The inevitable “junk” drawer: almost everyone has one, because no one is quite sure what to do with the chaos within. Since its home to necessary items like batteries and tape, learning how to organize your junk drawer can make your life much easier the next time you need to reach into its depths. Because we know how frustrating it can be to reach into an endless pit of pens, glue, and other random (but essential) items, here’s, ten creative (and cheap) ideas you can use to organize your junk drawer.
Create your Cubbies
The first step to organizing drawers is creating cubbies for all your different possessions. So, what do you have laying around in your junk drawer? Think about it- there’s probably batteries, pens, paperclips, and other random things. Take a count of the different things you need to organize, then use one of the ideas below to start the transformation:
- Make Some Room: For some reason, junk drawers seem to accumulate random items that we will never really use. Before you start organizing, throw away or re-purpose anything you don’t see yourself using in the next six months.
- Recycle Small Boxes: People accumulate small boxes for all sorts of reasons- if you’ve ever purchased a small item online (or even in a brick-and-mortar store), you’ve probably thrown away the packaging that came with it. Instead, try collecting all of the small boxes and containers in your home to create individual storage containers for different items in your junk drawer.
- Use Tackle Boxes: Those who fish know how handy a good tackle box can be. Thankfully, their organizational nature can be used to effectively organize your junk drawer- for under $20. Just use one or two boxes like these, and you won’t believe how much easier it is to find the things in your drawers.
- Mesh Desk Organizers: These metallic boxes are perfect for holding pens, batteries, stationary paper and more; what’s even better is you can find a pack of affordable organizers from Target.
- Use a Muffin Tin: How big is your junk drawer? If it’s large enough to fit a muffin tin in, you can easily “install” a multi-tray, no-slip organizer in seconds!
- Label your Cubbies: If you’re using closed-top boxes in your drawers, this is a must.
- Use Double-Sided Tape: To prevent your neatly-organized drawers from shuffling around as you open and close them, use double-sided tape to secure the cubbies to the drawer.
- Adding Drawer Liner: If you’re organizing your junk drawer already, why not add something extra to make it really look amazing? Drawer liner will help support the space’s organized look by adding color and depth, while protecting the inside of your storage space from scratches.
- Use Awkward Space for Storage: If you have any awkward, unused space left in your drawer after placing in your organizing containers, find a way to utilize it! Store small, odd items there, or keep a notepaper there for important phone calls and grocery lists.
- Re-organize regularly: Sometimes, no matter how hard we try to organize, our things have a mysterious habit of ending up in places they don’t belong. Take some time once a month when you have nothing else to do to reorganize your junk-drawer.
Organizing your junk drawer is a great way to find extra space for small household items like batteries and writing utensils. While you’re re-organizing, you might even find some long-lost treasures that had been forgotten about in the clutter. Which ways will you use to organize your junk drawer? Let us know in the comments! For more on organization, check out our blog about yard sales.
