Does your junk drawer look like a bomb went off inside of it? If so, you’re not alone. Most people have at least one junk drawer in their home where they just dump everything and hope for the best.
If your junk drawer is anything like mine, it’s a chaotic mess of miscellaneous items that don’t really have a home anywhere else in the house. But it doesn’t have to be this way! So, today’s blog post will help you turn your junk drawer into a truly organized chaos without cursing too much along the way.

Step 1: Empty Your Junk Drawer
Take that drawer out and dump everything onto the floor. Yep, everything. Don’t be afraid; we’ll put it all back in there eventually. But for now, we need to see what we’re dealing with to organize it properly. You’ll be amazed by how much stuff was just crammed into that tiny drawer and how irrelevant some of it actually is (I’m looking at you, half-used candle stub!).
Once everything is out in the open, you’ll be able to see what you’re working with and get a better idea of how to organize it all.
Step 2: Sort Through the Mess
Now that everything is dumped out, it’s time to start sorting through the mess. Throw away anything broken, or you don’t need/use anymore. Be ruthless in your decluttering and only keep what truly serves a purpose. In most cases, you can toss more than half of the stuff in your junk drawer in the trash, so don’t be afraid to get rid of it!
If there are items in there that belong somewhere else in the house (think: coloring pencils that belong in the kids’ rooms or batteries that should be in the garage), put them in their proper place or in a separate pile to deal with later.
You should be left with a pile of items that are actually junk and a smaller pile of things that just need to find a new home.
Step 3: Find Containers for Your Junk
Now that you’ve whittled down the contents of the drawer, it’s time to start organizing. Use small bins or dividers to create sections for different types of items. For example, depending on what you have, one area could be for pens and pencils, another for batteries, another for scissors, etc.
You can find these organizers at any home goods store or get creative and upcycle some old containers you have lying around the house. Make sure that whatever you use will fit snugly in the drawer, so everything stays in its place.
If you want to get really fancy, you can even label the different sections with pretty labels or chalkboard paint, but that’s totally up to you. Either way, it will help you find what you’re looking for quickly and easily.
Step 4: Put Everything Back in the Drawer
Now it’s time to put everything back in the drawer. Start with the larger items and then fill in the smaller items as needed. Leave space so you can easily grab what you need without everything spilling everywhere.
Also, prioritize items you use more often than others, making them easily accessible. For example, keep pens and pencils near the front of the drawer so you can grab them quickly when you need them. Things you rarely use (but still need to keep) can go in the back or harder-to-reach areas.
Step 5: Maintain Your New System
So now, you have an organized and easy-to-use junk drawer. But the key is to maintain your new system so that it doesn’t quickly become a chaotic mess again.
Whenever you use something from the drawer, put it back in its proper place. And every few months, take everything out and give it a good decluttering to get rid of anything you don’t need or use anymore. This will help you keep the junk to a minimum and make it much easier to find what you’re looking for.
Conclusion
A junk drawer is something that everybody has, but not everybody knows how to deal with it effectively. We tend to keep things like that around the house, just in case we might need them one day, but more often than not, they end up becoming a dumping ground for random items.
By decluttering and organizing your junk drawer, you can make it a more functional space that is useful instead of being a source of frustration. So don’t be afraid to tackle this project head-on!
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