- Today I want to talk
about Stuffed Drawer Theory. It's a theory that applies to lots of
our storage spaces and can explain why, if you don't feel like you can
keep your house organized or tidy, stay on top of it, keep it decluttered,
this might have something to do with it. Something that Cas said, when we were
filming our Take Your House Back course, was that if we struggle with
clutter, with stuff getting left out, either for us or other
members of our household, is that it has to be
practically as easy to put it away as it is to leave it out. In
other words, if the home for something, if it just isn't really easy to put it
back in the drawer, back in the cabinet, that that's when things
usually get left out. And I've noticed this with myself too.
So we've talked a little bit about it. We have kind of a weird setup with our
clothing because of our master bedroom not having a closet. And so I have
this dresser that's in our bathroom, but next to our laundry
room, which is nice. And so what I've noticed is that if
at any point I start piling stuff on top, instead of just
putting it away in the drawer, it's usually because the
drawer is getting too full. And once any kind of drawer or cabinet
or cupboard or bin starts to get too full, it makes it harder
to put stuff away. So whether I'm changing
at the end of the day, and I need to put something back away
or I have clean laundry and I'm going to put it away, if the drawer is like two-thirds
full or all the way full, it just feels hard to put
it away. Especially when
all of the laundry is done. It's like, uh, it doesn't actually fit
comfortably. It's just, I mean, you know, you've experienced this, right? It's
just like, uh, it's just kind of a pain. But if I'll take the time to go back
through it and pare it down and simplify down where it's like a half full
or a third full, it is so easy. And I don't even think twice about it. And so that's where this idea of
the Stuffed Drawer Theory comes in, that if we ever get down on
ourselves, because we're like, why can't I keep stuff
picked up or put away? Often it's because the places where we
need to put this stuff away are kind of overfull. And so today I want to show you a really
simple method of how we can pare down any drawer or space really quickly. But I want to talk about
one other thing first. And that is the cost of storing things. And so it's easy to keep extra stuff
because if I'm paring down this drawer and I'm going through it and I'm holding
stuff up and I'm like, I don't know. I kind of like this shirt. I did wear it that one
time earlier this summer. It didn't fit as great as I would like, but one person did tell me they liked
it. I haven't really worn it since, but I might want to wear it again.
So I'm just going to keep it. And we think that because we've already
paid for the shirt or whatever it is that we're holding up, we think
that there's no cost to keeping it. It's not costing us any money. The problem is it's
costing us other things. It's making it so that I pile
stuff on top of the dresser, instead of just putting it away. It's making it so that when I
come to put clean laundry away, it's really full and it's
kind of tight to fit it in. And so I would rather just pile the
clean laundry on top of the dresser too. And so I know I've heard it so
many times, people are like, can you please help me so that clean
laundry gets put away in our household? And it was actually, I think
Dana said, she was like, "Well, are your drawers too full? Are your
closets too full?" Because a lot of times, if they start to get full, it makes
it so much harder to put stuff away. It's easier just to put it on top or
next to it or leave it in the laundry basket or whatever. And so that's where this idea
that it does cost us something to keep stuff. It's not money, and usually that's the commodity
we're most worried about, but it is costing us
something to store this stuff. And so I want to show you a really
quick tip for simplifying clothes. And so we're going to go through
that with this way overfull drawer. But first a word from our
sponsor. Thank you, Helix, for sponsoring this video. Tom, why don't you describe our
Helix mattress in one word? I didn't tell him I was going to do this. - Serenity. - Serenity. Hmmm, k. How
about a word that describes how you sleep? - You put me on the spot. I don't
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sleep on our mattress. - I sleep wonderful on our mattress,
especially after like today. We had a long day today and we're so
grateful that at night we get to come home and sleep on this
bed. - We've been helping, we've been going to people's
houses and help them declutter. And today was a marathon.
