RE-Organizing My Entry

Now that I'm retired, I'm taking the time to really evaluate and change up some of the organization practices that I had put into place over the years.

I've been wanting to tackle this tall chest in our entry area for quite some time.

It needed a good overhaul and cleaning, and because we use it frequently, it needed some advanced organizing.

But first, here's the story of this dresser...

It's almost 25 years old and was once the lingerie chest to a suite of bedroom furniture that I owned.  When I got rid of the other pieces I decided to keep this piece because of the height and narrow profile.  I knew it would be a perfect piece for several uses.  

For almost 20 years it has lived here in our entry hall and performed a lot of storage duty.

It is also the one place in the house where I add seasonal deco on top.  Right now, it's in the transition stage; moving from February to March.  

But first things first; let's start organizing!

I set up a folding table next to the dresser where I assembled my Dollar Tree organizing and also where I could comfortably reorganize the stuff that was coming out of each drawer.

I grabbed several of their brown plastic containers, including a few that have lids.  These would be perfect for stacking in the deeper drawers.

I also grabbed their sets of white frosted drawers organizers, some lidded clear organizers, 3 rolls of thick vinyl drawer liner, and some shower caps (more about those later).

I had my scissors and acrylic quilting ruler.  Although I'm not a quilter, I can't tell you HOW MANY times this 6-inch by 23.5-inch ruler has come in handy - especially for lining up straight edges.  I use it for almost everything!

I pulled open the top drawer.

It was a collection of the following: eye repair kits and cleaners, carabiners, technology related cords, and chargers

It also had organizers that left slivers of valuable real-estate that was not being used to it's best advantage.

I first weeded through the cords.

I separated the chargers from the headphones from the car ports and placed them in like-minded baggies.  I then put them aside.

I organized the other stuff as well, donating what we would never use which cleared up space.

I measured and cut the drawer liner.  I was lucky because 1 roll of liner would fit 2 drawers with literally a half inch of waste after all was said and done.  I ended up cutting all the liners so I had them ready as each drawer was getting attention.

I put the frosted organizers in and this was the result.

I love these organizers because they have a little clip on one side which allows them to "grab" another organizer and stay put.  They come in pairs or trios, so they are very much worth your $1.00 investment.

You can see that I now have like with like and was even able to add and organize a few more items from other drawers, clearing up real estate there as well.

The next drawer down was a collection of electrical outlet expanders as well as some timers and locks.  Hubby has a habit of buying these outlet extenders, and as you can see, we don't use them or need them, but surely find space for them. (Insert head slap here!)

I used the white organizers that I had from the last "before" drawer and reorganized the contents.  This is where I keep my furniture "feed pads," as well as the self-adhesive cushions for placing on the bottom of decor items.

Dollar Tree carries these types of things and they are great for avoiding scratches and damage to furniture.  We place these little pads on almost everything that comes into contact with our wooden furniture.  It's a very small money investment that keeps our large money investments looking their best.

The third drawer down was stuffed with new socks and the furniture supplies in it's "before" state.

It ended up becoming the place where all the socks and "booties" (aka shower caps) were organized.

We are slowly working towards becoming a "NO SHOE" household.  If you are not familiar with this concept, go here to see the reasons why this is a good practice for your home as well.

We want to offer our guests an opportunity to wear socks (Dollar Tree & Tuesday Morning) if they wish, once they have removed their shoes.  

The Dollar Tree shower caps are perfect to use as shoe covers for service people who may come to our home to clean or repair a system or to work inside our home.  They are also considerably cheaper than the "real" ones found on Amazon.  I will say that the last service person who came into our home brought their own shoe covers.  I was grateful for that and the company's consideration.

Drawer number 4 was considerably deeper than the first three.

Of course, it was a HOT DEEP MESS of extension cords, power surge cords, batteries, and unorganized bins.

I dumped the who kit and caboodle and began to reorganize.

All the batteries went into those clear containers which then went into the brown lidded containers and were stacked.  I was able to put the batteries in based on their voltage allowing me to get rid of their ridiculous packaging.  All that extra cardboard is not helpful when organizing.

That drawer now looks like this.  I am able to see and access our flashlights.  The extension cords were neatly organized with previously purchased velcro straps and the battery bins stacked neatly in the back.

2 more drawers to go...

The next drawer was YEARS of shoe polish and accessories.

Right after college, hubby worked in a high-end shoe store and cultivated his love of expensive footwear.  This works to my advantage because he NEVER blinks an eye at the costs of shoes.  He's always on board when I purchase more expensive shoes... yeah me!

However, now that we are both retired, we wear more casual footwear and have only an infrequent need to polish up our leather and suede shoes.  We both looked over the collection and pruned down to the basics that we would use.  The rest was donated or thrown away warranted.

We ended up not putting the polish back into this drawer.  Instead, it now holds the surge protectors, some additional velcro straps, and the carpet supplies that I keep on hand for the throw rugs in our house.

The last drawer, which initially looked like this:

I now housing the shoe polish and accessories in a plastic shoe box.  There is vacant room there as well, which makes me happy!

After all was said and done, this entry chest is serving our needs much better than before I totally re-organized it.  

I love it when a plan comes together.

Oh, and I love breaking all the rules too!