How to Conquer the Dreaded Junk Drawer
This is not a post about organizing your junk drawer. This is a post about getting rid of your junk drawer, catch-all, or whatever you call your special place for crap.
The junk drawer is the ultimate form of procrastination. “Because I don’t want to take the time to find a place for this, I’ll just throw it in here…and never use it again.” For that very reason, the last place most people want to turn to when decluttering is their junk drawer.
For some, the drawer is an actual drawer (or 2) usually in the kitchen. For others, it might be a junk shelf, box or special area where all the junk winds up.
If you can, after reading this post, take 10 minutes and take care of your junk drawer. There is a reason it’s called a junk drawer. You put stuff in there because it has no where else to go. The junk in there means less to you than anything in your house. That’s why it’s a mess and that is why it is hidden.
I speak from experience here. I used to have two junk drawers. While they were always full, I can’t remember what was in them. I do remember they captured my attention because they were so disturbing, but I don’t know why specifically.
conquer your junk drawer once and for all (any of these methods will work)
The Table Top Method. Dump your junk drawer onto your kitchen table. Dump it right in the middle of the table. Eat dinner around it. If all that junk enhanced your meal and made you feel good, load the junk back in the drawer and put it away.
Even though you might not be completely aware of it, that feeling you have at the dinner table, surrounded by junk is exactly how part of you feels about the junk drawer. Even though it’s behind closed drawers…you know how it makes you feel.
Hide It. This brings the Hide Your Stuff mini-mission to a whole new level, but it is a great method of figuring out what is really important. Dump the contents of your junk drawer into a bag or box. Label it and hide it for 30 days. If you didn’t miss it, dump it. No peeking to try and remember what you might have forgotten.
Dump it. Take a leap of faith and be confident that there isn’t buried treasure in the drawer. (There isn’t) Dump it or donate it and be done with it once and for all.
Sort it. If you are looking for gentler method, this is for you. Schedule an hour, turn on some calming music and sort through the junk drawer. Give each thing a proper place. If it doesn’t have one, let the item go.
- If you are worried about what to do with your junk, check out Does Decluttering Help the Environment and Where to Donate Your Stuff.
- If you think because you sew, scrapbook or have another artistic hobby that you need a junk drawer, you don’t.
- If you think you don’t have time to conquer your junk drawer, think of it this way, if you take ten minutes after reading this post and handle it, you will never have to spend time reading or thinking about a junk drawer again. This is going to actually save you time.
Junk attracts junk. Clutter attracts clutter. If that wasn’t the case, your junk drawer wouldn’t be so full. If you want more clutter, keep it up. If you want more time, space, and peace…you know what to do.
Quick Review: Do not waste time organizing your junk drawer. Get rid of it completely.
Please tell me…What is standing between you and your junk drawer?
Reading Recommendations
- Conquer the Clutter by Dusti Arab (Free e-book)
- The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide: How to Declutter, Organize, and Simplify Your Life
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38 Responses to “How to Conquer the Dreaded Junk Drawer”
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Hi Courtney,
Ha, ha. I DID go through and throw away most of what was in my junk drawer about a month ago. The thing is, I still kept some things. Like rubber bands, paperclips, pencils (2), sticky notes, nail clippers, etc. I use these things on a regular basis, but I still get frustrated by having the odds and ends in the drawer. I also have some keys I’m not sure about, and I can’t seem to part with those.
Thanks for the kick in the rear to revisit the dreaded junk drawer to see if there is anything else that can go!
Jenny, My best advice is to hang keys. Have a special spot where they always go. I know what you mean about the odds and ends but they all really do have a place.
And label them once you figure out what they are for.
I don’t really have a junk drawer – my weakness is stacks of paper. Receipts, bank statements, etc. are slowly taking over my countertops and under my bed. I never know what I can throw away and what I should keep. Can you help?
Erin, I want to help, but will have to sort through that problem myself first. I do have a goal of going paperless this year and have building up some resources to share. Stay tuned!
