One Man’s Junk

Junk drawers: we all have them. You know, it’s that one drawer that seems to have everything — from old receipts and dead batteries to measuring cups and fast food delivery menus. That one drawer that’s full of surprises; brimming with the most random, most out of place things. And if you’re like most people with junk drawers, you want to get it organized or get rid of it permanently.

But to do that, you have to understand why we have junk drawers in the first place. Sometimes a junk drawer actually started off as a drawer with purpose — like a utilities drawer or tools drawer. Then over time, we start to put things in the utilities or tools drawer that don’t belong, but don’t quite belong anywhere else either. So our utilities drawer becomes a “utilities and extra cooking supplies” drawer, and then it turns into a “utilities, extra cooking supplies, and receipts” drawer, until it spirals out of control and turns into — surprise, surprise — a junk drawer.

Sometimes junk drawers function as a not-quite trash can — meaning, your junk drawer contains things that you want to throw out but are having a difficult time doing so for whatever reason. And so, they end up there; in the purgatory drawer of unwanted things.

When you’ve identified why you have a junk drawer, it’ll be a lot easier to start organizing or getting rid of it. Because then, you won’t have a hard time identifying what belongs and what doesn’t, as well as pinpointing what kind of drawer you actually want it to be.

With that, here are three helpful tips for organizing or getting rid of your junk drawer: