As part of my Happiness Project, I have been trying to break down big goals (declutter house) into teeny tiny little goals (clean out a drawer). And so far it seems to be working. The high I got from cleaning out these two kitchen drawers was well, pretty high, I must say. I immediately felt calmer when I was done, and every time I need to get something from either of these drawers, I smile. And I use these drawers all the time. You see, these two drawers are also known as the junk drawers in the kitchen. You know you have one, it's okay. We all do. I just had two.

I knew they were a mess but I let them be until one afternoon. I had just closed one drawer when I heard a huge crash of what sounded like pots and pans and breakable Pyrex dishes. I couldn't understand what had happened, there were no pots and pans in my little overstuffed drawer. I opened the cabinets beneath my overstuffed drawers and there it was. The contents of my overstuffed drawer had overflowed its boundaries and had poured out into the cabinet below. My slamming the drawer seems to have caused an avalanche of stuff, which in turn caused the drawer stuff to topple over an entire shelf of pots and pans. And time for a mini-goal it was.

This is what my drawers looked like before.

I purged, I sorted, I put things where they actually belonged. Then I tried out every pen in the drawer to see if it actually worked.

Then I put back each item that was allowed to live in these drawers. I feel like I need to hit The Container Store for some drawer dividing items. Well, not really The Container Store, but some cheaper priced store that sells the same items.

Here are my after-drawers.

This took fifteen minutes of my time. Imagine. And it used to take me at least five minutes to find something specific in these drawers. Oh Happiness Project, I'm so happy already!

The goal was for the box to live in the porch and for the boys to deposit their kippahs there when they came home from school. Yes, yes, I am well aware that my boys should be wearing their kippahs from the time they get up in the morning until they go to bed, but seriously people, baby steps here, baby steps.  

At this point, the box only works sometimes - as in when the box is actually in the porch. For some reason though, it seems that the box is always everywhere except where it should be. Really. I am constantly knocking it off the kitchen counter or tripping over it in the dining room. I have yet to figure out a way to keep it in its place. I considered hot-gluing it to my credenza but I like the credenza too much. My next idea is velcro, but I am not sure if the box would sit straight with velcro under it.

All I know is that I will not give up until I make this Kippah Box work. Because at this rate, in another ten days, we will have no clips left at all.  

This will work. It has too. It's a box and it has stickers on it. Seriously, what's the problem? Maybe it's because I didn't decoupage it. Oh, lord.    

So each night we spend time looking for the crayons and pencils and scissors and glue. We'd usually find them wherever it was that we did homework the night before. Hmm, maybe I am seeing the value of a designated homework spot. Perhaps my mockery was uncalled for.  

And then yesterday, in the middle of scotch-taping the homework back together after a child who does not yet attend school ripped apart the homework of one who does, I realized I needed a plan. The first part of the plan was for me to stop coloring the homework myself while my beloved watched Cyberchase. The second part of the plan was to get organized. We needed crayons, glue, pencils, scissors, and I am not sure what else in a box, but I am fairly certain that the box must contain something for the homework-less kids to do while the real work is going on.  

Heaven forbid I should just throw all those things into a shoebox. Noooo. I need to decoupage that box first or else I will feel like I have not completed my task as a mother today. Have I done laundry? No! Have I cleaned up from breakfast? Of course not! But decoupage I will.

Having used the box last night for the first time, I can say with 100% confidence that it still needs a little tweaking. For example, the scissors and glue will no longer be living in the box. The mess that can be made by a four year old and a two year old during the ten minutes it takes for a five year old to do homework is indescribable. Instead, I think I will give each kid a "homework notebook" of their own so they can just color in it during homework time.  

And that's that. A homework box.  
   
I just counted. I typed the word homework 22 times during this one post. And I checked, there are no synonyms for homework. Oops, 23 times. I knew I hated homework for a reason. Darn, 24.