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A friend calls to tell you they are going to drop by in five minutes. As you look around, you notice all the random stuff scattered throughout the house – but where to put it?!
You panic and grab as much as you can. With your hands overflowing, you make a beeline to a particular drawer – you know the one I’m talking about – and quickly cram what you can inside.
You then turn around, wipe the sweat off your brow, and breathe a sigh of relief.
The “junk” drawer saves the day again!
Has this happened to you? Of course it has! Who honestly doesn’t have a “junk” drawer taking up residence in their home somewhere?
But for something that has played a necessary evil in our home for years, how well do we really know this tiny, overly-used storage area?
What is in it? Do you have any clue? You put stuff in it all the time, so why can you only guess – incorrectly, I might add – at about 20% of its contents?
Can you be certain the tape or toothpicks or kitchen twine – something you thought you didn’t have and just bought another 3-pack of – is not currently smushed in the back of it?
If you are at the point of barely being able to close the drawer fully without a constant push-and-pull struggle, or if your annual spring cleaning is right around the corner, now more than ever is the time to finally make a change.
Take the first step towards an organized life, and use our 5 easy and straightforward steps to get rid of the “junk” in the drawer!
Make yourself a strong cup of coffee, and let’s get to work!
How to Organize Your “Junk” Drawer in 5 Steps
1. Remove Everything and Place on a Large Work Surface
Here’s the fun part of this process…
Dump ALL the contents out onto a large, clean work surface. You might want to line it with some newspaper or a plastic tablecloth first, to catch any dirt and crumbs.
Intentionally choose an area that puts you directly in the way of your daily activities at home. Trust me on this– it will help you to get the job done.
The kitchen table, living room floor, or a cleared and cleaned countertop are good examples of surfaces you can use. They are large and typically clear of clutter.
Stay away from random end tables or the craft corner. You want to pick a large spot that is used often, a place that will not allow you to dump the drawer and then forget, leaving the mishmash of misplaced who knows what alone for days, or even weeks.
We are getting this done TODAY.
Leaving all this stuff out in a popular, high-traffic area of the house will force a routine change, making you more likely to complete the task at hand instead of avoiding it.
2. Sort All Items Based on Location
I am a firm believer that the majority of the contents of a “junk” drawer have a designated area, outside of the drawer, where they belong.
With that said, the next step involves dividing all of the items into groups, based on where they actually should be stored in your house.
A cherry pitter someone gifted you a few years ago? That should go with your other small kitchen appliances and tools.
All of those random pens, pencils, and paper clips? They belong with the other office supplies.
If you have an object that you do not have a designated place for, then brainstorm to pick the room you think it most sensibly belongs in – and you can also consult your partner or other family members to help you with this!
When in doubt, think of the room you may be in when you need it the most.
Now that the inside of your drawer is completely empty and everything has been sorted, you should also take a brief moment to clean it – a simple multi-purpose spray will do, or use one of your favorite natural cleaners.
3. Get Rid of Any Actual Junk
Funny, right? Thinking that there is actual “junk” in your “junk” drawer?
But there is! And we’re getting rid of it!
Take a look at all those carefully sorted items. Are there certain doodads left over that don’t really fit anywhere?
If you would never use it, do not need another, or cannot determine its functional purpose, then get rid of it.
Donate it! Sell it! Trash it!
Regardless of which option you chose, the most important thing is to remove what you don’t need.
If an item has no purpose or role within your life and home at this time, and you have not used it in the last few months, and you cannot foresee any need to use it in the next few months, repeat these words:
GET. RID. OF. IT.
And then do it.
4. Return Items to Their Appropriate Locations
Take the items you’ve identified as belonging elsewhere to their correct locations in the house.
But that’s not all you should do:
Don’t just put them in the designated spot or somewhere nearby, and decide you will officially put all of that away later.
Follow through! Don’t be lazy with this!
Take all the stuff for the bathroom to the bathroom, and actually place each item in its designated spot in the medicine cabinet, or on the shelf of the linen closet. Then, go to the next room.
