Clean with me - The utensil draw

Anyone that has a cutlery draw like mine can understand my frustration when trying to find what you need and having to almost empty the draw to find them item (which is usually all the way at the very bottom). The great thing about keeping organized is that you take all the hard work out. When you have access to what you need quickly and easily, you have more time to focus on the important things.

When I first moved into my apartment, I bought many things to furnish a new home. What i didn't realize is that you eventually forget what you have and buy more, or, people give you housewarming gifts and you end up with multiples of the same thing (like 4 spaghetti servers, and I cant even tell you the last time I made spaghetti). The trouble is, you have to store these items somewhere and for me, there isn't much of that going on in small 1 bedroom apartment. Sadly, as much as you want to believe that you use everything you have, you do actually only use 20%, 80% of the time. So 80% of your 'stuff' is literally sitting around doing nothing but taking up vital real estate in your home. 

Whilst making this video, I was reminded of how much easier it is when you can have easy access to what you need, when you need it. The key is to get rid of the stuff that you don't use, and keep the stuff that you do use regularly in a tidy and easily accessible spot. 

From this purging session, I have a bucket full of things to sell or donate. I plan to do a huge clean out of my storage areas over the next few weeks and take what i'd like to sell to a trash and treasure (junk yard sale) so that I can make a little money to put towards my emergency fund. 

I am currently following the Dave Ramsey baby steps (if you haven't heard of Dave Ramsey and are wanting to get out of debt or start a budget, he really is someone that you want to learn from). I'm currently on Baby Step #3, that's saving 3-6 months worth of expenses for emergencies (real emergencies, not the we ordered Pizza and the delivery driver doesn't accept credit/debit card type of emergency). It's really important to me to be financially free, and selling 'stuff' that I literally have lying around the house means that I can reach my goals a whole lot faster.