The good news is there’s actually a right way and a wrong way to approach your junk drawer. If you strategically fill it with useful items, remove the actual junk and take a little inspiration from Marie Kondo, this dreaded household storage space will go from the traditional junk drawer to a useful catch-all.
Clean and purge
First things first, take out the entire drawer and remove all of the contents. You want to lay everything out to see what you’re dealing with. Once all the items in the drawer have been removed, give it a good cleaning to remove any dust and grime build up that has accumulated.
To get a handle on what’s in your drawer, go through the contents and group like with like. This will help you easily see what you have in your drawer, and how many items you have in different categories.
Remove anything that doesn’t belong in your junk drawer by relocating it to its rightful home or tossing it in the trash. If you have multiples of items like pens and flashlights, look to streamline these contents to free up more space in your drawer.
Use storage solutions
Storage solutions are a junk drawer’s best friend. Investing in dividers and boxes will add some order to your junk drawer and make it easy to find what you’re looking for.
You can get creative with storage solutions and use some extra items you may have around your home like muffin tins, ice cube trays and shoe boxes, or head to a storage solution store to find products that work for you.
To make sure your storage solutions are ideal for your drawer, you’ll first want to measure your drawer so you know the exact space parameters you’re working in. Next, take some time and plan out how you can maximize your drawer space and find the best solutions to store your junk drawer contents.
Pens can be added to a slim divider, paper clips can go in a cup and so on. The last thing you want to do is end up with more clutter around your house if your storage solutions don’t work for your space and contents.
Keep it organized
You’ve cleaned, purged, planned and purchased, so now it’s time to put all that to good use. Pop your items in your storage solutions, place them in your drawers and voila, you now have an organized junk drawer.
The trials of any good home organization project always seems to be with keeping up your system. Follow the organizing system you have in place day to day and do your best to keep any additional items that don’t belong from finding their way into your junk drawer.
Once a month, take 15 minutes to go through the drawer, purging, streamlining and organizing as needed. This will ensure your junk drawer doesn’t find its way back to an unruly state.
