Drawer clean up and the daily

I work a lot. I work so much that even though I have three weeks of vacation a year, and I took time off for my wedding last year, and took time off for my cousins wedding this year, and went for a week long bachelorette in Mexico for her, I still have 19 days of vacation for this year. My company is officially changing the policy on being able to accumulate vacation time after this year, so I have until the end of next year to use up almost six weeks of vacation. It probably will not happen...but I am taking time off here and there to make sure the vacation days I do miss out on isn't so high - for example, I am taking Friday off, and will be taking some time off during Christmas and New Years. 

Whenever I have time for a quick clean up during the week, I'll be be completing small tasks that need attending to periodically. Case in point, the bathroom drawer, shown below in its "before" glory.

We all have these drawers or areas in our home. They become a sinkhole for items that do not fit anywhere else, or a quick place to stash (or become a "forever home") items when we are clearing off a surface. 

Since the drawer is fairly small, and it holds a lot of daily essentials, it was easy enough to empty out the drawer on to the bathroom counter to pick through everything, and also vacuum the drawer. There was a LOT of small debris (like makeup sharpenings that had fallen out of a sharpener) and hair that had fallen off of hairbrushes. It was a little gross how much had accumulated.

I also took the time to soak my brushes in a little bit of shampoo dissolved in warm water. I need to do this more often.

Finally, I evaluated each item before moving it to another area, recycling it, throwing it away, or deciding to donate it:

- moved: a number of wayward band aids, a lone zip tie, and hair and beauty samples (more of this later, I pick up freebie samples of anything like I get paid for it!)

- recycled: paper tags, an outdated calendar used for tracking how often I change my contacts (I did not know this was in the drawer, obviously I do not use it!), I amalgamated a set of extra contact lenses, and recycled the box.

- trashed: old makeup

- donated: a lip balm that I do not use, and an eyepencil that we used for Halloween one year

The displaced items allowed for me to reorganize everything that I really needed (that may be debatable, as I know there are no less than four eyeshadow palettes - palettes, not singles!) and again, since the drawer is small, I can see an item that I need without rummaging long. 

Here is an after picture below:

Ahhhh, organized. I know this is boring stuff but as small as it is, this is (in a sad way) rewarding. 

Three items of the day ( that is actually four):

- I know the magazine is cheating a little, and there are more to come. It is going to be a bit of a go because there are certain recipes that interest me, and if I do not try them out in the next couple of weeks, they are getting donated as well.

- set out four soupspoons we bought at daiso. They are ugly, do not match our other utensils, and are awkward to use. They are destined for the free box.

- Acura tire locks. My car accident was over a year ago, and ICBC gave me money for my car. I don't know why I thought I could get money for these from Craigslist, but there were no biters last time I tried. Oh well. There are many Acura owners at work, perhaps they will use them.

- cheese apron... I got this as a gift from someone after they came back from a trip from Europe. Never used and going into the donation bag at the front door for the next charity that comes knocking.

I am taking Friday off from work, so hopefully I get some larger scale cleaning and purging done!