The Dreaded
Junk Drawers

 Everyone has that one junk drawer in their home and no matter how much you try to maintain it, the mess only gets worse. Today we’ll be exploring a few tips for cleaning and organizing those dreaded junk drawers. However, before we start, let’s look at what classifies a junk drawer.

What is a Junk Drawer?

THE drawer that is used to keep little, random items that are occasionally useful, have little to no monetary value, and perhaps have some sentimental significance. Contents of the junk drawer may include paperclips, keys, pens and pencils, mints, spare change, receipts, business cards, menus and a plethora of other random items.

Lets Tackle Those Junk Drawers Once and for All!

1. First, Empty your Drawer: Place everything in the junk drawer out on the table, then decide what will happen to each item one by one.

2. Sort the useful stuff from the trash: Sort the important items from the trash. This process ought to be quick and simple. Trash the garbage and put everything else into the keep pile.

3. Sort out the keep items with a defined destination: Put items that belong elsewhere into their designated spot. You will also need to decide your plan for the drawer once every item has it’s spot. The junk drawer can become an organized drawer for specific items. This is where decisions need to be made. 

Do you want the junk drawer to hold the random items? If you do, then you must contain these items. Designated small bins for within the drawer is your best bet. For example, one bin for batteries, one bin for pens, and one bin for scissors. Keep in mind that the bins can only hold so many items, so choose bins according. Along with choosing bins, you also need to ensure you’re not keeping too many items to fill the bins.

4. Organization: Organize your drawer according to the bins. Once you have decided to what you’re keeping and you’ve chosen the correct baskets for the drawer and everything is it’s spot, admire your work. You did it! You know now what’s in the drawer and where to find those specific items in the drawer.

5. Maintaining Orderliness: Following all of the aforementioned processes, the final step is maintaining it. Put only those items designated for the junk drawer in there. Find other designated spots for items that don’t belong there, or just toss if possible. Also keep an item on your individual items in the drawer. Are they overloading the bins? If that’s the case you might need to cut back on the amount of items in your drawer. Keep on what fits reasonably in the drawer.


Cleaning out your junk drawer can be done in a variety of ways, but following the steps above will give you some of the best results. If you loved the results from the junk drawer accept the next challenge of applying these strategies to other areas of your home. Perhaps your dresser drawers, closets, or even utensil drawers. Keeping on what fits comfortably in the space is one of the keys of keep items successfully organized.

Get Your Whole Home Organized!

Organize with storage wicker baskets, bins, and containers!