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Amber’s Home and Office Organizing Blog index

Ditch the Junk Drawer

When we moved into our new home about 5 months ago, my sister was helping me unpack my kitchen. She asked which drawer would be my junk drawer. I replied- “None of them. I don’t do junk drawers. “ She was surprised but it’s true-I don’t like the idea of a junk drawer. So there’s no junk drawer in my kitchen. You might be thinking - how does she do that? Glad you asked- Here’s how. I never bring mail or paper into my kitchen, so that eliminates the need for pens, letter openers, staplers, rulers, and other office supplies in my kitchen drawers. All my mail and paper goes directly into my office. Secondly, right off my kitchen, there’s a small closet in the hallway. Inside the closet, I have labeled bins in which live my batteries, glue, extra sets of keys, odd small tools, and other random parts.
If you’d like to ditch your junk drawer, here’s what you’ll need to do:
1. Empty all the contents of the drawer onto the kitchen counter. (I should mention- only do one drawer at a time if you have more than one junk drawer.)
2. Next, you have my permission to throw out all the little things you never use- the giveaways from local community fairs, key chains, mini slinkys, dried out markers, chip clips, etc. Next time you find yourself going to throw this type of in the junk drawer, toss it instead.
3. Once you have the keepers all spread out in front of you, start thinking through where you could store, contain and stash these items somwhere other than in the kitchen. Try to relocate them into storage areas that make sense. For example, if you found wood glue and you’re deciding to keep it, perhaps keep it in your husband’s tool room with the rest of the caulks and special glues.

4. Now enjoy your new free drawer in your kitchen. What will you fill it with? Utensils? Ziplocs and Saran Wrap? Kitchen Towels?

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