Home Organization |11 Helpful Tips to Clean Your Drawers & Clear Your Mind

Editor’s notes: Home organization is popular for sure, but does cleaning up your drawers and home really help to clear your mind?

In our series about simple living, we talk about the real benefits of getting rid of your stuff. How freeing that can be.

Tidying up is one the most therapeutic and productive ways to spend time at home. With spring cleaning season in full swing, there has never been a better time to dive into home organization.

Messy drawers, cluttered surfaces, and crowded closets contribute to stress and anxiety. There have been many studies showing the benefit of organized surroundings on your well-being.

In the same way that organizing life’s events and responsibilities in a calendar or planner gives you peace of mind, so does organizing your home. 

Want some organization with your personal schedule too?

If you don’t know where to begin, why not start with your drawers? We can help you if you haven’t figured out the best organization method for tidying dresser drawers yet.

Following the lead of people with great organization habits will give you the guidance you need. Let’s go over 11 easy habits people with organized drawers use to create a more orderly living space:

1) Home Organization 101: Empty Everything

You might be nervous of emptying all your items from your drawers for fear of making even more of a mess, but it has to be done.

Clearing your drawers out all at once and thoroughly wiping them down is the best way to start the tidying process. That way, you can see how much space you actually have to work with.

Clean every crevice to get rid of dust and gunk that may have built up over the months or even years. You’ll be so happy to have a fresh start.

2) Categorize and Label Your Drawers

There’s no room for confusion when there’s a label for everything. Feel free to get fancy and decorative when creating your labels.

Then, label your drawers by category: separate by socks, underwear, tops, bottoms, sweaters, etc. For desk drawers, you could have categories like important documents, books, office supplies, etc.

Or, if you can categorize by season. Whatever is easiest and most intuitive for you. Did you know people who are more organized are also more active and healthy than their disoragnized counterparts?

Feeling organized is invigorating. 

3) Don’t Procrastinate on Folding Clothes

Once you have your drawers cleared out, cleaned, and labeled, you can start putting your items back into place.

Folding is easy when you know the items have a place to go, and it’s best to knock it out right away. Just take 5-10 minutes to get started.

Invest that extra time to fold your freshly cleaned and sorted items before throwing them in their respective areas. If you procrastinate on folding, it’ll probably never get done (or at least it won’t get done neatly.)

Try to place folded items in a way that allows you to see at a glance everything you have. 

4) Don’t Wait to Empty Your Laundry Basket 

Leaving your laundry baskets of unfolded clothes is never a good idea. When you revisit the task, you might even mix up which clothes are clean and dirty.

Or, you’ll end up picking through your clean laundry for certain items, wasting time and making a mess.

How often have you said, “Let me wait and put those clothes away later”, only to leave them there for hours or even days?

Forgetting your laundry basket of unfolded clothes is a big no-no according to professional organizers. All you need to do is build an extra 15 minutes into your routine to make sure you completely finish the chore.

It’s worth it to invest that extra time to empty and fold your freshly cleaned items. 

5) Clear Off Your Dresser Top

Are there miscellaneous items crowding the top of your dresser? The top of the dresser is a tricky spot… it’s almost always a clutter collector.

Try not to cram things on top of there to the point where you can’t even tell what’s what. This is a surefire way to misplace your glasses or lose your keys. Items like jewelry, accessories, receipts, books, and miscellaneous notes tend to easily collect on open surfaces.

Plus, clutter can overwhelm the visual cortex with unneeded stimuli. Challenge yourself to keep your dresser top completely empty except for a few select items.

It will calm your mind and contribute to an overall more organized look.

6) Make Your Bed Every Morning

What does a neatly made bed have to do with organized drawers? Your bed is the focal point of the entire bedroom.

A neat bed helps you visualize the rest of your bedroom organization goals. There’s something about a freshly-made bed that makes a space seem so much better. 

It affects the vibe of the whole space. You might think it’s painfully obvious, but Keeping your blankets pulled up helps you keep your sheets clean, too. You won’t want to organize anything else if it’s a mess! 

7) Color Categorize Your Closet

Prioritize categorizing your closet by color so it’s easier to find items of your wardrobe. Sorting by color is a great way to keep track of everything.

The first step is to organize your clothes so you can clearly see everything you have. When your closet is organized, it seems to remind you to keep other areas of the room neat and tidy, too.

Plus, organizing your closet by color is particularly fun and gratifying. You’ll be able to put together outfits more easily, and you’ll be more motivated to organize your drawers, too.

You might even find that you’re more adventurous with mixing and matching colors and patterns when you can visualize it all more easily.

8) Invest in Nice Linen Storage

Linen storage is often forgotten. Invest in beautiful wicker baskets or other aesthetically pleasing storage containers for storing bedding, blankets, towels, etc.

Clear out these big items by purchasing a couple of large wicker baskets or storage containers.

Folding and storing your linens in these baskets will create a much more put-together look, and it will allow you to clear up valuable closet floor space.

It makes a big difference… your choice of linen storage is more important than you might think! It’s great for aesthetic purposes and helps make space for other items, too.

Note from Judy: I need to try this Tip to declutter my life for sure!

9) Follow the Home Organization 6 Month Rule

Get Rid of Stuff: Unless you’re using something or wearing a piece of clothing all the time, you should probably toss it after 6 months.

The 6-month rule of purging is liberating and makes space for new items.  What’s the easiest way to handle this 6-month rule?

Don’t hesitate to toss it if you haven’t worn that piece of clothing in 6 months.

Don’t overthink it. Just chuck those items you’ve been letting collect dust for half a year or more… even if you feel nostalgic about them. Unless it’s super sentimental, what’s the point of keeping it around needlessly?

Throw stuff away before you second guess yourself. After all, purging is necessary in order to make room for what you’ll actually use and wear. 

10) Give Yourself One Junk Drawer

To succeed at home organization experts say allowing yourself one junk drawer will help you maintain your sanity. Nobody’s perfect.

After all, allowing yourself one junk drawer is still better than having every drawer be a disaster. Sometimes you feel like you need a home for the miscellaneous items you can’t categorize.

Maybe it’s one of your desk drawers or a storage bin in the corner where you toss things that don’t have a place in your bedroom. Just be sure to go through and toss unnecessary items from this drawer every few months.

Otherwise, you run the risk of creating a never ending pile of junk that will be overwhelming to eventually go through.

11) Clean and Organize Your Room Weekly

We shouldn’t underestimate the power of organized drawers to clear our minds and set us up for success in other areas of our lives. Ideally, bedroom organization is a daily activity, and you clean up as you go.

Home organization takes time.

Realistically, it may take a while before these tasks become habits. Thoroughly tidying your bedroom once a week is a good goal. Make it fun, and make a routine out of it.

Create an easy checklist to follow every time. Pencil it in for the same time every week on your calendar if you must.

Your weekly cleaning checklist for yourself can include tasks like “Tackle Laundry”, “Clear off Top of Dresser”, “Organize Misc. Items”, “Sort Clothes in Closet”, etc.

Organizing your home doesn’t have to be a headache. Start small. Tackle your bedroom, one dresser drawer at a time.

Sure, it’s tough to keep your socks and underwear perfectly folded and organized…and it’s completely normal to have a junk drawer or two.

Home organization can be a therapeutic process that gives you the chance to declutter your living space and your mind.

By following the lead of people with great organization habits, you’ll have a cleaner home and a clearer mind just in time for spring.