When you find yourself shoving things into your dresser, it’s probably time to organize your drawers. First things first: get everything out of your drawers. Really, everything. There’s often an astonishing amount of junk you don’t even notice anymore that somehow sneaks in, often not even clothing related! Sometimes in an effort to keep things looking tidy, we dump things into our drawers to get them out of sight. If you have any effluvia that ought not be there, put it aside to deal with later. Once you have everything out of your drawers, go through everything, making sure that you separate the items you love from the ones that don’t work for you anymore ( I know, blah, blah, but one must). It can be enormously helpful at this point to have someone with you, as we can be blind to the flaws of things we are used to seeing; a good friend or friendly organizer (me!) can be invaluable here.
Now that you have everything you’d like to keep, separate into piles, with similar things (jeans, or underwear) going together. If you find that you still are a little short on space, choose a few things that are not in regular rotation but that are still loved and put them into some kind of secondary storage (some ideas here ). Remember, the things that go in drawers (vs closets) will be things that can be folded and not tell a tale about it later- sweaters, bras, etc- save your blouses and blazers for the closet.
After separating things into like piles, back in the drawers they go. But how? Some people like to use drawer dividers, especially in an intimates drawer, as smaller things can get all mixed up together. Some people even like to have separate boxes within a drawer, and if you find this helpful, by all means get some, but most of us carry on with having manageable (making a stack too big is a recipe for your organization not to last very long) stacks of things grouped by category. Ideally, each drawer has its own designation- ie, pants drawer, or sweater drawer- but if you don’t have enough space for that, just make sure yours stacks are distinct and things are grouped together as logically as possible.
Bonus points for drawer liners- some people feel this is too fussy, but I find it very cheering to catch a glimpse of something beautiful under the socks. Fragrance is a nice touch, too. Simply putting a bar of soap with a pleasing scent in each drawer works well, as does having a sachet, filled with your favorite herbs- lavender is always lovely. Cedar blocks are very practical, in addition to smelling good.
And then- finished! You now have drawers you could actually get dressed from in the dark.
{image ‘you can’t lay down your memory’ chest of drawers, by tejo remy, @ moma}
