Junk Drawer Makeover

I am really working toward establishing Sabbath patterns as good and Godly habits in my life. It started with this study Breathe. It was reinforced by reading 24/6 by Matthew Sleeth, MD. The more I implement Sabbath, the more I recognize my need for it.

Sometimes I will get a glass of water to drink and not realize just how thirsty I am until I have started drinking. Sabbath is becoming like that for me. I did not realize just how dry and empty I let myself get until I started this recent journey.

I did the 14” challenge yesterday. I didn’t post about it because yesterday was Sunday and that is a day when I do my best to stay off my computer. So I will now be posting each day in arrears. This is day four’s 14” #sabbathmargin effort.

Yesterday I decided to clean out and organize my junk drawers. Everyone has one right? Maybe not, but in that case I have you covered because I in fact have two. Side by side. I forgot to take a picture before I took everything out of the one drawer, but all that stuff on my kitchen table came from that drawer.

This took some time. There were so many little things. How many rubber bands does one house need? When I maxed out the designated holder for rubber bands I just started throwing them away. That freed me. I threw a lot of stuff away; an entire trash can of stuff. Where did all of that come from? Certainly not the one drawer.

Yes. The one drawer. No wonder we could never find anything in there.

We have an entire container of keys. Some are labeled; some are not. We have no idea what most of them go to. I didn’t take the time to verify the labeled keys – I just compiled them all into one place. I feel sure that we will unearth more keys to unknown locks as we continue this #sabbathmargin purge. We can deal with them all at the same time.

The drawer on the left was less complicated. It actually has a very specific purpose of housing our church and neighborhood directories and the various manuals for the things in our kitchen: slow cooker, bread machine, rice cooker, toaster, oven, Ninja, etc. I kept the most recent directories and tossed the others (I had three of each).

I questioned the need to keep the manual for the toaster. Dial the level of toasting you want and press the button. It is just not that complicated. That manual went into the trash. I also threw out the manual for the phones we no longer own.

My husband likes this move to de-clutter and organize. But I must enlist his help to keep it that way so he and I have agreed where we will put certain things – like restaurant gift cards and coupons and other things that get used for date night. We have agreed where other things will find their home. We have agreed that we really don’t need anymore note pads of paper. We have enough to supply a small army. I have no idea how long those drawers will stay organized but they are today. Hopefully

that will encourage us to do the necessary things to help keep them that way.

And in honor of my friend Amanda who is just fundamentally opposed to the idea of a junk drawer, I have renamed it the “anything” drawer. When something doesn’t have a home and definitely should not be thrown out, it can find one in our “anything” drawer.

Tackle your “anything” drawer – what can you throw out? Look for expired coupons, corroded paperclips, etc. Invest in a set of those drawer organizer trays and you’ll be amazed at the difference you can make with very little time.

I believe you’ll find the difference to be more than just in the drawer. You will begin to recognize that your thirst for #sabbathmargin is starting to be fulfilled.  Let me know how it goes.

Blessings,

Denise

#LivingHoly