Organize Your Undies!

 Hello, everyone. My name is Katie. 

You don't know me yet, but I'm about to show you my underwear.

I, like many of you, I'm guessing, have been living with a crazed, overspilling, and generally unfortunate underwear drawer for as long as I can remember. I don't even know half the stuff that's in there anymore. (Underwear drawers so easily exceed their purposed bounds, don't you think?) By the time I got around to addressing the issue, underwear itself was no longer the problem. The drawer had consumed both worn and unopened tights, sports bras, bathing suits, scarves, stray dress socks, concert tickets, old lipsticks...you name it, and I had shoved it in that drawer to deal with later.

Later has finally come.

The other day, putting away laundry, I found that I could no longer close said underwear drawer. And a small light flashed before my eyes, and I realized that I was disgusting. 

This was not okay.

So I decided to get my act together and make some sense of this drawer I go into day after day.

Here's what I was dealing with. Try not to judge.

Here's how I got my life (fine, just my underwear drawer) under control.

First, I found a box that fit in this drawer. I came upon a USPS mailing box in our basement that looked about right. If you do this, make SURE the box you're using fits in your drawer, IN YOUR DRESSER. It would have been so sad if I had made the box all pretty just to find that I had to keep my undies on the kitchen table. 

I cut the lid flaps off the box and kept them around (they wound up coming in handy later).

Then, I got some rando supplies together:

• A piece of fabric big enough to cover the inside of the box and then some
• Decorative paper 
• Decorative tapes
• Double-sided tape
• Scissors
• Stapler

And then I went to work. This project took NO skills (trust me; wasn't interested in devoting too much time to my underwear drawer.) Here are the steps to turning your undies nightmare into a ladylike haven of panties and other female ephemera.

Lay the fabric you've chosen in the box and press it into all four corners--you're lining the box. You can do this any way you want, but I thought it looked nice to have the fabric spilling out over the corners a bit, so that's how I cut the fabric. You can do this as bohemie or as classic as your style dictates.

With the super classy double-sided tape you've gathered, tape the fabric to the insides of the box. Then staple your fabric to the box. ***Make sure to staple with the staple prongs on the OUTSIDE of the box. If you don't, the sharp staple ends will be facing your delicates, resulting in snags and other horrors that you'll surely blame me for. Just keep the staples smooth on the inside, sharp on the outside.You'll cover up those sharp ends with paper.

Then, using double-sided tape, cover the outsides of the box with your decorative paper. I used all the same kind of paper, but a collage-type thing would be cute, too.

With decorative tape, cover all the cardboard edges of the box--this makes sure the paper doesn't start fraying, and it makes it look more finished. (I also used the decorative tape just as decoration in some places). 

Then, fold your fabric over the sides and staple the fabric down in ways that look good to you. Remember to keep the sharp staple prongs on the outside.

Here's what I wound up with:

Now, I had several things I wanted to organize in this drawer: underwear (or underpants, if we want to be hilarious), bras, and tights/leggings. Since I was embarking on a new me via my underwear drawer, I decided to nip possible chaos in the bud by making a matching divider for my box.

I took one of the lid flaps that I cut off earlier, double-taped the heck out of it, and covered it with the same fabric. (Using a complementary fabric would be cute, too). Then I stuck it in the box, and voila: different spaces for different kinds of undies:

Final product? Tights/leggings on the left, bras and underwear on the right. Awesomeness:

Now, even though I've posted my underpants on the internet for everyone and their mother to view, I feel more like a lady. I have an organized place to stash all my unmentionables, and I feel more relaxed about the whole thing.

Also, just saying: I actually did this project about a month and a half ago, and my drawer looks pretty much exactly the same. When everything has a place (and the place looks pretty), it's just easier to keep things organized!