Six steps to an organized junk drawer

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The junk drawer – most of us have one. Chances are, this is where stray items land and promptly disappear amongst all of the other stray items. A junk drawer Bermuda triangle of sorts.

If you've got 30 minutes and a desire to conquer the junk drawer, the process can be easy peasy. Just follow these six simple steps:
1. As you remove every item from the junk drawer, place like items together (pens and pencils in one pile (or separate piles if you want to get fancy), sticky notes in another pile, pairs of scissors in a pile, rubber bands, and so on). Be sure to wipe out the drawer.

2. Once all objects have been laid out, assess each pile to determine what will live in your junk drawer (for example: extra sets of keys, one notepad, five pens, etc.) and which items will need a home elsewhere. (Does the hand lotion need to live in the bathroom? Should the plastic takeout utensils live in the kitchen with the other utensils?)

3. Distribute the “elsewheres” to their proper homes.

4. Next, assess the remaining piles to determine if you need to edit/purge some of the items. (Do you really need 71 binder clips?)

5. With the remaining items, place like items together in the drawer, preferably in separate containers or compartments. Make sure to keep the most-used items in the most prominent spot.

6. Tah-Dah! Stand back and admire your handiwork!