If you do not complete this step in the moment, putting everything in its proper place rather than creating more clutter, you are likely to forget and end up with more random items scattered throughout the house, multiplying the effect of the original “junk drawer”scenario like an unstoppable zombie apocalypse.
Don’t let this reorganization process overwhelm you! You can break down this step in 15-minute increments, focusing on one room at a time before moving forward to the next if you have to.
5. Reorganize in a Way That Makes Sense to You
You’re probably left with some items that actually do belong in the kitchen, or wherever your no-longer-junk-filled drawer resides.
Identify clear storage spaces for all of the remaining items in the drawer, adding dividers or a drawer organizer if that’s what you need to keep things tidy.
Take the time to reorganize the contents in a format that you know will make the most sense to you, and how you prefer your items to be placed. This can be based on how often you use the items.
Look around the house for anything not already being used, that could serve as an organizational divider in the drawer.
If you don’t have one, buy something new!
Feeling overwhelmed by all the options available to purchase? A multi-piece set, like this 24-piece clear plastic set in assorted sizes from Amazon, will give you ample organizational options that you can customize for use around the house.
24-Piece Clear Plastic Organizers, available on Amazon
A good rule of thumb is to use something that has enough space for the designated items you already have, plus potential room for just a few extra items you may eventually gain as potential drawer residents in the future.
Ones that actually belong there. Not misplaced “junk.”
If the drawer has minimal space for additional items outside of what you currently own, you are less likely to toss other things in it.
This helps to eliminate the option of creating a chaotic catchall space again, and promotes the habit of putting items back in their designated area after each use.
Storage Is Precious – Treat It That Way!
Working in numerous professional and home kitchens over the years, with the tiniest of work areas, cramped spaces, and limited storage spots, I have learned the most valuable organizational lessons from both my coworkers and my own personal experiences:
Every item that you need and use should be given a designated storage spot, in a location that makes the most sense. Anything that does not have a direct purpose to you in a given area of should be removed or placed elsewhere.
This is a key concept that can be applied throughout life, from top to bottom in your home, and in your “junk” drawer!
Keep in mind that home organization offers a simplified and functional approach to getting the most out of life in the most efficient way possible – a necessity for anyone with a busy schedule.
Don’t undermine the quiet power of a well-organized storage unit!
How do you organize your “junk” drawer chaos? Do you have any of your own special tips and tricks? Help us all out by leaving a comment below.
Alright, we’re on a roll now – let’s tackle tidying up the rest of the house! Foodal offers a wide range of cleaning advice for you. If you don’t know what exactly to target next, here are a few suggestions:
- Organize Your Fridge and Freezer in 6 Easy Steps
- 11 Ways to Remove Stains from Plastic
- Cleaning Tips for Small Kitchen Appliances
© Ask the Experts, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. See our TOS for more details. Originally published September 20, 2014. Last updated on April 4, 2023. Uncredited photos: Shutterstock. Product photo provided by Amazon.
About Nikki Cervone
Nikki Cervone is an ACS Certified Cheese Professional and cheesemonger living in Pittsburgh. Nikki holds an AAS in baking/pastry from Westmoreland County Community College, a BA in Communications from Duquesne University, and an MLA in Gastronomy from Boston University. When she's not nibbling on her favorite cheeses or testing a batch of cupcakes, Nikki enjoys a healthy dose of yoga, wine, hiking, singing in the shower, and chocolate. Lots of chocolate.
I have a lot of junk in my house. Enough to fill several drawers! How did junk drawers become a thing?! This is a good reminder that I should clean mine out. I always feel so good when I finish organizing everything in them. It would probably be a good idea to do away with the drawers completely but that is not likely to happen 🙂
I suppose junk drawers is a type of hoarding. I have several of them, I have managed to clean them out from time to time. I don’t think I would ever totally get rid of them. I mean it’s there for a reason, things that might and do come in handy. It’s a go to place when you need that one thing that you just may have in the mass of clutter. We call a junk drawer.
Karma, I try for 100% junk free as a goal, but I’m happy if I maintain at a 85% level if that makes sense.
