Bobby Berk's Smart Decluttering Trick Makes Organizing Drawers A Breeze

Messy drawers can happen for all sorts of reasons. While hidden storage can give you a way to put things out of sight, eventually, you may have to deal with them in the form of crowded and overstuffed drawers or bins. "Queer Eye's" interior design expert Bobby Berk has an ingenious method, however, for tackling large organization projects in small increments. By employing the 10-10-100 method, you can deal with the overwhelm that organization and cleaning projects may elicit, causing you to increasingly avoid them as they worsen. All you have to do is spend 10 minutes a day clearing 10 things from your selected drawer. Repeat this with different drawers until you've reached 100 minutes and 100 items decluttered.

This smart organization tip works well for catch-all drawers like junk drawers, where random odds and ends tend to collect. But it can also be applied to spaces like bathroom vanities, desks, messy nightstands, and clothing drawers. You can also use the same method for cabinets, closets, and different types of storage, all in similar 10-minute increments.

Bobby Berk advises you to set a timer for 10 minutes and begin selecting your 10 items from the drawer that need to be cleared. This can mean removing and tossing items that need to be thrown out or recycled, like expired cosmetics from a bathroom drawer or old chargers or electronics in your kitchen junk drawer. It could also mean relocating things elsewhere for a better fit or finding better storage alternatives for items that have wound up in the drawer but don't necessarily belong there. Suppose you find that similar types of items continue to surface. In that case, you may want to assign another drawer or container dedicated to just those items and assess whether you need other helpful tools like plastic sorters, bins, or drawer dividers. Once you have emptied the drawer of all essentials, clean it thoroughly and put things that belong there back in. 

For items you are unsure of, it can help to create another secondary location, like the popular doom box method that helps you declutter by setting things aside to be sorted at a later date. You can even use his method to sort out a growing doom box collection in 10-minute increments. The 10-10-100 approach to organizing can also be combined with other cleaning methods like Mari Kondo's popular Konmari method of organization, assessing all of the items and keeping only those that are functional or bring enjoyment.