- It was a lot of work. - And we got home this afternoon and it
took all my willpower not to come crawl in bed. - That is 100% true. - So Helix is a premium
bed-in-a-box company. You go online and you take their sleep
quiz and they match you with the Helix mattress that is just right for you. So we like our mattress a little bit more
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with the Helix Dusk Luxe. So we've had our mattress for
about a year now. And we love it. We sleep great on it. And we tell
all of our friends about it too. And so when you go online,
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particular sleeper. - Yeah. - Like I didn't
think I used to be, but after we started trying to find- -
Getting a little higher up in the years? Is that what you we're gonna say? - No, that's not what I was
going to say. I was going to say, once we started trying out new mattresses, then I figured out that I need
a very particular mattress. - Yeah. That's Tom. He's
actually very needy. So if you've been doing a
lot of decluttering lately
and you need a really good night's sleep, we encourage
you to check out Helix. If you use the link down below, you can
get up to $200 off and two free pillows. And thank you, Helix, for
sponsoring this video. Now we're going to go
clean out a dresser drawer. - Bye. - Okay, so there's just two things that
we're going to need for this process. Some kind of storage or
quarantine container. Like I said, I really like these canvas
bags. A donation bag. And again, you could use a box or a Rubbermaid
tote, anything like that. We just want a place to quarantine stuff
that we're just not sure about. Okay, so step one, we are going to pull
everything out of this drawer. I don't always like this method
because it can overwhelm us, but we're just going to
do one drawer at a time. So that's where I think it's okay. And we're just literally
going to pull everything out. So I just had to count out of curiosity,
and there was 52 shirts in here, six swimsuits and like eight tank tops. So this drawer holds way more
than I would possibly ever wear on any given, I don't
know, period of time. So we're going to pack
like we're going on a trip. So we're going to be gone seven
or eight days. Fortunately, the climate is almost exactly
the same as where we live, so that's really convenient. And we're going to be doing all of the
same normal weekly activities that we do when we're at home. So do you
see where I'm going with this? So we're going to pack for
a week of basically being at home. And whenever we pack to
go somewhere to go on vacation, we only bring stuff that currently
fits and that we like wearing. We pick out our favorites. We don't
bring something along and we're like, oh, well, when I lose five pounds,
this shirt looks perfect. We never, well hopefully we don't. We don't bring
that kind of stuff on trips with us. We only bring the stuff that fits right
now and that we're wearing. Like again, oh, well, I hope that I start working out again
and I'm gonna wear a workout top. No, if we're going to be gone for seven
days, we don't bring that kind of stuff. So what we're going to do is
we're going to have, again, our quarantine container
right next to our drawer. And then I have my donation bag here
too, if there's any obvious donations. And as I hold something up, I
just say, okay, am I going to, would I take this on a weeklong
trip right now? No, I wouldn't. So that's going to go in the bag. How
about this top? Um, I think I would, so I'm going to put this in the drawer, but I might swap stuff out as I go
if I find other stuff that I would rather have. So this, yep, I
wouldn't wear that. This I wouldn't. This, oh yeah. One of my black
t-shirts, I have to have that. And I'm not even going
to fold it all right now. I'll go back and fold the stuff in the
drawer when I'm done. This I would not. This I would. Would I bring
this shirt on a trip? Yes. Another one of my black tops. But
this one, I don't like as much. This is a v-neck and I don't
really care for that one. Okay, this I definitely wouldn't. This,
it's a little snug right now, so I wouldn't bring that.
This I would. This I would. Well, this is like more of a fall
shirt and I wouldn't be needing this. So I'm going to put this away right now. Cause I only want stuff in my drawer
right now that I'm currently wearing. Again, I want this drawer to function so well
that it's just as easy to put stuff away as leave it out. Alright, swimsuits. I'm going to set the swimsuits aside
and we'll talk about that in a second. So we'll just pile swimsuit stuff over
here. This one I used to wear a lot, but I haven't been wearing it
as much. Same with this one. This shirt I like for
walking, so I would take that. This is a hooded sweatshirt, but I have a different one that
I've been wearing more recently. So in the fall I would wear
this more, but not right now. So I'm going to put that in my quarantine
bin. This one I don't really wear. Let's see, so this is a
tank top that I would wear, so I'm gonna put it in my
bin here in the corner. But this tank top I don't really wear
anymore so I'm gonna quarantine that. Again, this is like more of a fall shirt, so I'm going to put that in the
quarantine. This is a tank top I got, but I never actually liked how my
arms looked in it, so I think, uh, I don't know. I'm going to quarantine
that for now. And then more white. Let's see this one I wear, but
that one I don't. That I don't. That's this one too. I haven't really been wearing this shirt
lately so that one can go in there. Oh yeah, I forgot about this shirt.