There’s a lot of junk in my junk drawer too. But it’s just way too convinient to stop using it, since I just throw all the stuff I might need while working on my computer into the drawer which is a part of my desk. Of course it’s kinda hard to find stuff from it, but it doesn’t take longer than a few seconds anyways.
I am embarrassed to say that I have a junk room and junk drawers in every room of my house. I know that I need to get organized. Peaple like me never know where to start or how to start. I appreciate the great instructions on how to get better organized.
I have a junk room to! I call it my craft room but really its just a room where stuff I am too lazy to find a home for gets thrown into. I never know where to start either. There are times when I just want to throw it all away and start over. How do we accumulate so much stuff?
I hate to admit it, but we sometimes have junk rooms as well! With the military you are often moving (once every year to three) and sometimes by the time your get your household just the way you like it, it is time to pack up again! It kinda sucks at times.
Haha! I have a junk room and a lot of other places to put junk. I really want to get organized! It’s doing it that is the hard part!
I totally can relate to it! Sometimes I find myself very disorganized that I misplaced essential things. What I did was to buy storage boxes and label each of them. Only that time, I was able to realize the things that I can sell or donate, keep or toss. Did it all at once during my free day, did not procrastinate and didn’t give up! I am very happy with the result.
We keep a lot of storage boxes with labels as well; however I’ve gotten better at forcing myself to go through these and donate anything to Goodwill that we haven’t used for the last year, have no immediate plans of using, and is not a very important (emphasis on important) keepsake.
I relate more to this than I’d like to admit. It’s amazing how easily my drawers become filled with junk and clutter. I always end up putting more and more stuff on them and when I realize it’s full to the brink with disorganized junk. This is nice guide for people like me. Once in a while I’ll have to do this.
This is an interesting article, it’s like you read my mind. I have been meaning to clear out my junk drawer(s) for ages. I think you may have just given me the kick I needed. I am terrible with post, I have unopened letters from months ago *sigh*
Haha, exactly what I need. I’m not a hoarder, mind you, but I can’t seem to get rid of my college and postgraduate papers. The idea of throwing them away to clean the clutter in my room makes me feel sad. My room’s filled with bits and pieces of random stuff aside from reams of scratch papers. Where to start, I wonder…
I don’t have a junk drawer in my house, it’s more like a junk bin. I can never seem to get it cleaned out and it just gets more and more added to it. This guide is good for me and I’ll have to try and follow it – at least I will try. It’s nice to know that not everyone is organized all the time.
I don’t have just one junk drawer I have a closet and 2 mini storage’s full and numerous tubs throughout my house, I think I need to start small with the junk drawer and work my way up. I could probably actually make some money off some of the stuff that I have laying around that I’m not going to use.
Garage sales and ebay; that’s what I’d suggest. IMHO, you may as well free up some clutter for some spending money.
I have several junk bins all throughout my house. I just can never seem to get them cleaned out. I agree that starting small is the way to go. I need to go through and just do a “trash, donate, or sell” round for my house. Maybe I can make some money off of my “junk”, and at least it won’t be in my house anymore.
It’s ridiculous how true this is! I have a junk drawer that’s in my kitchen that I honestly have not a clue what it’s filled with, However, every time I open it to try and get something out, it takes me about 10 minutes to stuff everything back in there to close it. How horrible is that?! This read gave me some inspiration to go and clean out that drawer, but then again I might just wait to do it tomorrow…
I don’t have a junk drawer, basket or house but a junk books…where i scribble here, write there, note-something-down here, so this article sort of does relate my weakness in some way/sort…luckily, that is what am trying to clean out and discard if not required…whilst my late mom was the complete opposite of me, i had to literally clean after…junk table tops, drawers, wardrobes, cabinets…i guess it comes with the treasure of hoarding…an element i lack 🙂
Good tips. I despise messy drawers full of junk. It’s just such a big disorganization to me and is not the type of environment I wish be live in at all. I want to be able to find things in a neat order when I want them. The most common sense act you can make though, is to simply get rid of the junk you no longer need.
