Storage 101: Drawer Tetris

This is part 3 in my organization series Storage 101. If this is your first time reading, you can catch up on the other parts here: 1 2 

We organized drawers in two areas of our house: the kitchen and our master bathroom. 

As mentioned in a the previous blog of this series, my goal was never to have Instagram-worthy photos of beautifully color-coordinated drawers with neatly organized items. I don't believe that is real life. Sometimes, by coincidence, it happens in small quantities. My goal is to create an organized space that is easy to use where none of the items catch when opening or closing the drawer. 

We also did not organize every single drawer in either of these spaces. That was never the goal either. I wanted to organize the drawers which were used the most and with which I was most dissatisfied. This being said, we still have drawers full of random "stuff." I don't have a problem with that because those drawers are not used as frequently and therefore, do not dissatisfy me nearly as much. 

So here's what we did: 

Kitchen:

We organized four drawers in our kitchen. Two of the drawers are for kitchen utensils. One is for eating utensils and the other is for prepping and cooking utensils. The other two drawers are for office supplies. 

Once again, one of the first things I did was measure. I measured drawers. I measured utensils. I measured measuring tapes. There was a lot of measuring. One of the things that organizing companies can do is they buy all sorts of storage sizes and see what works best with the space during the actual install. I...don't exactly have this luxury, so I have to do a lot of pre-work beforehand or risk making multiple trips to the store which is not something I can afford to do right now. 

Then I played around with the storage organizers and looked at what items fit best in each container and basically played tetris. Our original utensil organizer moved to our bathroom and became a drawer organizer there when we moved to the house. We bought a larger utensil organizer for the house. With this reorganization, the larger utensil organizer became the kitchen gadget utensil organizer and the original utensil organizer came back to the kitchen and was reinstated as the utensil organizer.

This utensil organizer was my bathroom drawer organizer for a while
until it came back as the utensil organizer

The utensil holder we bought for the house when we moved in
has now become the gadget utensil drawer.

That spool of string is....22-24 years old. That pencil box is also about 25 years old.
My NASA ruler is at least 20 years old. Who says old stuff has to be replaced?

In our office supply drawer, I am still using small cardboard boxes as drawer organizers because they don't all have to be fancy or match if you don't want them to or can't afford it. The smaller purple one is one half of an old card box. I find that size and depth is great for organizing knickknacks.

Bathroom: 

This drawer was originally organized
using the utensil organizer. I think it looks
much better this way. 

The bathroom was more or less the same process. My original drawer which used the utensil organizer was replaced with rectangular organizers of various sizes. I was able to organize a second drawer as well which used to have no organization and has now turned into my favorite bathroom drawer. One advantage to using smaller containers rather than putting lots of items in a larger container is the items stay put rather than slosh around as you open and close the drawer.

It’s so fulfilling to be able to open a drawer, get exactly what you need, and close it again without displacing the other contents by laws of physics. 

If bathroom drawers had favorites,
this would be mine.

If Clea and Joanna saw the way I organized my nail polish, they’d probably cringe and die a little on the inside. But here’s why I chose to do it this way:

1. It saves space  

2. I don’t have that many so I know all my colors by the tops of the bottles.

They would probably recommend storing them in a way where you can view the bottle from the front instead of from the top. Aesthetically, it looks better, and you can create their quintessential color-coordinated look. However, that wasn’t conducive to my space because I wanted efficient, convenient storage. As mentioned before, this works for me because I only have 13 bottles of nail polish. 

I bought these containers from Amazon and reused some other ones in various drawers because that was the cheapest way to do it. However, buying from Amazon always involves a bit of risk because you can’t see what the actual product is like until it arrives at your house. And although they have a pretty good return policy, it is time consuming and does involve dropping it off and waiting for your refund. 

One thing I discovered is the containers I bought are not straight down the sides. They taper inwards so the bottom dimensions are smaller than the top dimensions. This made storing some things slightly frustrating because despite measuring, I didn’t account for tapering. 

These are the small details on why one container can cost $1 a unit and the very same size and material will cost you $6 a unit elsewhere. Some of the drawer organizers I bought came with metal feet which gave the container a more weighted, sturdy feel. Others felt like I could snap them in half if I handled them improperly. 