Does that ever happen? Hmm. Yeah, that I think will go in the quarantine. I kind of like having this sweatshirt
just for layering this time of year and I have plenty of room in my drawer, so
I think, or in my suitcase, however, I'm looking at it. So I
think would keep this out. So I'll put that there. Okay, so then I can show you here what I have already
filled up in the quarantine and then also what I have for swimsuits.
So again, if I'm going, there's like six swimsuits here. So if I'm going on a trip
and I'm going to wear a suit, I'm only going to pick the ones
that fit now, that I like wearing. And so I actually, what
I wear most of the time, especially if we're doing
anything active is I got this black short sleeve top and it has
some ruching on the sides, from Amazon, and I love it. Because you don't have
to worry about adjusting anything. So this I would for sure keep out. And then I have another black suit
that I like. And that would be, that would be all that I would take with
me if I were going somewhere right now. So I'm gonna put this in this little
container I have in the corner here. And then everything else is going to
go into the quarantine bag for now. So then lastly what I'm going to
do, I'm going to fold everything up. But I'm just going to
look through and see, do I have enough of each type of
shirt that I would normally wear? This is just where I keep
my tops, my not nice tops. Like my tops I would wear for dress or
whatever, get hung up in our wardrobe. But this is just like my casual stuff.
So I was just looking through it. I'm like I could probably use one more
t-shirt just to wear around the house. So I pulled this out of my quarantine bin
and now I feel like it's well-rounded. So I'm going to fold everything quick
and then we'll see how it looks, but already I can tell it's going to be
so much easier to take care of and to maintain. And I know I will always be
putting stuff away at the end of the day. And yes, I do fold my
clothes that go in here. And if you want to do the Marie
Kondo fold, you can. Personally, it's never really been my thing. Especially if you don't have
a ton of clothes in there, it doesn't always hold them
up, standing up neatly. So I just fold them the regular way and
let's just be glad I'm folding them. The other thing is, I know
sometimes people will say, oh, I'm really into clothes
or I like having options. And I would challenge you on that
one right now. For most of us, our brains are fried and we are
kind of overloaded right now. And we did a Facebook Live for
our Take Your House Back course, which is open right now, by the way. We
do Facebook Lives every week in there, which is awesome. But Dana was saying, things that used to just be an
easy decision, like, "Hey, Mom, can I go over to my friend's
house to play?" aren't. We have to think about things so much
differently right now. And so honestly, being able to just open
your dresser drawer, know that everything in there is an option
right now. It's something that fits. That's comfortable. You're not always
adjusting. It's literally an option. Being able to just open your drawer,
pull something out, wear it for the day, is so nice. I mean, just giving your
brain that little bit of breathing room. And again, if we use this method,
packing for vacation, it took me like, I don't know, like six minutes
to get through that whole drawer. And everything's safe, cause again, we don't necessarily trust ourselves
with decisions right now either. Like I spend money on it. Should I get
rid of it? Will I fit into it again? So everything is safe in here.
And so it does, it's fine. Like I can just tuck this into the
closet, not think about it for now. And then if we are like, oh, I need to pull something out of there
or I need a couple more t-shirts, we'll just go in there and grab it. But I think you're going to really like
how this feels and I think you're gonna find that it will solve the problem
of piling stuff on top for you too. So I just, I don't think there's
any downfalls to this. It's just, it feels so good to have our
drawers not be stuffed full. And it feels good in our dresser drawers, in our closet and in our kitchen and
every other place of our house as well. So I'd love to know, Stuffed Drawer
Theory, does it resonate with you at all? Do you think maybe everyone
in your household would be
a little more successful putting stuff away if there's
a little less stuff in the way? I would love to know your thoughts on it. And I'll also leave you with the
video I did not too long ago. If you want to declutter faster, if
you're like, yeah, my brain is fried, but how do I still get some
serious decluttering done? I did a video a little while back on
five ways to declutter faster that I just think those tips are really good
for the season we're in right now. So I'm going to link to that down below
as well. I hope you have a good day. I love you. And I'll see you again soon.