Completely agree with you on that TPhoenix 100%…i have a friend who likes hoarding like nearly everything and yes the state of her room is a complete ‘eyesore’…no am not keen on trashing her here, was just stating a fact, come time to cleaning the room, it takes ages to look spic and span…but she’s pretty alright with the situation…such a mess can get the neat-freak in me in stress-mode 😉
My frustration is from other people in my house who don’t put things in their designated place so I know that if I sort the junk drawer, it will a) only be the tip of the mess iceberg! and b) it won’t stay sorted for long.
But I do like the idea of spreading lots of things out, sorting them into piles and then dealing with each pile. I admit I did a similar thing to my desk a while ago but the sorted piles are back on my desk waiting for me to file/scan (but at least more paper went into the recycling than stayed!)
having read this, I feel obliged to tidy something soon so thanks for the inspiration 🙂
I have to join all those that have multiple junk drawers as I have several through out my home. My husband and I are actually in the middle of a remodel which I hope will leave us organized and clutter / junk free! (for a while)
My mother always emphasized that EVERYTHING needs its own spot and if you don’t have a place for it to go, then you don’t need it lol! I never listened until I got married. Now I can’t stand my husband’s junk drawer and I find myself repeating the words of my mother. I will take step one and pour out all his items on his favorite chair. That should give him a boost. He will be livid at first but my plan is to help him. He’ll love me again later!
I’d possibly err on the side of caution when doing that. It probably won’t change his habits and I’d hate for my article to be the partial cause of matrimonial discord.
This whole article was great. My favorite tip was: “3. Get rid of the items that are actual JUNK!”. I don’t know what is with people but it seems like a lot of people can’t figure that out. I have gotten angry at my boyfriend so many times for keeping stuff he did not even need anymore. All I could think was why? Why crowd this drawer up. I have my stuff organized as best as I can, it all has a place to go.
This makes absolute sense! Franky, I have more than one of these junk drawers in my home, and I’m always meaning to sort through it and find out exactly what I have in there. My husband is a little bit of a hoarder, so I do have to keep an eye on the general build up of bits of junk here and there. For the most part though, his obsession with keeping something “just in case” has decreased over the years. Thankfully!
I love your philosophy on not keeping things that you have no need for within a 3 month benchmark – this is a great starting point for what you can get rid of outright.
Great article!
I actually laughed at the first paragraph of this article because it seems like that’s happening to me all the time. In fact, at this point, I don’t have just one junk drawer, but two.
I like this process, it’s very clear. I especially like the idea of putting it all in a place you con’t ignore it- I think that’s the key. I think I personally would winnow out the items that were actual junk and throw them out first before sorting by room, but that’s just personal preference. This is great advice. I’ll have to add this to my list of afternoon projects.
I have an ongoing battle organizing junk and paperwork. I currently have a paper drawer although it is just randomly filed and I need to go through out and digitize a lot of stuff. I found that keeping an electronic copy (backed up in multiple places of documents is easier and better to store than physical documents. Then if you need a physical copy you can always print one out!
Kitty, I’d suggest using an online service such as Dropbox to make copies of your electronic files. You never know what is going to happen; this would protect them against burglary and fire.
Yes, the dreaded junk cupboard! I wouldn’t know where to start with it. In fact, I think if I took something out of it, the entire lot would fall out! There will be stuff in there that I haven’t seen for years so surely, I can do without it? Maybe I should just weed out the important paperwork and dump the rest!
I live with my in-laws and like stardisgate, we also have junk room. Except, we call it a den. The room drives me absolutely mad! Whenever we have company over, especially during the holidays, everything ends up in there. I can never find anything because everything that they consider clutter goes straight into the den. My music books for example. I’m a self-employed music teacher and my primary instruments are piano and voice, so I always leave my books on the piano stand. But to them, putting my books on piano stand is considered clutter so off to the den they go, along with everything else.
We have one designated junk drawer, but then other drawers end up getting junk in them too if the junk drawer is too full. One thing that has helped is to have a silverware tray in the junk drawer. It helps keep our scissors together in one slot, screwdrivers in another, etc. I used to have a junk bag that was on my desk, just a little shoe sized tote filled with stuff I just didn’t know what to do with. I finally did what the author suggested one day and laid everything out on the living room floor and sorted it out. I ended up with only a few “junk” items. The rest really did have a place or could be tossed, so then I was able to clean out the bag and put it away! Now I have room on my desk for my betta fish=)
Wow, I used to have several junk drawers around the house and the office. This article really brings back the memories of those days. I didn’t mind until by random chance I saw an episode of one of those reality tv shows called Hoarders. At first I laughed at how these people lived, and then I got to thinking that maybe me and those people–we’re not that different.
