The Truth about Junk Drawers

Every house has one—The drawer where everything gets dumped. It’s a mishmash of rubber bands, a few screwdrivers, hair bands, gum, loose batteries you aren’t sure are new or spent, a Metro card, a gift card you know you’ll never use.

Did you ever notice you never actually retrieve things from the junk drawer, but only dump them there?

Mine was actually a basket—which just goes to show you how unimportant the contents of this basket were-they didn’t even earn their own drawer.

 Every year, in an attempt to downsize our things, I went through my junk drawer (basket), but never eliminated much. This went on for 5 years! Finally one day, as I sifted through it I realized 1) that I NEVER went to this basket for anything except to try to purge it and 2) none of this stuff was where it belonged. My junk basket contained some batteries, some hair ties, 2 screw drivers, a few Band-Aids, some mint candies, a few old flash drives, a small hair brush. I have all those items elsewhere in my house, so no wonder I never went to my junk drawer for these items when I needed one!

They were such a hodge-podge of things, I would never recall what was in there. In no world would I ever think “Where is that old flash drive? Oh yes, in the junk drawer!”

So I finally dumped the drawer out and attempted to find proper homes for these items. I put the flash drives and candies in my desk drawer because that is where they would be looked for and most likely to be used. I put the hair bands and backup brush in my bathroom cabinet where I do my hair (duh….why did that take me so long?), the screw drivers went with all the other tools downstairs in the basement in the tool box, the batteries went…..wait for it…..in a battery and utility drawer! This utility drawer is what the junk drawer should be. It contains batteries, lighters for the fireplace, and some flashlights.

And now you are saying—wait a minute Allison---isn’t that still a junk drawer? And the answer is no----because those items—flash lights, fireplace lighters, batteries, do not have a home anywhere else in our house. This drawer is their one and only home. Having a designated space for each item leads to less clutter, less waste, and more sanity because you know exactly where something is and exactly how much of it you have.

And the best part was now I had a nice basket to use elsewhere in my home for something else.

If you are having trouble with purging your junk drawer and more, fill out the form on our Contact page to get started moving towards a clearer, cleaner life!