this post is in partnership with oxo

anyone else feel like they’re in their nesting stage of pregnancy again being stuck at home this long?! i have done sooo many house projects and have been racking my brain trying to come up with new ones constantly. my once minimalist house is definitely teetering on the edge of maximalist at this point. but one tried and true house project that only has positive outcomes is organizing!! it helps that behind all the “clean” surfaces, every drawer and cabinet in my house is an actual disaster, so i’ve been trying to tackle organizing one space every week or so. it is SO SATISFYING. 

and while i’m no expert when it comes to organizing, i just enjoy the process a lot (the before and afters even more), so i’m even starting a new “organizing” category here on the blog because my organizing journey shouldn’t only live on instagram! 

a giant part of my new organized dream drawers is OXO’s new adjustable drawer bins that come with removable dividers, they are super versatile and would work in so many different types of drawers. gid and i have been calling drawer organizers “drawerganizers” for many, many years so i should probably patent that term!

anyway, the first drawer i redid was this awkwardly empty drawer above our trash cans in the kitchen. i originally intended to use the drawer for trash bags but our trash bag rolls were awkward inside and trying to rip one bag off was a pain, so we instead just filled it with plastic and paper bags. this was years ago and we stopped using and needing those bags, so it was just filled with bags to throw away.

i’ve actually never really had a junk drawer so i decided that would be such a fun use for it– a lot of people on IG didn’t like the term junk drawer since it’s actually useful stuff instead, so fine you can call it a utility drawer if you want. it’s your life!

ok wow this drawer was soooo fun to create. a place for all the little things i had sort of scattered everywhere, like all the little tiny glasses screwdrivers i’ve collected over the years, now i know where to actually find them!!! and all the twist ties in ONE TIDY PLACE! if you’re one of those people that is worried about the batteries facing different directions, i want you to know i fixed it after taking the photos so please stop worrying so much!! i also did a little satisfying time lapse video if you click to the next slide below!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by molly madfis (@almostmakesperfect) on Aug 23, 2020 at 8:30am PDT

the adjustable bins are so helpful for customizing to the different sizes of all your items, and even though the bins didn’t fit my drawer perfectly across i actually find it so nice to have a little gutter for the larger items.

the only real bummer is there isn’t a satisfying before and after since the drawer was empty… BUT thats why i did my nightstand too! ok now before you judge me, know that we got these giant nightstands and i was like OMG YAY the drawers are soooo big i can keep everything in here! so i just put everything in and never bothered trying to keep it nice until now. so let this be a cautionary tale that this is what happens when you just throw everything inside lol. 

for the nightstand re-org, i started by just removing EVERYTHING, and vacuuming the drawers for a fresh clean do over. then i figured out which bins would fit best in which configuration (but i tend to change that a lot as i’m actually filling each slot and seeing what needs to move). i threw away a good 1/4 of what was in there– old voided checks, like 12 bottles of sleeping pills that i actually consolidated, and tons of medicine and skin products that belong elsewhere. 

it was BAD. then i just filled each slot with different categories, so one section for lip care, one section for hand creams, my pills, spare glasses, matches, cbd/relaxing products, hair ties, chargers pens and i used the gutter again for pads of paper/notebooks and my bug bite burner. 

the best part about using these organizers is that it will actually take a lot of effort for it to become chaotic again. since they’re stuck in place and everything has a designated spot, it makes it much harder for me to let it get crazy! ok i feel strongly about this now, but i guess you could ask me how it looks in a year and i might have a different opinion, but it makes sense that it would stay fairly tidy now right?!

i am sooo happy with how all these drawers turned out. i actually feel lighter. and now i want to keep going and do every drawer in the house!!! 

shop the adjustable drawer bin set here

(i mostly used the 4-piece sets)