The most important advice that you’ve touched on is to throw away the things that you absolutely don’t need or won’t use anymore. If you don’t get attached to your junk and just think objectively in this way you’ll clear you clutter in no time and get a few extra drawer spaces as a bonus.
I try to convince my significant other of this daily. Thanks for the comment.
This is good advice for any organizing project, really, although the junk drawer does seem to get ignored more easily and more often than other areas of the home. My junk drawer is actually pretty tidy at the moment. I’ve put in some dividers, which has made a big difference. I still have to go through it from time to time, especially after a few times of doing that grab and dump thing, but it’s easier to manage it now.
I love organizing everything in my life. It’s a shame my partner feels he’s more creative therefore more prone to disorganization. Drives me insane. Thanks for a few tips that I can maybe convince him he should partake in lest I lord hoarding over him.
Ah, the famous junk drawer. I wish my husband and myself have a better habit of cleaning out our junk drawer, but you know how it goes (procrastination much?). I totally agree with you that if you put the contents of a junk drawer on a place that will get in your way, then definitely you’ll get annoyed enough to clean it up, right?
Here’s to a cleaner and a neater rest of 2015!
I remember growing up that my mother had a junk drawer in the kitchen. I want to say that I learned from her but I have a junk drawer that’s not really holding anything of day-to-day value. It’s just a drawer with things that carry history or emotional value. Making it tons more difficult to sort through =(
I need to do this for sure. I have 3 junk drawers that haven’t been cleaned out in more years than I am willing to admit to!! There’s so much junk that I’m actually kind of dreading it, but it will be SOOO worth it when I’m done
I have lots of junk drawers, I think it is just much easier to shove it into a hole and forget about it rather than sorting it and putting it away properly.
Perhaps I should use some of these tips and get a little organized. It does make me laugh how most of the things you find in these cubby holes have not been used for months if not years and will never be used again, but we keep them anyway!
Just reporting back, three months after trying these methods. I’m pleased to report that the junk drawer is still relatively junk free! It seems like Lynne’s organizational tips have worked a treat! Thanks very much!
I like to think I’m pretty minimalist, but I do still have a junk drawer. It’s mostly under control, because I use many of the tips stated in this article. Problem is, this encourages me to stuff more junk into the drawer if there doesn’t seem to be a place for it, or if I need a quick place to stash something. It’s not quite never-ending cycle level, but regular maintenance is definitely needed. So I appreciate having these guidelines laid out all in one place.
I think this article was the kick in the pants I needed; especially considering I’ve been putting off sorting my stuff for weeks. If only my cleaning skills were as good as my procrastination skills!
I’m going to start off with putting everything in the correct room, for starters, (I have scrunchies and hair clips strewn around the house) and then go from there. I think when I finally get the heaps of small stuff back in their proper place, the bigger tools and things won’t be as difficult to organize.
And I’ll definitely be using the tip about organizing within the junk drawer. Too often, I find myself pushing against the handle with my back to get it closed!
SomnolisticSommelier, I feel the same way! I have a bunch of small items, such as rubber bands and individually wrapped toothpicks… Some items that are totally unnecessary, but I always think I just MIGHT need it someday! Next year maybe! If it’s been in the drawer longer than you can remember where it came from, I think it’s safe to say it’s trash… Now the larger items, I can find a spot to place them. It’s just the small pieces that bug me too much to want to focus on it.
Good luck with your junk! 🙂
I’m ashamed to admit that I too have a drawer that I just dump stuff in without a care in the world. I try to keep it organized, but with my busy schedule (and bouts of laziness), I just tend to put it off. I tried to fix it by leaving sticky notes on the drawer to remind myself to clean through it at the end of every month and for the short time I’ve been using this method (about three months), it has done well for me. Sometimes I’m amazed at what I find when I do clean out like drawer since it’s stuff I thought I lost, or even money I didn’t think I had!