All containers are not created equal. Shop smart. 

Stay tuned for next time: The Master Closet

Storage 101: The Catalyst

Spending an increased number of hours at home this last year made me realize how dissatisfied I was with a lot of our storage and organization solutions. We've made do for the last 5.5 years in our house, but this past year was a big breaking point for us because so much of our time was spent inside at home, so it unkindly revealed parts of our storage that were not working. 

Now to understand me, you have to realize, I grew up "wrong" in a way when it came to storage and organization. My mentality up until about....last year was paying for bins, drawers, containers to store your stuff was "wasted" money. It was always seen as more useful to spend the money on actual items of use instead of something to organize the items. Sure, we bought shelves and drawers to organize, but that was where it ended: shelves and drawers. What we needed to learn was how to organize the actual shelf or drawer.

Which leads me to two of the big names in storage and organization: Marie Kondo and The Home Edit.

In 2019, we watched Marie Kondo's series on Netflix Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. It was entertaining to watch and resulted in us refolding all of our T-shirts to stand up. That didn't last and my t-shirts reverted back to the old way I'd been folding them for the last 15 years. In 2020, we watched The Home Edit. I was again inspired to reorganize after watching their techniques. My home reorganization has been a blend of both techniques and mentalities. 

Fun fact: Marie teaches her kids how to be tidy and keep things neat. I aspire to do that, too.

What I took from Marie Kondo:

- Sparking joy: There's a lot to be said about this mentality. I'm not going to get into the spiritual details she includes in her cleaning mantra as I don't agree with them entirely. However, I do agree that there is a sense of joy that comes from a well-organized space. Clean lines and organized containers which are visually appealing bring a sense of satisfaction and enjoyment when the contents are used. 

What I did not take from Marie Kondo:

- A lot of her folding methods to organizing clothes/sheets/towels involve folding on a flat surface. This is hardly possible for me because I don't have a flat surface to fold my clothes. Half the time, I'm folding laundry while my kids are playing. This means I have whatever sofa space is not covered by toys and books. I don't fold clothes on the floor because 110% of the time my floor is not clean enough for me to want to fold clean laundry on it. Therefore, I will pretty much never use her folding methods. Even as a short person, I fold everything standing up.  

I never understood how "house goals" could be a thing until I watched this series. 

What I took from The Home Edit:

- Using clear storage bins you can see through is extremely valuable despite the cost. The mantra "out of sight out of mind" is very true. We do not think about the things we cannot see and those are the items most often overlooked when it comes to storage. Think about your pantry or food storage. Chances are, the things you can't see are the items which expire and go bad. 

- Organization has to suit the daily needs. Frequented items need to be easily accessible. Just because you have 50 cubic feet of pantry space does not mean you can use the whole space because nothing located in the back will be easily accessible if you stack the front all the way up.

What I did not take from The Home Edit:

- Color coding items. They organized books and board games by color. This does not speak to me at all as a person. Does it look cool? Yes, yes it does. Is it functional for what I want when I organize books or board games? No, sorry.

- Labeling: I don’t label my bins. Being clear already, I can see what’s inside and know what the intended category was when I created it. Even if it’s not clear, I can tell what was intended to go into it to begin with. 

Why We Did It:

1. Being inside all the time meant little bits of disorganization and mess left us very unsatisfied and annoyed.

2. It was the cheaper option to maximizing space. We're not moving anytime soon. We're not undertaking any remodeling additions or layout changes.

3. We have the means to. I know not everyone does, and believe me, we've been there and done that when we reused old boxes and cardboard containers to create space dividers and organizers. I actually still do in small amounts. There's nothing wrong with creating DIY organizers. Does it look as nice? No, it doesn't. Does it save a lot of money? Yes. If that's where you are in your life stage, there's nothing wrong with organizing with what you have. 

The Spaces we Organized:

- Kitchen Cabinets

- Pantry

- Master Bathroom Drawers

- Master Closet

- Hall Bathroom Drawers

Follow along as I unpack the spaces we organized and how we did it. 

Part 1: Blind Corners