Organize the Miscellaneous

Several years ago, I was given this over the door shoe pocket organizer. I didn't need it for shoes, but found that it help corral a lot of miscellaneous items. As you can see below, I have it on the back of a door. When the door is open and against the wall, it is unseen. This picture is from inside our laundry room. Oh, and yes, there is dirty laundry just to the right of the picture. I spared you that look! 

The nice thing about this organization method is that the items inside are generally visible. It is easy to see what is inside. I also try to contain like items with other like items. All of the sunscreen is in one pocket, calculators in another, and so on. 

It does have a small tendency to gather items we don't know where to put or what to do with. See that Easy Button from Staples? We still think it is fun sometimes, but where else does one put this if we don't want to see it everyday? But since we do see it from time to time, we use it! If it were in the basement in the box, it probably wouldn't be used at all. And then what is the point?

That picture below has various glues, new pencils, flashlights, chalk, the stapler, a measuring tape, string (maybe some shoe laces), a radio ( I think), a dictionary and thesaurus (those often come out during discussions at dinner when we don't have our computers on to check on a word meaning.)

The shoe organizer lets us have some of these items close by to our living areas, rather than tucked in the basement, a drawer or even out in the garage. We all know now to look here for things first, before heading elsewhere. Of course, we also all tend to know what we store here.

The pocket below, which is actually the top of the organizer holds: a bright but small lantern, bug spray, lighters, garage sale stickers and supplies, pens, markers, sunscreen and....hmm can't tell what is in that bottom left pocket. Off to check....oh it's my husbands flashlight he uses for work, with extra batteries.

I see that I didn't really take pictures of every pocket close up, but we also have pads of papers, new pens, paper clips, rubber bands, sticky putty type stuff, and calculators. 

Those pictures are before any decluttering. I'm pretty sure that large lighter no longer works, thus should be tossed. I think there may be at least one sunscreen that is expired. I should go through the pens and markers to make sure they are not dried out. Same with the glue sticks. There is also one pocket of small miscellaneous stuff that I should look at as well. I think there are some magnets in there that I don't need anymore. My point is that even a good organizational system still needs to be decluttered from time to time to make sure every item being store is still useful and relevant!

Do you have a unique way of organizing your miscellaneous items? Or do you have the infamous junk drawer?