Do you have a junk drawer? Drawers?
We don't. I don't say that to brag. It seems somewhere along the way our junk drawer became non existent. I think it was when we moved in 2006. I didn't have enough kitchen drawers for the important things to allow one of them to become a junk drawer.
In fact, I think that was about the time I started using this system:
It is a shoe organizer. Each pocket holds different items. And yes at times, it holds junk. So I have a junk shoe organizer?!
Somehow each home ends up with a place to put stuff we don't know what to do with. Stuff that is random and unrelated to other items it is stored with. We tend to call it junk. And the truth is some of it is and should just be thrown out. The rest really is stuff we use or may need to use. It's just not put in the right place. And maybe because that place is not known. I mean where does one put a road map, extra shoe laces and an extra button in a bag?
So do you want an extra kitchen drawer for kitchen items? Great. Let's declutter the junk drawer!!
Dump out the junk drawer. Yes. Dump it!
Sort through your drawer putting like items together. Some like items you may find are: pens, pencils, paper clips, tools, batteries, sticky notes, tape, maps, take out menus, and magnets. It's like I've seen a junk drawer before isn't it?
Toss the following items in the trash:
- broken items, because you know you won't likely fix them
- items you don't know what they go to
- dead batteries
- excessive rubber bands and paper clips
- dried up pens and short pencils
- trinkets from fairs and parades
- take out menus (you can find online)
- magnets with phone numbers (store the number in your phone)
- instructions ( you can find most of these online)
Decide what items can be relocated. Here are some ideas:
- flashlights and batteries to a nightstand or hall closet
- pens and pencils in a mug or a desk drawer
- tools to the garage
- maps in your vehicle or suitcase
- adhesives could be combined to shoe box or smaller bin and stored on a shelf
- pet items could have their own bin or shelf in a hall closet
Again, those are just ideas. There are a lot of ideas on Pinterest for transforming junk drawers too. However, I did notice so many have tools in them. Something about tools in my kitchen drawer just doesn't seem right! Feel free to put items back in your kitchen drawer if you wish.
The best thing about how we store our random items is that each item has it's own designated space. At least one pocket for each type of item. Consider that when you are putting the items of your junk drawer back or relocating them. Give like items a contained and designation spot.
If you look at the first picture at the beginning of this post, you'll see I have FOUR pockets that are not even being used! I'm not sure what was in them, but at one time they were all full. I did a quick declutter and decided on some more things we don't need to keep:
Highlighters, magnets, fan remotes (new and never used), excessive paper clips (will relocate), a short pencil and three pens that don't work. I'm going to come back to our shoe organizer another time. The more I look at what we store in there, the more I think I could find other places for these items to be stored. A challenge for another time!
How long did decluttering your junk drawer take? Did you put the keep items back in the same place? Did you relocate any items?
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