The Junk Drawer
One area of the house that I neglected to declutter was our junk drawer. It was the catch all spot for items that didn’t have a home.
A few weeks ago, I got tired of looking at all the crap I mean stuff in the drawer. So I took it all out, threw out the extra paper and separated the clutter into two piles. A Tammy pile and a Logan pile. Then I taped the stupid drawer shut.
For those of you with cluttered junk drawers you might consider using the following strategies to clean them out:
1. Make sure everything has a home.
Rather than throwing stuff into a drawer or leaving your shoes in the middle of the living room, find a home for your stuff. If your stuff has a place to hang out, this will make your life a lot easier.
2. Ask yourself: Do I really need this item?
My general rule for stuff is – If I haven’t used an item in 90 days then it needs to leave my house. Hanging onto items that I don’t use weekly seems silly.
3. Blockade the area.
For me this meant taping the junk drawer shut. I’ve always wondered why certain areas of the house get more cluttered than others. It seems kind of odd that clutter isn’t more ubiquitous.
If you start changing your behavior and put stuff away or block off an area, your house will become less cluttered and more organized.
Do you have any tips to add?
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The only bad thing about the junk drawer “blockade” was breaking the habit of opening it. I think I pulled on that damn locked drawer 3 times a day for the first week not remembering that items now had a new home.
~L
I’d need more tape. We have more than one junk drawer at the moment.
I’ve heard of clutter places being called “hot spots” before. They are places where you tend to leave piles of stuff. From FlyLady.net: “A Hot Spot is an area, when left unattended will gradually take over. My favorite analogy is of a hot spot in a forest fire, if left alone it will eventually get out of hand and burn up the whole forest.” BTW FlyLady has some great suggestions on de-cluttering!
ooh, o.k. tomorrow I promise to report on progress getting rid of my 2 junk drawers. You did it. It’s a great suggestion. Why do I have these drawers anyway? aahhhgggg!
Oh, the draded junk drawer. For months I’ve been meaning to get to mine. I need the space for towels and stuff we need. The stuff from the junk drawer in Kansas City is still in a box, which proves we never really needed any of it in the first place.
I think we have the same countertops.
I’m sitting here in a house that went completely out of control somehow in only about 4 days. I have no tips for anyone but myself: “get off your butt, close the laptop, and get busy, girl.”
I live with an unrepentant and hopeless packrat. He takes over every cabinet, drawer, bookshelf, inch of countertop, and every dresser top with a never-ending supply of weird things that have no home. He has half the garage & a study to store this nonsense, but instead he leaves it EVERYWHERE. If I don’t stay mercilessly vigilant, the whole house looks like a junk drawer. If he lived alone, he would eventually be one of those people they have to find by the smell six weeks after he died, while wading through a maze of 12-foot-high narrow corridors made entirely of unread magazines.
@Wendy – Thanks for sharing your story. It must be hard to live with a packrat! I can’t imagine having so much extra stuff in the house.
Have you talked to him about donating some of his extra stuff? Is that an option?
Hugs to you…
@Wendy- My sympathies! I live with one just like yours. At least you’re keeping a sense of humor about it.
@Tammy- Logic doesn’t work with my husband. His clutter isn’t a logical thing but stems from (I think) emotional attachment to THINGS. I’m the one with OCD but mine manifests in the obsessive need for order. What a pair we make! For the most part I win out but only because I’m more persistent.
Tammy, did any of the stuff in the drawer count as part of your 100 things?
Logan, your comment made me laugh.
Happy Halloween to both of you!
We forgot to include that stuff in our count. I didn’t keep any of my stuff hiding in the junk drawer. So nothing was added to my 100 things list.
Hugs to you..
I really need to tape my junk drawer shut! That’s great advice I’ve never heard before. Most of what I throw in the drawer is actually stuff that’s important to me, like theatre ticket stubs that I want to save and birthday cards from family. I’m going to get a special box for this stuff and keep it out of the drawer.
@Dottie – Good idea! Just don’t let the box become your new junk drawer.
Hugs to you!