Like most people I put off organizing the junk drawer because lets face it, once the drawer is closed you kind of forget about it. When I open it, I itch. And after I open, scratch, and dig I think one day I will clean it out and then I just promptly shut the drawer and forget about it until the next time I open it looking for something else.
The other day I must have drank something spiked with rum...egg nog perhaps? Because I had a sudden urge to do something to forget about the septic tank that decided to start backing up into the house starting on New Years' Eve (yes, that really happened) and I got it in my head that since I couldn't flush the toilet I was going to clean my junk drawer. Funny thing how my mind works. If all hell breaks loose, organize some crap and you will feel better, Liz!
Here's a before:
Yeah, it's not terrible but as you can see there's no rhyme or reason. Everything is just thrown in there and even more annoying is the two level shelf. Yes in theory it seems wonderful but I never want to lift it up and dig for things underneath it so basically there's nothing underneath it. A lot of good that does then! Plus the dividers are just way too small and non functional. So I took everything out of the drawer and organized them in "like" piles so I could actually assess what I had. Then I gathered up some spare lock together organizers I purchased from Target years ago and set to work.
Here's what my drawer looks like now:
The divider on the bottom stores my rechargeable batteries and the charger, and the small one to the right is my specialty batteries, like the ones for my scale that I never use because every time I step on it the display reads 20 pounds more than I want it to. Then I have a divider above that for just markers, pens, and pencils, a divider above the batteries for all my command strips and adhesive hooks, a bin above that for my misc. things like my flashlight, tape, battery operated screwdriver, tide to go pen, and lint rollers. Above that is touch up paint for my car (I would keep this out in the garage but its not heated in the winter) and some box/package cutters. Finally, the small one in the top right corner holds all the little do hickeys that I have no clue what they are but I know I may die if I throw them away and later discover I need it. You know, like when you find little rubber round things on the floor and then a couple months later you realize they came off the bottom of your laptop computer to keep it from scratching your desk? That same small cubby also holds black bread ties because these always come in handy when I'm organizing cords around the house. Outside the organizers are a pair of scissors, a calculator, and two lighters.
Here's what I realized I didn't need in the junk drawer so I pulled them and have "re-homed" them:
The scissors I put in the bathroom as hair cutting scissors and the wrinkle releaser I put in my closet. I have no idea why I had that many electrical outlets, adapters, etc. in my junk drawer. It's shameful I tell ya. These moved to the basement in my storage room where I keep supplies separated by clear one buck shoe boxes I purchased at Dollar General. I have one labeled electrical and all these plugs got tossed in it. The strip of sandpaper went into the sandpaper shoe box in the storage room, and everything else went into the miscellaneous shoe box bin.
Now I have only my most used, most needed items in the junk drawer which is exactly what should be in a junk drawer, not everything except your kitchen sink which is what I tend to store there. As I usually do, I had it in my head organizing this drawer would take hours. It took me 20 minutes. Totally painless and so worth it in the end and yes, it helped me feel better about my septic tank. Who needs to worry about not being able to use your water when your junk drawer looks so pretty!
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