In the past, some experts have said, “Thou shalt not have a junk drawer in thy kitchen.” Perhaps you’ve been diligent but unsuccessful in this task, and your junk has migrated from the kitchen drawer to the desk drawer or just sits in a heap atop the clothes dryer. There’s simply no need to do away with your family junk drawer entirely. Just use any type of plastic basket or cutlery organizer to categorize your junk, and clean it out routinely.

 

article continues below ↓

Use small baskets or a divided desk tray to group like items together, such as paper clips, rubber bands, twist ties, matches, pens, scissors, hammers, nails, screws, etc. Monthly, remove the items that don’t belong, such as broken hardware, trash, extra office supplies and coins. Keep items to a minimum, storing only the ones used regularly.

The main purpose of eliminating a junk drawer in your home is that it’s like a miscellaneous folder in your file cabinet: it gets too full too fast, and it’s one of the last places you would look for something. That’s why organizing professionals and efficiency experts have been so prejudiced against junk drawers in the past. But if you use it sparingly, promise to clean it out once a month, and stop pouring when it’s full, it’s okay to keep it.

 

Excerpted from Common Sense Organizing: A Step-by-Step Program for Taking Control of Your Home and Your Life by Debbie Williams(Champion Press, Ltd. www.championpress.com).

 

 

About Debbie Williams

Debbie Williams, is an organizing coach and author of the book Put Your House in Order. She is the publisher of Organized Times e-zine and Web site and has published four books for organizing the home and home business, including her latest book, Common Sense Organizing. She routinely appears on television and radio broadcasts, teaching audience members how to organize their homes and home offices, and to better manage their time. Currently Debbie serves as organizational expert for Home Based Working Moms and is a regular contributor to Ask Heloise, Homebodies.com and Proverbs31 Woman.