Organize + Energize: 7 Easy Steps To An Organized Junk Drawer
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Is your junk drawer overflowing with, well, junk? Get a handle on it with these easy steps.
Here are 7 easy steps to organize a junk drawer.
1. Head over to the junk drawer.
Is this making you stressed, overwhelmed, or anxious? This isn’t going to be painful, trust me. Have a trash can close by.
2. Begin to take items out of the drawer one by one.
Do not worry about where you are going to store the items. The minute you stop to think about where items need to be stored, you will lose focus and get distracted and either your project will take you twice as long or you will not finish.
3. Throw away anything that is no longer useful to you.
Do you really need to hold onto pens that don't work or old business cards from people who are no longer in business? Do you need that pocket calendar from 2006? If it's not longer useful to you, get rid of it.
4. Put the keep items into categories as you take them out of the drawer.
For instance, you may have pens, batteries, matches, paper clips, etc. Make categories on the table.
5. Make a pile for items that don’t belong in the drawer.
You may have items that need to be moved to another room. Don’t transfer those items while you are in the middle of organizing. Once you leave the room, you will immediately get distracted and again, your project will take twice as long and you may not venture back into the room you were working in.
6. Your drawer should be empty.
Clean the drawer. Take a look at the empty drawer and then look at the categories of items you have on the table. Think about how you want to function with this drawer going forward. Think about how you were functioning before and what was working and what wasn’t working.
7. Now you are ready to purchase drawer organizers or re-use and re-purpose containers that you have.
Choose a container that is going to fit what you need it to hold. Everything in your drawer should fit like a puzzle. Maximize the space in the drawer by utilizing the correct organizing product. The number one mistake people make is choosing the incorrect product to fit what needs to be contained.
Your drawer is now organized! How long did it take you? How do you feel now? Do you feel energized to move onto other projects in your home?
Remember, getting organized is a process. It’s about creating working organizing systems that will not only get you organized, but will keep you organized. The organized systems will create routines and from those routines, habits will form. If you take something out of that drawer, you will put it back when you are finished using it. It now has a home and instead of throwing it in the drawer, it will go back into its designated container.
Start small, get your feet wet and then move onto larger projects.
Related Slideshow: New England’s Healthiest States
The United Health Foundation recently released its 2013 annual reoprt: America's Health Rankings, which provides a comparative state by state analysis of several health measures to provide a comprehensive perspective of our nation's health issues. See how the New England states rank in the slides below.
Definitions
All Outcomes Rank: Outcomes represent what has already occurred, either through death, disease or missed days due to illness. In America's Health Rankings, outcomes include prevalence of diabetes, number of poor mental or physical health days in last 30 days, health disparity, infant mortality rate, cardiovascular death rate, cancer death rate and premature death. Outcomes account for 25% of the final ranking.
Determinants Rank: Determinants represent those actions that can affect the future health of the population. For clarity, determinants are divided into four groups: Behaviors, Community and Environment, Public and Health Policies, and Clinical Care. These four groups of measures influence the health outcomes of the population in a state, and improving these inputs will improve outcomes over time. Most measures are actually a combination of activities in all four groups.
Diabetes Rank: Based on percent of adults who responded yes to the question "Have you ever been told by a doctor that you have diabetes?" Does not include pre-diabetes or diabetes during pregnancy.
Smoking Rank: Based on percentage of adults who are current smokers (self-report smoking at least 100 cigarettes in their lifetime and currently smoke).
Obesity Rank: Based on percentage of adults who are obese, with a body mass index (BMI) of 30.0 or higher.
Source: http://www.americashealthrankings.org/
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