It’s Day 29 – time to tackle that junk drawer! It’s the black hole in everyone’s house. Once we organize it today, maintain it by purging it every other month or so, to keep it in check. Just go through it while you’re on the phone or waiting for dinner to finish up in the oven.
Empty
Take everything out of the drawer and spread it on the counter. Then wipe down the empty drawer and sanitize.
Group
Group like items together in separate piles. Some examples of piles – belongs elsewhere, pens/pencils, tools, tape/glue, personal care, paper, batteries, money, etc.
Evaluate
Look at the piles you’ve created, now let’s pare them down a bit. Take everything that’s broken or that you know you’ll never use and create a trash pile. Then consider how many of each item actually need to remain in the drawer. Do you need 50 paper clips in there or could most of those live in your office or mail area? Are you going to use all five glue sticks at one time? If not, keep one in the junk drawer and move the rest with the arts and craft supplies. Do you have a huge pile of change? Maybe it’s time to turn that in at the bank.
Purge
Toss that trash pile, unless something in there seems worth donating. Then go through the pile of things that belong elsewhere and put those items in their new homes.
Put Away
Now take your pared-down piles and put it back in the drawer in an organized fashion. Small compartmental organizers are great in this drawer to keep all of the tiny things in place and to keep them accessible. If you have a deep drawer, double layer organizers give you extra storage space. Here are some of our favorite junk drawer organizers.
