Do you have a junk drawer?  I do and I love it!

We all have miscellaneous items with no discernable home.  We may have a tool bench in the garage, but it’s handy to have a screwdriver and hammer in the house. Maybe the art supplies are in the kids’ room, but don’t you want a pair of scissors handy in the kitchen?  Where DO you keep all your batteries from Costco, extra extension cords, luggage tags, rolls of Scotch tape, duct tape, and extra Post-It notes?

The junk drawer, that’s where.

I have two rules for junk drawers:

Only one junk drawer allowed in your house, or at most, one per floor.  If all the shallow drawers in your kitchen are junk drawers, you need to organize the kitchen.  The junk drawer is for extraneous, yet handy, things that have no other home.

Sort through the junk drawer every 18 months.  The key to the junk drawer is to go through it periodically.  Spread some newspaper on the floor and dump it out.  Sort out the broken pencils and dry pens.  Toss the take-out menus from restaurants that have closed. Shake out the crumbs and lone paperclips then give the inside of the drawer a good swipe with a damp rag.

Your junk drawer doesn’t have to be organized, but it is helpful to use bins or containers. It just makes it easier to corral small items and to find what you’re looking for.  But don’t overthink it or get fancy.  It is a junk drawer, after all!