18 Drawer Chest Of Drawers

1 drawer declutter challenge

Hey guys! Back from the beach and playing catch up (why do you always need a vacation after a vacation?), but wanted to pop in and give you a quick challenge today. And that's simply to:

Open up one drawer today and declutter the crap out of it!

It could be an office drawer, desk drawer, kitchen drawer, clothes drawer, or better even – a drawer you haven't looked inside of for years :)

One of the ways I was able to get good traction with our Challenge Everything savings (update coming soon!) was to take stuff slow and focus on one area at a time. This not only made it much easier to handle, but it also built up the momentum like crazy by piling on the small wins. And there are a TON of drawers in our lives, believe me. It shouldn't be hard to do.

And if it is, try your safe if you have one instead!

In all my scavenging around our house looking for stuff to hawk this year, I totally missed the clutter crowding up our safe too. Old paperwork, keys, expired credit cards, IDs (am I the only one who keeps those?), and a slew of other randomness I had no idea were in there too.

Like these:

found dollar bills

$51.00 sitting there doing absolutely nothing. It seems I need to clean these out every 7 years or so as the last time I was digging around I found $750 worth of old savings bonds! What is it with safes that just sucks things up like that?

I remember having solid "reasons" to keep these around though ;)

Item #1 – found in my change one day*, thought it was so cool!
Item #2 – also found in my change and kept out of cool factor.
Item #3 – signed $20 bill from none other than Ramit Sethi, best selling author of the book (and blog), I Will Teach You To Be Rich. I first met him during his book tour circa 2009, and have since shared many a beers since :) One of my favorite bloggers and book!
Item #4 & #5 – folded up tenners I once found on the ground and decided I couldn't spend because they were "good luck." (hah)

So all these years they've been sitting there waiting for me to uncover them again like that miser and his gold. Only this time I'm going to do something with them! (Sorry Ramit) As much as they once gave me a thrill, they'll now be joining their buddies over at Vanguard in the procreation process. Which you may recall as #6 on my list of "things you need to know about money" ;)

Anyways, point is it only takes one drawer to get going and feel organized. Set aside 15 minutes today and start sorting/trashing/selling all the junk in one of your drawers/safes! You'll feel great! And if you're lucky, you'll find some long lost money too (or perhaps the opposite – past due bills, yikes!).

Once you accomplish this, come back and let me know so I can jot your name down on this spur-of-the-moment list here and make you internet-famous. There's really no way to lose :)

People who took the One Drawer Challenge and won:

J. Money (safe)
Emma (suitcases)
Insider Accountant (file cabinet!)
Claudia (kitchen "junk" drawer)
Jeff (kitchen "junk" drawer)
Ms. Money Maker (desk)
Christine (kitchen)
Joe (fridge & cabinets)
Free to Pursue (change drawer/purse/pockets!)
The Single Dollar (3 desk drawers!)
Chris Muller (cleaned house and had a yard sale!!)

(Scurries off to finish cleaning out his safe…)

———
*Don't worry Richard, I'll scan them in for you first for MoneyGraffiti.com

PS: I recently found these other autographed bills too, which I am decidedly keeping :) Signed $1.00 bill by Kevin Smith and Jason "Phat Buds" Mewes (ie Silent Bob & Jay of Clerks/Mallrats fame), and autographed $5.00 bill by the hilarious Ben Stiller. Who I met ironically while filming one of his not-so-hilarious movies, "Duplex!"

autographed bills

[Photo up top is from The Floodwall Project – a rather fascinating (and sad) art installation. Check it out if you have time – it's pretty incredible]

Jay loves talking about money, collecting coins, blasting hip-hop, and hanging out with his three beautiful boys. You can check out all of his online projects at jmoney.biz. Thanks for reading the blog!