Junk Drawer Organization

Ah, the junk drawer.  Everyone has one somewhere in their house.  Maybe two or three.  It's that convenient place where you throw anything and everything, thinking that you'll "put it where it really goes later".  But later never comes and pretty soon you can't open/close the drawer without having a little fight with the inanimate object.  It's ok.  I've been there too.

I recently pulled open our junk drawer--ours is in the kitchen--to get something out of it and couldn't close it again without rearranging five other things.  I thought, this is ridiculous, and resolved to do a little reorganization that day.  So when my youngest went down for a nap, I distracted my toddler with a show and got to work.  As I started pulling things out, I was amazed at how much there was in there: stamps, a mini speaker, a million pens, screws, gum, glue, tape, gift cards... Phew!  Pretty soon my entire counter was covered with all sorts of crap useful items that I didn't know I had.

I started out by grouping all like items together so I could get a feel for how much I had of any given thing.  Then I put away or threw away those things that didn't actually belong in the junk drawer, like tools, game pieces and outdated papers.  After that, I looked at what I had to organize my drawer with and decided that if it didn't fit nicely in one of those containers then I needed to find another place for it.
After about an hour, I had a nice, clean, organized drawer.  Everything now has a place and what I decided to keep in there makes a lot more sense.

A few tips about junk drawer organization:

• If you don't use it, throw it away or put it away.
• Think about what you use most often and make it easy to see and get to.
• If you don't want your kids to get into it, don't put it there. (Not that I know...)
• Limit how much you keep in your junk drawer so it doesn't become messy (again).  
• Does it make sense to put there?  If not, find another place for it.

*Note: I already had small bins that I had bought a few years ago when I organized the drawer the first time so I didn't need to go buy any.  If you need some, I would recommend looking at Walmart or the dollar store in the office supply section.  Also, make sure to measure the height of your drawer before you buy containers so you know they will fit when you bring them home.

What other places in your home need a little more organization?