5 Things to Organize While You’re Watching Netflix Tonight

Here’s a thing everyone who knows me knows to be true: Organizing makes me happy. This has been true since I was a toddler and liked to organize the toy closet. My cookbooks have been, at various times, sorted by color, author, and cuisine. I am what you would call a Type A personality.

However, I know that not all people find joy in making things more orderly. And my advice to those out there who are nodding their heads is this: Do not try to do all the organizing all at once. It will take hours — maybe even days! — and you will throw your Marie Kondo book in the garbage in frustration.

Instead, take baby steps — and multi-task. There are all sorts of things that can be done while watching Netflix. Well, at least five.

Everyone has a junk drawer — even neat nerds like me. Mine currently holds some sponges, a few plastic bags, a Sharpie pen, and various clips. It is not picture-perfect, and that is fine. It is a junk drawer! If, however, your junk drawer is, well, overflowing with junk, it is time to give it a quick pick-me-up.

Here’s what you do: Take the drawer (yes, the whole drawer) and a garbage can and sit in front of the TV. Now take everything out of the drawer and go through the items one by one. Toss or recycle what you don’t need (three copies of the same Chinese takeout menu you have never ordered from) and sort the rest of the things into piles. Like goes with like. If there are things that do not belong in there (receipts that belong in your income tax folder, crayons that belong to your kiddos, etc.), put them where they belong. Everything else goes back in and voila! Junk drawer sorted. Don’t you feel good?

Do you know how often you ought to clean your dish towels? At least every other day! And you should also replace your dish towels once they get ratty (you can use them to do those super-unsavory tasks before they get the final heave-ho). If your dish towel pile is getting out of control, now is a good time to go through and organize them. Put them all in a laundry basket and dump them onto the couch next to you. Toss the extra-bad ones, relegate some to the laundry room or garage, and put the rest in the keep pile. Fold the keepers and you’re done.

Do you have stacks of receipts in various places around your house? I do. I usually take them out of my wallet and put them somewhere and then I do it again and then I do it again … until I have about five different piles of receipts tucked away in drawers. It will take probably 10 minutes, tops, to go through them and figure out which ones to keep and which ones to throw out — which means there will be plenty of time left during your show to make envelopes, label them, and sort the keepers.

You know all those cookbooks that are, well, just sitting there? The ones you haven’t opened in years? Grab those and bring them to the living room. Casually flip through them while you watch TV and decide if you should keep holding onto any of them. If the answer is no, donate them to someone who will actually use them.

The Sunday Scaries are a real thing. Often, Sunday creeps up on me and I find that I haven’t planned any meals or done any shopping, let alone started to prep. Relate? Why not give yourself a head-start by organizing your week before panic sets in? Arm yourself with some sticky notes and flip through those keeper cookbooks or scroll through our Instagram. Maybe also gather those recipes you ripped out of magazines with the best intentions to actually make them some day. Next week is already looking better.

Do you already multitask while watching Netflix? What are some things you do?