wallpaper from the master bathroom.  Yes, we are busy people!  Who'd have it any other way???