How to Declutter & Organize Your Junk Drawer

We all have a junk drawer or two in our homes - usually they’re found in the kitchen, but maybe you have one in your office or even in your bedroom (I’m looking at you, nightstand!). This is the drawer we use to collect all of all the random things that don’t quite have a home but may (or may not) be needed, or the drawer that holds all of the things are regularly used but a singular enough that they don’t fit in another designated space. A junk drawer is necessary and it’s useful - and even more so when it’s functional and organized.

I put a system in place for my junk drawer a few years ago. Since there is already a functional system, it doesn’t take very long to tackle this project. 

It’s been about a year since I organized this drawer, so it’s messy and holding things that do not belong there, as well as things that have been there for awhile but haven’t been touched (aka things we no longer need, or trash).

First I’ll take you through my system, and then break down how I do a clean out.

THE SYSTEM

A few years ago when I first set out to organize this drawer, I used a bunch of random containers that I had on hand: a larger kaisa basket from my Ten Thousand Villages days and 4 acrylic bins that I probably picked up along the way at TJ Maxx.  They fit together well enough in the drawer, so I just went with it.  There is probably a better system out there for this drawer, but since this one works, I’ll stick with it awhile longer.

Once I found my containers, I sorted out the things that needed to be in the drawer.  Now, I will add here that this is actually the opposite of how you should go about organizing something, but at the time resources were limited for us so I just used what we already had. If I were to do it again, I’d buy better containers that maximize all the space in the drawer.

Anyway, I sorted out the items into categories: office supplies (stapler, paper clips, pencil sharpener, post its, etc), mailing supplies (address book, envelopes, return address stamp), cords and wires (all those random chargers), adhesives (glue and tape), tools (screw driver, wrench and measuring tape), and random things (matches/lighters, rubber bands, headlamp, etc).  Once I had my categories, I worked on putting as many like items together in one bin as possible.  Since I had more categories than bins, some categories are held together with others in the same bin.  Here’s where I landed:

The thing about a functional and organized system is this: it doesn’t really matter if your bins are perfectly maximizing your space to its full potential or if each category of items is grouped together in the space. What matters is that the system works for the person (or people) using it, that it’s easily maintainable, and that it contains the items.  This ticks all those boxes, so it’s a winner!

CLEAN OUT

Doing a clean out of a space with a functional organizational system should not take very long. For example, it took me just about 30 minutes to reorganize this whole drawer - and that includes the time it took me to put away all the things that didn’t belong in there.  

Step One: Take it all out!  This is always step one when organizing. You can’t organize what you can’t see. This is also a good time to wipe down the drawer and the bins.

Step Two: Categorize.  It’s best to just categorize as you’re taking it out. Sort items into like piles. You can go by your main categories, or just by like items.

Step Three: Purge & Rehome. Toss the things that are unusable, expired, or haven’t been used since you last reorganized the drawer. Rehome all the things that don’t belong in the drawer but have found a home there, or things that used to be housed there but are no longer necessary to keep there.

Step Four: Put it back. Since the system I had place worked pretty well, I just put it all back where it was for the most part with a few tweaks. One tweak was to tie up those wires because we somehow had more than we used to and this helped to corral them into one place more neatly.

Step Five: Admire your work! 

Having a good system in place has many perks, but today I’m super happy about the quick transformation this drawer saw in such a short time.  When was the last time you tackled your junk drawer?