Perhaps it’s because of my daughter’s love for arts and crafts, but I can’t help but spot her junk papers, art materials and whatnot scattered about the living room. This was almost always the main cause of our house’s ‘disarrayed look’ and seeing as she is only 5, teaching and repeatedly telling her to stuff them into a shoe box (which I even took the trouble to designate for her) was very ineffective.
And so a technique I like to do for this problem is to gather all her recyclable crafts, and in my free time, make another craft from them (usually ornaments and whatnot for the house). It really does lessen the junk in the drawer. giving space that I don’t have to cram everything in there forcibly. Plus, it’s very much interesting to make the many different crafts out of the recyclables (she might have inherited her love for art from me, who knows) and it’s very educational.
I Had a house full of junk drawers, mainly due to moving from place to place as a child with my family, being in the military. When I got out on my own I began keeping just about everything because we always had to leave something behind, somewhere. By the time I had children, they had clothes and toys I had bought in preparation soon after my wedding. Thank goodness they came along within the first three years of my marriage. Everyone thought I was crazy. It took me twenty-some years to realize that I didn’t have to hold on so tightly to things anymore. Now my children are grown, I have minimalized my belongings and only hold on to a few junk drawers. I made it easier by moving into a smaller place where it would be harder to hide things I don’t need. Now I just have to work more on letting go of paperwork. It seems that I can’t seem to let go of that. Any suggestions? I have filing cabinets galore!
haha! The first paragraph does remind me of ME! Junk drawers are the best places for dumping stuff. Unfortunately, it isn’t such a lovely sight either. I particularly like the tip on getting rid of items that are actual junk. This alone will free up more space and keep the drawer organized.
I would recommend a one-minute check on the drawer at least once a day. Just see if there are items that needs to be thrown away. Doing this daily makes cleaning up more manageable.
Oh such good advice and oh so hard to follow. I live in a houshold full of creatives and sadly creativity rarely extends to being creative about tidying up afterwards! It’s very comforting to know I’m not alone in all this though. There are a many things that echo very loudly with me from the comments above!
These are all such great tips. I know for me, when I clean it always looks even messier than when I first started! For me, everything has to have a place to be able to have it be organized, I have to be able to look at each item and say to myself, “Is there a place that item can call home?” Because if it forever will just be left on my counter top, most likely I will lose it at some point. I like the idea also of getting rid of the actual junk. If I haven’t touched it in 6 months, chances are I will never need it again.
I’d like to know how you saw the inside of my junk drawer? LOL I not only have one, but several drawers that seem to catch everything! I like the idea of dumping it all in a central location where you have no choice but to sort it out. I’m going to do that with all of mine, but one at a time. If I try to do them all at once, I’ll get overwhelmed, and run screaming down the block! I think some small organizers would help as well, for the stuff that just HAS to stay in the drawers
I was recently visiting someone, and when we were getting ready to eat, she asked me to grab some serving spoons. I went to one drawer after another. She laughed, told me where to find them, and then said that somehow every drawer had become the junk drawer. She has so much stuff. Ha ha. I should totally send her this page. We’re close enough that she’ll take it in the spirit it is intended…
This is a great reminder. I have two junk drawers, one being work related stuff because I don’t have space for a desk and work from home, and the other being your typical junk drawer. I clean them out once a month, but I feel like even just a day or two after doing so it’s a disaster again. It’s remarkable how quickly we accumulate stuff that we don’t need, but feel the need to hold on to just in case.
Good ideas. I definitely need to get more drawer dividers. I try to organize but I’m not very motivated to take the time to really do it right. So things are sort of halfway put away and organized around here. I get the concept, now I just need to force myself to do it all the way through to the end.
Very good ideas. A few commenters shared that they have a junk room, not a junk drawer. Well, I must say, I have a couple of junk closets myself, however, I’m proud to admit that I’ve actually taken sometime out and finally got a handle on one of them. I took everything out of that closet and had a huge mess in my living room. My husband was a little annoyed, but when I finally got the closet organized, he appreciated all the hard work I put into organizing that junk closet. Now, I’ve got to get my mind right to tackle the other closets.
