Organizing Life with a Little Mod-Podge

Confession. If I continue on my current path, there's a strong possibility that you will see me on an episode of Hoarders about twenty years from now. Okay, I'm probably exaggerating a little... but over the years, I have accumulated tons of stuff. And after all my stuff was combined with all Joey's stuff, I now find myself feeling overwhelmed and unable to even begin dealing with the mountain of stuff that looms before us.

Just as I was realizing that our home is about three seconds from being declared a national disaster, I stumbled across this post on Jordy Liz Blogs. Organizing Life? Yes please. This girl was preaching to my soul. Shoving junk into a drawer so I don't have to look at it anymore, setting the clean laundry aside somewhere to avoid dealing with it, holding onto things that I believe to have some minor significance to a memorable any life event - I've done it all. And I do not want to spend the rest of my life being controlled by this cluttered mess I have created.

So, in the spirit of organizing my life, I took on Jordy Liz's first challenge this week - Organize a drawer. Of course I managed to turn the process into a DIY project. An organized drawer, and a chance to use Mod-Podge and my label maker? Clearly a win-win.

I decided to tackle the dreaded kitchen junk drawer. It hasn't always been a junk drawer. It actually started as our VIP drawer - a place for the things we just knew we'd need in the future. I'll let you be the judge how that system worked out for us.

I started by sorting through all the treasures in the drawer to figure out what actually deserved the coveted VIP title. Turns out most of the stuff in there actually had a better home - craft supplies in the office, bags of spare change in the car for tolls, instruction manuals for various kitchen appliances all contained neatly in a folder next to our cookbooks, and all the bags of "spare parts" (Thanks a lot, Ikea.) with the tools.

Next, I spent a few days perusing my organizational options at a few stores. I fell in love with the Silver Mesh Drawer Organizers at The Container Store. And then, like I do after I spend time admiring pretty much anything I find at The Container Store, I fell back to Earth and realized it would cost about $20.00 to buy those beautiful, shiny drawer organizers. Multiply that by the four other kitchen drawers I also plan to take on and that adds up to a grand total of heck no. Enter DIY project.

I gathered up all the empty boxes I could find in our house (boxes that once held cereal, pasta, zip-lock bags, granola bars, dryer sheets, anything!) and tried out a few combinations until I found one that fit perfectly in the drawer - two Kroger granola bar boxes and the long sides of a Cheerios box. I cut them down to size and used the scraps to create smaller compartments within the larger boxes.

Perfect-o! There was just one problem. After fawning over what could have been at The Container Store, I couldn't stand the look of that hideous cardboard. So, I measured and cut scrapbook paper to cover the inside and outside of the box, then plastered it on there with some Mod-Podge.

I finished it off with thin strips of paper to hide the unsightly cardboard on the edges, and voila!

I simply repeated the process three more times, and I ended up with a lovely set of color-coordinated drawer organizers. (And let's be honest, everything is better when its color-coordinated.)

Just to avoid any future confusion, I labeled every compartment when I loaded up the drawer. I figure there's no excuse for something ending up where it doesn't belong if everything has an official home.

The best part about all this? The grand total of these beauties is... FREE. Take that, Container Store.