I'm going to sort out and tidy up every drawer and cupboard in my house. Want to join in?

[MaryCondom]

This morning I woke up with a kind of itchy compulsion to sort and tidy every single drawer and cupboard in my whole house. I have no idea why but I'm snapping on my marigolds and reaching for the Zoflora.

I don't have a week or a fortnight off work to do one big blitz. I'm going a drawer or two at a time, and saving the big jobs (like under the stairs cupboard) for weekend days.

Today I've sorted out my two bathroom cupboards.
I've dumped all the old, out-of-date medicines, combined all my body cream remnants into one divine-smelling body lotion soup, re-positioned everything in order of actual use, and put everything on 'themed' shelves in one of the cupboards.

I've scrubbed the inside of the cupboards and they're now lemony fresh. Unfortunately, one of them's going a bit rusty and the other one is stained with Harpic 😯But they're clean and tidy.

I am very proud of myself and now rewarding my efforts with a caramel chocolate digestive.

Anyone want to join me? We can support each other, update on progress, perhaps share picture if you'd feel comfortable to do so.

...And here's the whole cupboard after

Oooh can I join. I'm slowly doing my whole house too. I bought a label maker and everything. I did the fridge today. I find it so satisfying and with each thing I declutter I can feel life genuinely getting easier and less stressful to manage.

Next big job is the shed. We don't have a huge amount of storage space in the house but we do have a huge shed/outbuilding which is currently full of useless junk. I'm slowly clearing it out. I've just piled the rubbish up at the moment but once it's emptied I'll hire a skip and chuck it all in then get proper labelled storage boxes for everything and more of the things in the house can move out there then making more space.

@MischiefManager Of course, welcome!
Your label maker sounds amazing. And the shed clear out will be epically satisfying I think. Please keep us posted with your progress 😊

I haven't done anything inside for a while m, but I have moved half a tonne of sand and a pallet of paving slabs, so I can now park my car where it won't get covered in tree sap and therefore it won't need to be cleaned so frequently.

@MaryCondom I need to sort my cupboard of doom at some point. It's part pantry, part random shit, and part lawnmower/strimmer storage atm (because the shed leaks & I didn't want them wrecked like the last ones).

I have no appointments, and nowhere to be, tomorrow so other than rhinestoning some of dd1's leavers shirt, I am planning to empty the tin/cup cupboard, clean it and re-organise it.

This morning I spent a very satisfying couple of hours organising some kitchen drawers and labelling them with my label maker. 😇 heaven

Am loving seeing all the updates and evidence.

I am still helping to decluttering mum’s house and garden ready to put it on the market. Can’t post photos as not really fair to post someone else’s mess 🤣. Inside is almost finished. A bit more to do outside tomorrow and then everything needs to go in the skip (currently all piled in the garage so can do it in one go. We’ve sold a few bits and she’s donated loads to charity and some crafting groups - am proud of how she’s handled the process.

Skip being collected Friday. Got someone coming Saturday to pressure wash the back garden - she’s got a lot of paving out there and I can’t manage it myself. Then, next week it’s repaint the fencing and get summer bedding plants into her remaining planters. Then I will be able to get back to sorting my own place out.

Excellent work @MaryCondom 😁

@MaryCondom thanks, we have taken the house off the market as we need a break from it all. But we are happy to have a nice decluttered cupboard! (every cloud and all that)

@MaryCondom thank you 😊
@rivercobbler that sounds like a perfect afternoon to me!
My family think I'm bonkers and tease me when I get my label maker out but are forced to admit it's better when I've organised things!

Tin and mug cupboard done today - I've decided we need to cull some mugs, we're over run with them! (My kitchen has stupidly few cupboards so tins and mugs have to share with slow cooker and toaster).

I've chucked a few things that have been in there half used since at least Christmas, and have my eye on a couple of tins that I've long since forgotten what they were bought for 🤷‍♀️ I'll ask around and see if any of my friends will make use of them though.

I found my missing Winnie the Pooh glass too - the back's come off the cupboard & it'd slid down there 🤦‍♀️

I really need to do this. Downsized 18 months ago, cleared out but still have too much 🤦‍♀️

Definitely agree with @BertieBotts, for the easily distractible, it's very difficult to do the "pull everything out of a drawer/cupboard"-method. To add to the previous suggestions, now that you already taken stuff out, maybe it's possible to clean the empty drawers and then put things back unsorted first.

