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Junk drawers, by definition, are unorganized spaces. The antithesis of clean, they are a convenient catch-all for rubber bands, screws, pens, pencils, old keys and almost anything else that will fit within their recesses. It’s surprisingly easy, however, to transform a junk drawer into a neatly organized spot where everything has a place. Just follow these simple steps and you’ll never look at your junk drawer the same way again!
What You Will Need:
- Drawer Cubes or other drawer organizer
- Damp paper towel
- Plastic bag for trash
- Small box or bag
How to Get It Organized:
- Remove the drawer and dump it out onto a table or other easy-to-clean surface. Depending on the items, you may want to cover the area with an old towel or plastic drop cloth.
- Use the damp paper towel to wipe out the inside of the drawer, and then set it aside.
- Start by sorting through and moving all of the trash to the trash bag.
- Next, put everything that obviously doesn’t belong in the drawer in the small box or bag so you can easily carry it to another location to put it away.
- Sort the remaining items into similar groups. Put rubber bands together, pens and pencils in one pile, loose change in another, etc.
- Once you have the piles, look at them and make sure that you haven’t missed something that should be somewhere else.
- Put Drawer Cubes in the drawer, arranging the pieces so they fit both the drawer and your needs. If you don’t have Drawer Cubes, you can use a couple of small boxes or even a silverware tray if you have an extra one, anything with dividers and enough sections for your groups of items will work.
- Put the items back into the drawer, grouped into separate sections of the tray. Rubber bands will have one section, notepads another. If you don’t have enough sections for each individual item, then group similar items, such as rubber bands and paper clips.
- Put away the items that don’t belong in the drawer.
Additional Tips and Advice
- Keeping a junk drawer organized is an on-going task that many of us need to practice. Keep working to put things where they belong and soon it will become a habit.
- Consider using containers with lids for storage of small items. The lids make them a bit more difficult to access, but offer an easy place to label the contents.
- Sharpen pencils and verify that pens work before returning them to the drawer.
- Glance at the drawer at least once a week to make sure that no wayward items have appeared, and if they have, take care of them immediately.
- Don’t put something back in the junk drawer just because you have a lot of it in there. Would rubber bands be better off a desk drawer? Is there a better place to keep spare change?
- Are pencils and notepads taking over? Put a memo center on the wall to keep these items within easy reach and you’ll make your (former) junk drawer that much more organized!
If you want to clean your stuff, follow these following steps:
First, take out all your things out of drawers or any subject you are using. Then, sort out the things you need or don’t need. Then put similar stuff together, like if you have books, put them all in one pile or if you have colored paper, put them in the correct color order. Then, when you have sorted out your things, put them all neatly in a good order in your drawer so every time you want to take something out of your drawer, you can get it easily because your stuff is neat.
I hope you enjoy and your things are neat!!!!!!