Cut The Clutter - Coffee Table Clean-Out

In an effort to clean and organize all our spaces and rid our apartment of the clutter we accumulated in 2014, I started down the road of cutting the clutter last month and it's been full steam ahead ever since!

 

You may recall that I tackled our entryway closet earlier this year and since taking on that project and seeing how effective having a clutter-free space has been for us, I started in on another un-organized thorn in our side: the coffee table.

 

Our hand-me-down coffee table that I've had for over 5 years has 4 generous sized drawers and while I'm grateful for the storage space, we definitely didn't utilize it properly...until now! Space is such a premium in our apartment and I've learned that in order to maximize on every bit of valuable real estate, everything we choose to keep in our apartment must have a designated space because when it doesn't, this is what happens:

We don't have a huge kitchen that affords us the luxury of a "junk drawer" so instead, the coffee table drawers have become our catch all for all the junk. There was too much junk in the trunk and it was time for the junk to go!

 

Like I did with the closet, the first thing I did was empty everything out and sort like items into piles so I could see what I was working with and how many bins I'd need to corral all this madness.

 

 

Side note...is 7 rolls of tape really necessary? Looks like in an effort to find one roll of tape, I bought 6 extras. Guess that's what happens when your coffee table is bursting at the seams and finding anything, let alone tape, is next to impossible.

 

After I sorted everything out, threw away the trash, I realized that a lot of what had accumulated in the coffee table were items that were simply misplaced and belonged elsewhere. So after re-directing those items to their correct homes, I was able to see what I was working with and  headed to the dollar store to pick up some bins. The bottom drawers of our coffee table are pretty deep so finding bins for the bottom drawers wasn't all that hard however the top drawers are pretty shallow so I decided to forgo bins all together. All in all I needed 13 bins for both bottom drawers.

One of the things I learned through my last attempt at employing some storage bins in these drawers is that when the bins don't fill the entire space, it's easy for the drawers to end up in chaos. With too much free space between the bins, the easier it is to just throw things anywhere! When the bins fill all the available space, you're almost forced to put the item back where it belongs.

So without further adieu...

 

Here she looks all decked out in all her organized glory!! (guess I just decided my coffee table is a she now)

 

 

I decided on 8 bins for the right drawer and 5 for the left. After determining homes for all the contents of the coffee to the new bins, I decided to take it up another notch.

 

I used some card stock that I had on hand, traced the bottom of each bin onto the paper, cut out the card stock and placed the decorative paper in the bottom of the bin.

 

 

Taking the couple extra minutes to pretty up the bins really goes a long way. When it's not only organized, but it looks good too, I feel as if you're more inclined to keep it that way and for only a couple extra bucks, you really can't beat the cuteness of it all!

 

All in all, I'd say this coffee table, or junk table, was a total success and it feels so good to have another organized space checked off the list! How's this for a before and after:

 

With everything assigned a new home, we have no need to use the top drawers although I could see these top drawers turning into storage for envelops or shipping supplies, but for now, they're as empty as can be!

 

For less than $20, I'm so happy with the end result and this coffee table is no longer a thorn in my side!