I solved this problem a while back. I have a little plastic bin for all of the paper clutter. Every few weeks I will drop the contents into my scanner and save it as a PDF. I’ll give the PDFs file names based on what it is, and then email it to my (gigantic) gmail account. I never lose anything, it’s archived away in the internet cloud and retrievable from by BlackBerry! Oh, yes, the originals go in the recycle bin.
Wow Chris! That is the best idea!!! I am totally going to try that… Thanks for sharing
I recommend an expandable accordion file. I downsized to one a few years ago (from the typical stacks and stacks of papers everywhere). Now I purge it every few months. I know it needs purging when it starts to feel full.
Other than that, go digital. I store a lot as simple text files and found I don’t need to keep much except tax papers and financial documents.
From your description of a junk drawer, I have several. They’re called every horizontal surface in my apartment.
Where are you going to start? Pick one small space, clear it out and use the momentum you gain for the next one. Keep me posted on how it goes and let me know if I can help.
Jenny, you should try the Flylady website. I only started a week ago and I ALREADY feel/see (BREATHE! lol!) The difference! Plus, October is Papper Clutter month… we have to get rid of all the paper clutter, and you get emails to help you along!
This can be sooooo terribly difficult. I have a junk drawer for my tools, where the random bits go to hide for a while. Without it though, I’d never get any projects done. I am always pulling out random bits to finish things up. Nails, screws, hooks, etc.
Is there a time when the junk drawer is good?
Great question David. I am going to have to say a junk drawer is never good. That’s not to say, you don’t have tools or “random bits”. If all the random bits are in the same area, I think it will work. Just make sure you aren’t holding on to things “just in case”.
PS…my husband might disagree. I am not really an expert in tools.
I don’t have a junk drawer but I have a junk gym bag. I throw all the stuff that I could possibly need for the week in there. By Friday…. it’s heavy and there is so much unnecessary stuff piled in. I just refolded all my clothes in my dresser and now I am going to get rid of any junk areas that I have. Thanks for kicking my butt in gear.
I think I have a lot of “just in case”…. that’s where I am going to start.
I have been avoiding my junk drawer for months! Every time my 3 y.o. son reminds me that he can, indeed, open the drawer, I think I really need to clean that drawer out. Now I have some ideas on how to start
I admit it, I have a junk drawer! If ever there was a place to live to not have one, it’s on the Island of Roatan. Minimalist living is what it’s all about here; stuff corrodes, goes moldy, and becomes a home for unwanted critters if you don’t use it regularly. How did this happen? Heck I don’t know! The only thing I do know is that it is getting harder to close the drawer, jamming in the newest inhabitants when I add more… without ever using or needing what is already in there. Thank you Courtney you have inspired me to conquer the junk drawer! I’ll get back to you with how it goes
I was feeling a little high and mighty that we had gotten rid of our junk drawer in our kitchen last year. But then I remember that I have one in my bedroom too. And my desk. Better go get busy!
Bernice
Have you outgrown your pot?
Bernice, I don’t know if anyone plans to have a junk drawer, but they grow anyway! Seems we have to be a bit vigilant with the dreaded junk drawers.
So what do you do with things you know you’ll need but there isn’t a place for? Example. My junk drawer is the place for anything sticky you hang things on the wall with. There’s even a little basket in there for it. I hadn’t used anything in there for months, but then I brought home a poster for my son. I was very glad I had a sticky things for hanging things with basket in my junk drawer. So is it not a junk drawer if it’s organized, and if so, couldn’t one make an argument for organizing the junk drawer into a neatly-organized-stuff-you-will-probably-need drawer?
Steve, I think it is just about being mindful. More often than not, we keep things that we never use. I know it’s a big challenge. I had a yard sale last year and had purchased some colored labels to price things. I held on to those labels for months, before I realized that I was never going to use them again.
Perhaps, there will come a time when I need colored labels, and while I don’t want to be wasteful, I can’t hold onto the things that have no use in my immediate future.
