31 Days of Home Organization- Junk Drawers...

We all have a junk drawer, maybe even more than one.  Just because it's called a junk drawer doesn't mean it has to be junky.  Our main junk drawer is in the kitchen and is used often for many different things.  It's been a while since I have purged the drawer so I recently decided to tackle it.

Here's the before.  Some of the items in the drawer include:

• Coupons and flyers
• Folder with LM's school papers for the current quarter
• Pens, pencils, markers, ruler. chalk
• Scotch tape
• Note pads
• An old MP3 player
• Crossword puzzle book
• Hot pink plastic teeth (everyone has those in their junk drawer, right)

AND, much more in this little drawer.

I took everything out and wiped down the inside of the drawer.  I think the key to getting this bottomless pit really organized is to take everything out and only put back what you really need to keep in the drawer.  In my case I wanted to keep:

• Folder with LM's school papers for the current quarter.  Once this quarter is over I will toss most of the papers.  Then I will do the same next quarter and so on.
• Pens, pencils, markers - just not as many
• Ruler and chalk
• Note pads (again, just not as many) & index cards (see how I use them here)

I now feel like this is not really a junk drawer but a storage drawer for the things we use often.  The things that didn't belong there were taken to a proper home (i.e. the scotch tape is with the gift wrap), donated or tossed (the hot pink plastic teeth, for example).

Keeping this often used drawer organized will be an ongoing project.  I know that if I don't use the drawer as a dumping ground maintenance will be much easier.

I am taking part in the Nester's 31 Days series.  You can found more of my posts here.