Organized Or OCD?

My friend Deb from church (all you Element3 people know who I'm talking about), said to me with a big beautiful smile, upon reading my coffee drawer post, she wasn't at all surprised to see the picture of my drawer. Now I like Deb. Yeah, I like her a lot. She's fun, cheerful, takes great photographs, and BOY DOES SHE HAVE WHITE TEETH!!! Something I love and covet. Did I say covet. I mean admire. So I got to thinking about her comment to me, and came to this conclusion. This is for you Deb,


Yuppers, it's another drawer. Organized right out there for the whole world to see.

And take a lookie at this,


and this,


and ooooooh, I looovvvve this,


and can you believe this,

Cutie Sophie is just a bonus. Actually, my drawers,& cupboards weren't always this way. Really. Through the years of taking care of our home, I realized that we just had too much stuff. Way too much stuff. And all of that stuff was causing more work for me then necessary, which equaled less time with the peeps that I was staying home to nurture, teach, and love on. I finally just got rid of tons of things, and decided I really liked how it felt. Like my plastic containers to store leftovers in. I had accumulated many unmatched, didn't fit, just plain useless tops and bottoms that collected in my drawer. I threw them all out, went to Wal-Mart and purchased a box of Rubbermaid containers for about $14.00. Now every bottom has a top that fits, and I have room left over in that drawer I didn't have before. Who would of thunk it.


Also, how many coffee mugs do we all have in our cupboard that we don't use. There just taking up space, and we always seem to grab the same few every day. We could probably get rid of 80% of them, and keep 6 of our favorites. Well what if 45 people come to our house at the same time for coffee, then what will I do?you say. Seriously, I have friends over for coffee, all the time. Not once has anyone had to share a coffee mug. Get rid of them!!!


I also realized that if I took time regularly to keep things organized, not let it get out of hand, overwhelming, that I could keep up better.
I noticed this morning one of the food cupboards looking like this,


It took me 60seconds to put it back to this

I've gotten down to the baking pans that I use, and realized I didn't need the other 15 or so that just sat there taking up valuable space.

Another thing that helps is to have a junk drawer. I do have one.

It's actually one of the biggest drawers in the kitchen. I have it because sometimes there just isn't a place for that odd stuff, and having that drawer to toss the odd stuff in prevents me from tossing it in another place it really doesn't belong.

Actually, I had so much stuff in the junk drawer that when I went to put something in it over the weekend, the front face fell off. I put it back real tricky like and left it. Blue Eyed Husband knew it was me of course. He knows me well.

If thinking of cleaning out your whole house from cupboards to closets, to drawers is a bit overwhelming. Don't. Just start small. Choose one drawer. One cupboard. One closet. Get your garbage bags ready and go for it. I promise it will be your favorite drawer, cupboard, or closet. You'll want more believe me.

And finally, with the prices of everything going up every single week, maybe we need to stop buying SO MUCH STUFF. Look at what you REALLY, use to clean with. What you REALLY eat. Lets stop buying so much stuff, and see how well we can get by with less.

I don't really think I am OCD. I think I've found a place of comfort in not having so much, and the freedom that brings, with my time, energy, emotions... Hey, I even have more time to blog. That has to be good.
Hugs from Maine