Dejunking the Junk Drawer
What exactly do you find in a junk drawer? That is a question that will never have the same answer from home to home. But a generalized way of describing the contents are: Odds and ends that you occasionally use, things you may use sometime in the future, or items you are afraid to throw away because you are not sure if they are important or not (think a random key).
Most of these items are a nuisance and create some confusion when you try to clean up. Here is where the junk drawer comes in! You compartmentalize your clutter and feel better about the fact that you don’t know where to put the stuff, because now it has a home! Some examples of things typically found in my junk drawer are tape, random spools of thread, paper clips, safety pins, stapler, bobby pins, rubber bands, screwdriver, nail clippers, thermometer…
OK, I guess I should pause here to admit that most of these things do have a home, other than the junk drawer. The toolbox, office, sewing kit…
But I know I’m not the only one who finds it difficult to keep them all in their rightful places. They just never seem to get put away. And if I do put it away, I often regret not having it in close range because I find myself needing it again.
A junk drawer is not a bad thing. As a space that is designed (or not) to hold nothing in particular, it provides for a bit of controlled chaos in an otherwise (mostly) organized home.
The problem with the junk drawer for me is that it ends up collecting layers of “stuff”, and becomes a frustrating mess when I do go looking for that random item that ends up there.
A few months ago, a friend told me about a friend of hers who had found a different way to manage the junk. Finally, a solution! A simple, affordable solution at that.
It is an over the door shoe holder, or similar apparatus. I bought mine at Wal-Mart for about $7. There were more expensive models, but I chose the one I did because the pockets are made of clear plastic. I wanted to be able to see my junk.
I hung this puppy up (it took about 10 seconds… even the most amateur home organizer can do this), took my junk basket (substitute for the junk drawer since we moved into a home that has a lack of drawer space). Within minutes, the “junk” was organized into the pockets. And ~wallah~ it is no longer junk. It is now a collection of random, useful items that I can find easily anytime the need arises. 
I considered putting labels on each pocket, signifying where each thing belonged. But then I decided against it. I can just see how irritating it would be when my 5 year old, who is just learning to read, would put the “scissors” into the “stapler” pocket. Even worse, when my husband, who is nearing completion of a Master’s Degree, (… he can definitely read!) would totally disregard my labels and mix it all up.
So, the labels are definitely not something that would work for me. I am enjoying the flexibility and small bit of chaos as I look at my wonderfully organized junk drawer that is hanging on my laundry room door.
Do you have any tips on decluttering, or home organization? Please, share by leaving a comment.
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