I Tried the Pomodoro Technique and Decluttered My Bathroom Drawer in 20 Minutes

When I need to focus on a task, nothing works better than the pomodoro technique. This productivity hack consists of a 25-minute work period, followed by a five-minute break. If I put on my noise-canceling headphones and set a timer, I am unstoppable. It’s something about a short burst of focused time, followed by a quick break, that makes everything seem manageable. 

As a quick way to kick off my spring cleaning, I thought I’d use the pomodoro technique to tackle my cluttered bathroom drawer. To my surprise — it worked faster than I expected!

I have a few bathroom drawers, and the one I decided to tackle was a mixed bag of items. It wasn’t organized at all, so I didn’t even know what was in it. Before I started, I made sure my bathroom counter was clear so I had space to organize the items in the drawer, as well as an empty trash bag.

The most important thing about the pomodoro technique is the time, so I asked my nearby Alexa to set a 25-minute timer. There are so many ways to go about this, from setting an alarm on your phone to finding YouTube videos. I personally love using YouTube — there are dozens of 25/5 pomodoro videos with ambient music or you can even find timers that count down. Once I set my timer, it was time to get to work!

I’ve learned from professional organizers that the first step to decluttering a space is to take everything out, and categorize items as you go. I discovered that all of the items in the drawer could fit into just a few categories: first-aid (lots of bandages!), travel-size toiletries, and regular-size toiletries. 

The full-size toiletries were mostly items I didn’t use — and in turn old and expired. The few items that weren’t expired (like last year’s Brazil Nut body cream from Trader Joe’s) were practically empty. I considered tossing them, but decided to move them instead to use up every last drop. I recently moved my lotions to a cake stand on my bathroom counter, so that’s where the body cream lives now. Everything else in that category was unfortunately tossed, save for two full-size lash serums, which got moved to my makeup bag. 

The travel-size toiletries were moved as well. I keep my travel cosmetic and toiletry bags with my luggage, so I simply placed the items there instead. There were some rogue items that were also moved (random hair accessories, extra Billie razors, and eye drops, to name a few). The rest of the bathroom is fairly organized, so moving items elsewhere didn’t take too long. Finally, there was so much trash in the drawer! I threw away a number of empty cosmetic containers, until I was left with very little. The most surprising part? The decluttering part only took 15 minutes.

All of my items left were assorted bandages and gauze pads, so the drawer is now officially dedicated to first aid. Once everything was tossed, I did a quick sweep of the drawer itself and placed the items I was keeping back inside. Luckily, organizing was a breeze. The drawer had a large cosmetics organizer already inside, and it took no time at all to place my small pile of first-aid supplies in each compartment. After about 20 minutes, I had a perfectly organized drawer. I didn’t even make it through a full pomodoro! 

I often shy away from organizing projects because I think they’re going to take all day, or at the very least, all afternoon. I tell myself I just don’t have the time and let things pile up. Turns out you don’t need a whole weekend or even an afternoon. Sometimes 20 minutes is enough — just set the timer and start.