Every night I tidy up Bunny’s toys. Nothing drastic, but big Legos go in
the basket, the other toys in the green bin, and the wood blocks in the
basket. Books go in another box. “I’m
not obsessive compulsive!” I protested to Maj C, as I sorted the number toys in order by
number and color. For a few hours,
I feel like I have a modicum of control over my chaotic life. Until, of course, everything is dumped
on the floor by Bunny, aka the Whirling Dervish of Cape Cod.
The fact is, Maj. C is as a neat freak too. The boy is all about working
systems. Nothing irks him more
than Not Finding Something. I’m
the same way—so you can imagine that the junk drawer was a thorn in our side. Here are the contents of our junk drawer on my counter. Ear buds, pens, safety pins, string,
meds, inhalers, outlet covers,
cough drops, etc. Not good.
Here’s our solution.
Over the summer, I found a faux printer’s type face drawer at a yard
sale. Type face drawers are
wonderful things—they are usually dark wood, and held type in their
compartments. Here is one lovely
example.
Mine was decidedly a faux cheapo type face drawer, but it was
also only a dollar. I should have
a before picture, but I don’t. In
any case, we cut the drawer to size, and then painted it white. We secured the drawer with command
strips. . .and the now we can find everything we need!
Yes, I'm a freak-- I love opening the drawer just to peek at its tidiness. But I caught Maj. C doing the same thing!
LMAO!! Love this post!!! Nothing drives me more crazy then the junk draw or the toys being in the wrong bins. Every night I sort through all the toys in a futile effort to sort them by category and type of toy. By the next day though toys are still somewhat mixed up and I sort all over again. I have begun to teach my little one the art of sorting by type of toy and he is catching on but still the toy spoons end up in the book basket and the legos end up in the toy kitchen stuff despite my efforts. It is important though that we do sort so that when they see the stuff again the next day they see order.... this is vital to teach our little ones. Bravo to you and the Maj for tackling the junk drawer-I merely stay clear of it for now.
ReplyDeleteI have to be honest, I've given up on sorting the toys. The books on the other hand, I have them sorted alphabetically. Yes I may be OCD, but there's something about being able to quickly find books to read that makes me happy. I don't even want to think about our junk drawer right now...it's a black hole of stuff in our house!
ReplyDeleteOooo. Alphabetically sorted books. Be still my beating heart. I fantasize about doing that someday. At the moment all our books are by topic and by size. Not perfect, but I can find the book I need. . . most of the time.
DeleteHere's a picture of our shelves!
Deletehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/seasnowlet/5778315612/in/set-72157623423621429