Latest / More Organised Less Clutter / 244. Go-to drawer for organised mornings
Transcript
- Narelle King: Welcome to More Organized Less Clutter, a podcast to empower individuals and neurodivergent families with practical, realistic tools to create a more organized, sensory-friendly, clutter-free, and intentional home that works with your lifestyle and brain, not against it. I'm Norelle King, a professional organizer and neurodivergent mum who understands the unique challenges of family life. I help people just like you simplify your space. Build sustainable organizational systems and create more breathing room physically and mentally. Every fortnight you'll hear solo episodes and guest conversations filled with practical strategies on decluttering, home organization, routines for neurodivergent families, mindful living, and how to build a home that feels safe, calm and functional. You'll walk away with actionable takeaways you can implement even if you only have 10 minutes to spare. Do you struggle some mornings to get out the door on time because you're running around trying to find all last minute things? Today on the podcast, I'm gonna walk you through how to set up a go-to drawer. This is that drawer that has all the essentials you need every morning to get out of the house and have a nice calm, organized morning. So stay with me and I'm going to walk you through how to set up this go-to drawer. Thanks for joining me for today's solo episode. I am going to be sharing a simple but really powerful way to help you in the mornings to get out the door and feel really organized. And this is to set up a go-to drawer. Rather than calling this the junk drawer, it is the drawer that you go to to help you get out on time in the morning. This is like a landing zone. So it is more intentional and it's where things sit that you are going to use. as you're exiting the house. So it might be like in the kitchen hallway. Ours is like in the kitchen on the way out of the kitchen on the right hand side, the top drawer, so it's easy to access. And it's things that you can grab that you need most days. If you have this go to draw landing zone in a really difficult spot where you don't go past naturally on the way out the door or out the back door, you are not going to use it. So it needs to be in prime position of you passing by. So the things that you're going to put in this go-to drawer are things that you reach for every day. Here's some ideas of things that you might like to keep in this drawer. So it might be keys, it might be sunglasses, it might be like bus pass, school pass things that the kids might use, headphones, maybe lip balm. We have several different types of lip balm in our drawer. Maybe it's hand sanitizer. Maybe hair ties, clips, or even bobby pins. Maybe it's even your hair brushes that you use in the morning and that's where it gets done. And so it lives in that landing zone because it's maybe the last thing you do on the way out the door. Maybe it's notepads or sticky notes for, you know, last minute reminders that you need to write something down and some pens as well. I had a family recently and they had paper bags. So their school still does paper bag school lunches with coins inside it. So that is in their go-to drawer because it's easy to find. We have a few other things that I have added to ours. It's not something I use every day on our way out, but it is something that we use regularly, probably even on a weekly basis. And that's a quick unpick to get tags off clothing. Another one is Tissues, the bags for taking our dog for a walk, couple of basic medications, so like savon for cuts, and there's also some sprays, stuff for mosquito bites. Definitely there is a pair of scissors. And then we also have a roll of masking tape and also a permanent marker, and that is to ride on things that go in the fridge or go in the freezer. So it's actually in between both our fridge and our spare fridge with a freezer that we use regularly. And that's where I'll put extra meals or when there's leftovers, we can write on the masking tape, stick that on the glass jar, and then it goes in the freezer so you can see what's actually in the container. Same in the fridge. If there's something I want to write on so that everyone knows what it is, I just use the masking tape. So how do you organize this go-to drawer? And for me, it's not using separate little containers and dividers or having the pretty matching labels. It's about having everything there. So you could just get a cutlery drawer that's not being used. You could have just a few small containers, even repurpose, takeaway tubs, or some of your little boxes that you might have from for old phones. The goal is simple. You want to be able to open the drawer, see everything at a glance, and you don't need to dig. So it is one layer only. Using our four-step framework, we want to keep it easy and we want to keep it obvious. Okay, the steps to go through this. I would empty out a drawer that you're going to use and then clean it out. I would start with the things that you're going to use daily when you're leaving the house. Then if you actually have room in the drawer, you could then add some of those things that you use maybe once a month, like I suggested, like my quick unpick. It doesn't get used every day, but it does get used quite regularly. And it's not something you want to go back into our sewing cabinet to try and find, it's a lot easier in my go-to drawer. I would then ask the rest of your family to have a look and see if there's anything missing, what they might need in this go-to drawer. Then group the items together and then work out some simple dividers that's going to keep that category together. Now the part that's really important is that you put those items in that same container in that category every single time. Because if you don't assign a home for each group, this is when you're going to have problems. So for example, if you have your keys, your keys would go in that same divider. If you have, say, headphones, you would have them in that same spot. This just then removes the decision making. And this is often the draining part when things are not assigned an area. And thinking about our four step framework, the last part was the reset. At the end of the day, take a minute to just put things back where they belong. And you could do it while you put the kettle on or maybe while you're waiting for dinner to heat up. We do not want this drawer turning into the junk drawer. We want it to still keep that name, the go-to drawer, the drawer that you're going to go to to get the items to get you out the door. really quickly in the morning. Now another thing that you could add with your drawer if your mornings are feeling really hectic is add a visual cue. This could be a simple checklist that's stuck inside the drawer or on the wall nearby. Or it could even be a digital checklist on a device like your skylight. And this might be keys, wallet, lunch, water bottle, and you almost like tick them off as you go. Or just having that visual reminder is going to help. And is going to help reduce that mental load. We want to make sure that it is simple, one draw, one spot, one system that supports you and your family. We don't want to overthink it. Use what you've got and keep it just visible and make it easy to reset. And notice when things aren't working or new things have been added, maybe there's going to need to be a spot allocated for those things that you're now using on a daily basis. I hope by sharing these ideas you feel more confident to try to set up your go-to drawer to help your mornings feel more organized. Your challenge this week is to find a spot that you could set up this go-to drawer, look for the items, talk to the rest of your family and see what things they think would be great in this drawer. T let me know on social media how you go with setting up your go-to drawers. I love to see photos. Thanks for listening to More Organized, Less Clutter. Sick of wasting time looking for your keys, wallet, or that one charger that always disappears. Your space needs visual anchors. Grab the ADHD-friendly organization checklist, a 10-minute setup, a weekly reset, and troubleshooting map to adapt your space. Create an environment that works with your brain so that you can stop losing or forgetting things and start leaving on time with your sanity. Head to simply happy.com.au and click on the resource tab to get instant access today. I'd like to acknowledge the Waterong people of the Kulin Nation on which this podcast is recorded as the traditional custodians of the land. I pay my respects to their elders, past, present and emerging.