I’m often asked how I keep on top of the home with young children and…
Ah, the junk drawer.
Aka the kitchen draw, the crap drawer, the drawer you hope no guest ever stumbles upon. Whatever you call it, you all know what I’m talking about. Everyone has one, it’s usually in the kitchen and it’s where phone chargers go to die. If your family is anything like mine, your junk drawer is where people dump broken pens, chewing gum, makeup, notepads, dead batteries, random electrical cables, phone chargers and loose change. You might even find that long-lost earring you’d given up searching for or a half-eaten muesli bar that one of the kids decided was too healthy-looking. It’s messy, it’s ugly and it’s chaotic, but junk drawers play an important role in keeping clutter off benches and hallway tables, so it’s good to have it under control. In this blog, I share my simple steps to organise your junk drawer and wrangle the chaos so you can quickly grab whatever you need and avoid the mad rummaging.
Declutter
Start by emptying the contents of your junk drawer onto a bench or the floor, and sort everything into ‘keep’, ‘recycle’ or ‘bin’. Be ruthless and try not to let thoughts of “ooh I might use this one day” take over. You know that miniature sewing kit you got in a Christmas bonbon in 2016? Yeah, you’re never gonna use it, so get rid of it! Once you know which items you’re keeping, the rest can be recycled, donated or binned (responsibly, of course).
Group similar items together
By now you should have a much smaller pile of items to wrangle, and if you dont, go back to the previous step.
Let. That. Shit. Go.
Group similar items together so you can work out how many sections your junk drawer needs i.e. pens, chargers, change, kids, memory cards/USB, makeup and notepads. Consider the size each section will need to be and choose the perfect drawer organiser such as a cutlery drawer tray from Kmart or IKEA.
Get #stephing
You’ve culled your junk drawer, you’ve found your lost earring, you’ve got a shiny new organiser to put everything into, and now the fun begins. Once your drawer is clean, add your new drawer organiser and put each item away into its designated section. Take a photo because tomorrow you’ll need to remind yourself that this drawer was tidy 24 hours ago. #jokes
You could also consider adding labels to the inside of each section so family members can easily see where each item goes (and put it in the wrong place anyway).
Keep it up
The thing with junk drawers is that the contents seem to multiply as soon as you turn your back, so regular maintenance is your best friend. Make a note to declutter your junk drawer every 1-2 months so it’s easier to keep on top of. And it’s worth remembering that we’re not aiming for perfection here – a junk drawer will always be just a junk drawer, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be pretty, right?
Using this blog to organise your kitchen junk drawer? Tell us below and post a before and after photo!
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