How to Clean & Organize (When you really don’t want to!)

10This room is soooo messy and embarrassing, you aren’t even getting one tiney-tiny little shot of the disaster zone! My daughter went through this little phase where she would open all of the cupboards and drawers and pull EVEREYTHING out…. And after numerous attempts of piecing the room back together, I just finally gave up! This room is actually my “Zebra Dressing/Craft Room”…. Meaning it’s full of tiny little things, like make-up, nail polish, jewelry, paint, glue, beads, ribbon, etc…. all of the stuff that gets super messy, tangled up, and super unorganized! (Hey – that sounds a lot like my life, just in general! Lol)
Ok, so….. Where to start? Where to start?! Well after just standing there staring for awhile, I decided the best place to start was to clear off the countertop. I started by organizing everything into separate piles for general categories: Hair Stuff, Make-Up & Lotions, Nail Polish, Craft Stuff, Home Décor & of course, a miscellaneous/to-be-sorted-later pile. I also created a donation pile and of course, a garbage pile! Anything that I no longer use was put into either of these piles…. One major thing to remember is that all creams, lotions and even makeup have expiration dates! This helps a lot when deciding whether to keep or pitch something!1 Looking pretty good, right?! NOT! Still a super-long ways to go!!!!
Ok, so…. Next? Next, I wiped down all of the counter space, just to make it look like I was making a little more progress!

2Now, see these drawers and cupboards?! I am going to take full advantage of them! I am going to go through each one, one at a time, and sort all of the contents into the piles that I mentioned above, and then each pile will be transferred into one of the cupboards or drawers.

3Ok, so here they are! All emptied and wiped down! Looking good – for real this time!

4And my cupboards…. Empty and clean!

5By emptying and cleaning everything, I’ve sort of accomplished the feeling of starting with a clean slate! So now, it’s time to put everything back together…. Before just throwing everything all jumbled back into the cupboards and drawers, I made a plan of what is going to go where.

6As you can see in the photo above, I still decided to keep a miscellaneous or better known as a “junk drawer” – because let’s face it, you are always going to end up with some things that don’t fit into a dedicated category, or that you just don’t have the heart to throw out!
By following my above drawer layout plan, I was able to neatly put everything back into my drawers and cupboards! Also, if you feel that you are going to have a little bit of trouble keeping everything neat and organized, check out some of these great Drawer Organizer from Amazon.com!
I then gave the room a little vacuum, fussed a little with the décor, and voila! All finished!

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