By Jackie Leffner
This week we are continuing our focus on independence but switching gears to look at those dreaded junk drawers. Did a drawer immediately pop into your head? Then this blog is for you! Yes, we all have that one drawer that becomes a “catch all” for random items throughout the house on counters. So, let’s work on decluttering it and come up with a different system so we don’t go back to those same old habits of throwing the miscellaneous items into that drawer.
I once had a friend that taped her junk drawer closed and said if she didn’t have to enter it for 1 month, she would get rid of everything in it 😉 Now, that approach won’t work for everyone, so our professional organizing team has broken the process down into steps to help address the junk drawer situation.
First:
Empty the drawer. You need to pull everything out of the drawer and dump it somewhere that you can see all of it.
Second:
You need to sort it. Put everything into categories so you can understand what you have. You should throw away anything that is obviously trash and doesn’t belong somewhere else. This will make sure you have a good understanding of what all ends up in this drawer.
Third:
Find a new home for all the items. Relocate the items back to their actual homes. If you get stuck on this part of the process because items don’t have homes, this might be a good time to give our professional organizers a call for your complimentary consultation. We can help you find homes for all your items to make this process effortless.
Fourth:
Clean the drawer out. Spray the drawer with a cleaner or wipe it out using a wipe.
Fifth:
Decide what does belong in this drawer and use drawer dividers or small containers to ensure their home in this drawer makes sense. The goal here is to get rid of the junk or “catch-all” drawer – but there can still be some things that live here 😊
Now that you’ve cleaned out your junk drawer, added some organization and know what is supposed to live in there it is up to you to make sure you keep it that way! If this is the first time you’ve cleaned out your junk drawer, you may need to schedule some recurring “maintenance” of this drawer until you and your family are on-board with putting all of the items back in their regular homes. But you should pause and take a moment to feel great about the step you did take! Check back next week for ideas on how to tackle your kitchen utensil drawer. Not sure you can tackle this alone? Reach out to schedule your complimentary consultation with one of our professional organizers today! Meat and Potatoes can help you plan with your family (including the kids!). We would love to help spark joy in your everyday life by transforming your home into functional, beautiful spaces, one area at a time.