Then you at least have cleaned them already as per others' suggestions.
Next time you feel motivated, look through the designated drawer, without taking everything out. Maybe there are a few obvious things that can be put elsewhere or binned.

I'd go through a drawer in several cycles, after throwing out the obvious, try to find groups of things, put them back. And when you have time again or more motivation, do the finetuning. If a big step all at once is too much, make smaller steps. It doesn't matter that other people sort their flat in an afternoon, everyone is different and this is not the Olympics.

One suggestion I read on a blog was: if you're overwhelmed with not knowing where to start, just decide to go through a room clockwise or counterclockwise and do things in small steps. This is contradictory to the Kondo-ing by topic, but for some people that way it's easier. You can also do this in several rounds, each more finetuned. I tried it and it worked well against overwhelm.

Since I easily forget what's where, I've taken to put labels inside cupboard doors, they help when I get back to something after a break.

Spent today organising the shed/outbuilding. I now have a massive pile of stuff to take to the tip which is currently piled up in the garden. But the shed is almost done and everything is in clearly labelled boxes. Now I can move a few things out of the house and into the shed to clear a bit more space. Getting there slowly!

Yesterday I did my chest of drawers - underwear & sock drawer/pj's, vests and socks drawer/assorted things that I've kept that could mostly go drawer. Chucked a carrier bag of holey socks, pj's worn to death and bikinis I'll never wear again. I also semi sorted the top, decanted an almost finished body moisturiser into a pot where I'm more likely to use it, and put away things like bobbles that were cluttering it.

I do still need to dust it though desperately, and find somewhere for the collection of red lippys I seem to be growing to live.

Tomorrow I'll either dust my drawers & do two of the under bed drawers, or do the kitchen shit drawer 🤔 we'll see!

Under bed drawers done this morning. A broken pair of straighteners & four very old hair dyes gone. I found some Easter craft bits that may make their way to school once I get to speak to my next years class teacher - when they tell me where I am; everyone else was told today 🙄

Dd1 did the ceral & snack cupboard - binned a box of soggy crackers and three boxes of soggy cereal, cleaned and then re-arranged it all so open stuff will (hopefully) be eaten first instead of getting shoved to the back in favour of new stuff.

That looks amazing!!

Sorry I've been MIA. I haven't given up on the mission. I promise. The last week at work has been absolutely insane so I haven't done any tidying nor even been on MN.

But, work's settled down a little now so I'm back on it. Will keep you posted.

I hope everyone's doing okay and making good progress

OK so its technically not a drawer or cupboard but I sorted out my handbag and purse today.

Receipts from 2021 and Evri proofs of postage from pre-Covid. Mucky mare.

Both purse and bag are actually physically lighter and I can actually find stuff in them now 🤗

Your nest wont be empty for long. They will be back for weekends and holidays. Then trailing partners along two. Then comes grandchildren x

I tackled the understairs cupboard of doom today and created an organised toy rotation system and space for school bags etc to be stored. Got a bit more to do under there to create a more organised space for storing cleaning equipment but it's much better than it was!

@MischiefManager Nice work!

Thursday I'm taking a day off and tackling my box room. The whole room is a complete tip. It's a whole-day activity. I shall update

Yesterday and today I tackled my box room, the room of doom.

It was a full two-day job but I did it.

A lot of the boxes and trunks still need sorting but those are much smaller jobs. For now the room itself looks like somewhere grown adults live rather than swamp donkey students

Here's before....

...and after

I love that room @MaryCondom 😍

Ive been plodding on doing odd bits here and there but no major transformations to report. It is quite astonishing how much stuff can accumulate in a cupboard that was completely sorted only a year or two ago though!

I’m still doing quite well at using up all my random toiletries rather than buying new but I think I am going to have to buy some nail varnish as all of mine are several years old and seem to have gone gloopy which makes it hard to paint my toenails neatly. I do have boots points to spend though so I may chuck out all the old and treat myself to a couple of new.