If you are like most American families you have at least one junk drawer.
The kitchen is the most common spot for a junk drawer. This is probably because it’s where a lot of family activity occurs: meals, homework, sorting through mail, standing around chatting, etc. The kitchen also tends to be in a centralized location of the house and has the most drawers space.
What is a junk drawer and why do we have them?
- It’s where we put weird gadgets that we never use, but don’t want to give away for one reason or another. Maybe it was a gift or we ting we’ll use it “some day.”
- We like to have a spot to toss useful items we use once a year. Unfortunately, we forget about these useful items because they are buried underneath other “useful” items.
- Junk drawers contain things we use on a daily basis, but those things tend to get bent, crumpled or broken because they aren’t organized.
- Many of use scoop countertop clutter into our junk drawer when company comes to visit.
How to turn your junk drawer to utility drawer!
By definition, junk is useless and of little value, and you deserve better than than. Utility items, on the other hand, are useful and beneficial.
What is a utility drawer?
- A utility drawer holds useful items that are easy to find.
- It’s where you can store a few daily-use items in a visible, accessible manner.
- Dumping, shoving and tossing never happens because you have an system that works for you and your family.
The process…
- Pull everything out of the junk drawer(s).
- Sort everything into two piles: Keep and Toss.
- Toss pile: either trash or donate.
- Keep pile: Ask yourself , “Do I love this? and “Do I use this.” No? Then, get rid of it.
- Group similar items together and try not to keep too many duplicates (for example, 20 pens could be downsized to 5).
- Use drawer organizers to contain everything and prevent items from rolling around when you open/close the drawer. These are my favorite organizers because they are affordable, versatile and snap together.
Once a month, declutter your utility drawer to make sure everything you have inside the drawer is still viable.