As someone who tends to clutter up any area that’s mostly out of sight, this article really speaks to me 😉 Especially the part about leaving a chore with the intention of getting back to it later…whenever I do that it just seems like ‘later’ never comes, and then I end up with multiple small messes spread through everyone room of the house instead of one big mess.
My junk drawer mostly accumulates extra napkins, straws, and plastic forks from takeout meals, but I just know that there are a couple useful things buried way at the bottom that I’ve forgotten even exist. Maybe it’s finally time to go excavating! 😛
My husband and I are the worst for this. We always have that one junk drawer where almost anything and everything go in it. I have to make this a priority this week to take your advice from this article and organize it! Following this article will definitely make it easier and a speedier process, thank you!
I am terrible for this. I have come to the conclusion that it’s not that I have too much stuff, I just have too little storage! I am not one for hoarding anything and I do use everything I have, I could just do with three more kitchen drawers. Sadly, as I rent a property, a kitchen remodel is not on the cards so I need to figure something else out; probably some kind of free-standing drawers/sideboard. Then I can organise everything better – hopefully!
To tell you the truth I absolutely love my junk drawer. It is the perfect black sheep in the family.
Everything that lost must be there, and you can say bad things to it, it doesn’t care.
Of course every once in a while I clean it too, but after that try really hard to make mess of it again 🙂
Getting rid of actual junk is hard for me and I’m not talking about empty wrappers and stuff like that… I’m talking about actual junk; paper I no longer need, letters etc. When I’m cleaning it up, I constantly have dilemmas with myself. “Wait, what if I’m going to need this letter in the future?” & “What if this can be useful to me?”. I sometimes end up throwing them away but I sometimes hold on to them and throw them away the next time I clean up, haha.
Will definitely be dividing the drawer into sections after cleaning it up though, it’ll be much easier to get to my things.
True, true. The stuffs I have from my previous school years are still with me because I keep thinking I might need them later. But that “later” never comes… I still keep them though XD
I always have a junk drawer or rather, a catch-all drawer in my house, in fact, I must admit that right now, I actually have a catch-all cabinet in my dining room… Everything goes into that cabinet, and it’s quite irritating opening up a drawer in the cabinet and seeing all the junk in it. It ranges from tools to pictures to random things that was lying around the house. When I try to organize, I just get sidetracked and leave it until “next time”, but next time doesn’t come. So this is a good way of organizing. I will be following these steps to get it done, I’m sure that if I have a bunch of junk lying on the dining room table, I will get it organized faster!
This is something that I can relate to! I’m a messy person by heart and I can’t help but to admit that I have a special drawer dedicated to put all the junk in it when I’m way too “busy” to clean. I’m also known for stuffing my walk-in closet with a bunch of random stuff – like extra mattresses and empty packages and it’s so hard to get to clean it up! I know my house would look a lot more organized if I’d just find a way to actually clean my house up, so I’m thankful for the tips! It’s always hard to start from the scratch.
Oh wow, I have been needing this. We have two junk drawers (not counting the hidden ones in our room) and we have so much random stuff in there. Small tools, nail polishes, hair ties, drill bits, USB drives, nails, matches, you name it, it’s probably in those drawers. I plan on getting those cleaned out tomorrow evening. Wish me luck!
“GET RID OF THE ITEMS THAT ARE ACTUAL JUNK!” -the hardest step of them all, lol. Seriously, I’m too sentimental and … I don’t know, idealist? (ex. “I could make bookmarks from this cardboard/box! I’ll keep it!” then I end up keeping all the boxes I encounter and not be able to make bookmarks (or anything else I could do with them) because I lack the time to T_T), to throw them away… Although I started throwing them away bit by bit, there’s still around 75% of the “junk” left in my stuffs…
Wow! It’s amazing the way you explain it, you remind me of my sister. I will share this with her so she can get a little bit more organized, for real, she doesn’t really care about her room, it’s really messed up. Thank you for sharing this.