I agree with Steve. I organized my former junk drawer a few years ago and now it’s the useful drawer. I keep markers, scissors, tape, little screwdrivers, chip clips, that rubber thing you use to open jars, and the manuals for my small appliances (rice cooker, for instance) in there. So all the stuff has a home – it just happens to be the “junk” drawer. It’s not really junk, but it makes sense to keep it altogether in one spot and I use it regularly. Plus it’s organized so things can be found in a snap.
Now my nightstand drawer on the other hand … it’s half junk half useful.
My husband is standing between me and our junk drawer. To him – it’s necessary. I keep it organized and try to keep it minimal, but it’s still there. I’m with Steve and Nicole on this one….what we have in it is all pretty useful and stuff we use on a pretty regular basis (office supplies, phone and battery chargers, stamps, etc.)
Hi Courtney, the thing standing between me and my junk drawer? that would be my husband! He is a bit of an hoarder and this is our biggest bone of contention. Ah well… life goes on…
Marya, Keep leading by example!
For me, it’s not really junk as much as it is random stuff that I need but don’t have a specific place for (stamps, batteries, scissors, extra gum). I have 2 drawers like this (one for stuff I rotate in/out of my purse/backpack, one for stuff that doesn’t leave my house) but I wonder.. what would I put in those 2 drawers if I didn’t put the miscellaneous stuff I infrequently need? Not that empty is a bad thing I guess, but I don’t need the room for anything else
Pam, it’s amazing. As I’ve simplified,and decluttered, I’ve realized that I don’t need the space I thought I couldn’t live without.
Empty space is not a bad thing at all, but the process of getting simple is really eye opening in terms of what we really need to be happy.
I guess it’s less that I need the space. And more that it’s a good place to put “stuff” that I still need. I definitely am not the type to want to fill every corner of space with unnecessary objects. It’s been a process to pare it down, but I guess the junk drawer dilemma is directed more toward people who have the junk drawer for stuff that they don’t need
Get rid of my junk drawer? Brian Tracy says we should handle every piece of paper only once. That’s the only way I can conceive of getting rid of my junk drawer. But you’re right, junk does attract junk. And we’ll all be better able to see our life purpose without the junk in our mind that gets amplified by clutter in our homes and workplaces. Come visit my blog for a look at how to integrate your life purpose into your business.
Yes the clutter in your drawer is a mirror of your mind, or so they say. Maybe my life purpose is getting my mind clear… so cleaning out my drawer makes sense!
I am such a simplicity neophyte… but one of the places I started was the “junk drawer”… I did a version of the gentle method and found that my junk drawer was place to store 6 things and I got 5 little baskets for 1) batteries (all sizes) 2) keys and locks 3) matches and lighters 4) tapes and 5) scissors and 6) two pens (not a hundred, two)… i’ve kept it down to those 6 things for a year now. You think I’m ready to move on to something else now?? LOL
new reader.. great blog!
Welcome Annie, to the blog and to a simpler life. I can’t wait to hear more about your journey.
I eliminated my junk drawers about a month ago, thanks to encouragement from 365lessthings.com. Now I have a drawer that only contains laminated hiking maps and phone chargers.
I have lots of junk drawers. I also have an injury. I find that my drawers get piled when I dont have time to clean so I will throw all the odds and ends in the drawers. The bad part is that I hate looking at the drawers so when ones full I fil another :sadface:
Your premise is interesting. Seems like a game of semantics. If you call the drawer your “office” drawer or your “tool” drawer, and organize it as such, the drawer is then useful and functional. Surely we aren’t going to have a house full of empty drawers just so we feel good about simplifying! The thing that bothers me about this posting is the grammatical error in the very first paragraph. “This is a post about getting *ride* (shouldn’t that be *rid*?)of your junk drawer.” Post was written way back in May. Seven months and 36 comments. Perhaps you should take that 10 minutes and proofread your post. Thanks.
Thanks so much for pointing that out. I made the change and hopefully the post will be even more helpful now.