You are not alone. Don’t beat yourself up for having a junk drawer….everybody has one. But fess up, how many do you actually have? You know that drawer. It’s the infamous miscellaneous drawer filled with random stuff. It’s the drawer you throw everything into that doesn’t have its own exclusive landing place in your home. It might be where you keep your collection of pens, batteries, flashlights, spare keys, matches, instruction manuals, bills, receipts, etc..
No doubt, there are endless categories but the problem is…there is not endless space.
It happens so innocently, doesn’t it? When a drawer gets overly cluttered and barely closes, you just start shoving new things into other drawers. And before you know it, like creeping crud, the junk is spreading like wildfire into multiple drawers! Your intentions were good initially, I’m sure. You probably started out monitoring the junk drawer, but eventually it is mysteriously invaded by random loose change, crumpled post-it notes with scribbled phone #’s on them, newspaper clippings, coupons, phone chargers, tylenol, and all sorts of new junk. You can’t help yourself, it seems unavoidable.
I know life is hectic and it’s much easier to just tuck the clutter away inside a drawer so that everything “appears” neat on the outside.
Bottom line is that you’re often opening too many drawers, digging through all the clutter, and can’t find anything you need, when you need it. The perfect storm…this would be the time to organize, sort the junk and consolidate items into like categories and get some control back. Create designated spaces for items that need to be accessible. No need to tangle your rubber bands with band-aids, paper clips, or old pieces of chewing gum. If you sort like with like items, you will be able to organize accordingly. Separate office supplies, store receipts together, keep all sunglasses together with their cases, and create a segregated space for medications.
Stay on top of that drawer and weed often. Don’t let the junk takeover. If you let it, it can potentially live in every drawer. Uh-oh, T-R-O-U-B-L-E.
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