15 Minute Organizing Challenge, #1 Junk Drawer

I’m so excited to share with you my tips, tricks, and secrets on how I organize and keep my systems in place.  There is nothing like having a professional organizer come to your home with bins and ideas to help you get organized, but if you don’t have the means to have a professional over then you can count on me to teach you ‘my ways’.  Sometimes getting started on organizing your house seem very overwhelming.  Questions like there is so much to organize and where do I start, pop to mind.  It’s like eating an elephant you have to do it one little bite at a time.  I will walk you through some of the most frustrating places in your house and teach you how you should be organizing these small spaces.  Then you will be able to see how easy it is and want to tackle the bigger projects. How to get an organized junk drawer in 15 minuts. 

Oh, the dreaded Junk drawer. What could be more discouraging than trying to find that super glue to fix a beloved toy for your toddler who is having a meltdown because his favorite toy is broken?  Been there done that!  Your Junk drawer or utility drawer I like to call it can be a blessing and a curse.  We all have one, we all need one, and they are all a bit messy.  Let me show you how to get your perfectly organized junk drawer in 15 min.

Step 1

Take out all the stuff, this is the first step in any decluttering and organizing project.  Just clear the space so that you can see what you have and what you have to put back in that soon to be organized junk drawer.

Step 2

Clean out all the crud.  For some reason, Junk drawers tend to get super dirty with pencil shavings dirty keys gum wrappers etc. make sure you disinfect the drawer and clean inside and out  I love the Grove products because they are natural and smell amazing.  I also love to use a Mr. Clean eraser to get all the black scuffs off the inside of the drawers.  If you have time clean your extra keys with a Clorox wipe, those keys get super dirty!

Step 3

Sort all the things.  Make piles of like things, piles of garbage, piles of recycling, piles of “take to another room”, etc.

Step 4

put back all the things you need in the drawer making sure you only put one or two of each thing. No need to have 3 glue sticks when one will do.

Things you might keep in an organized Junk drawer

•  I keep my children’s files in this drawer.  inside this file, I keep their medical records and school projects letters and homework.  I also have a family file for my hubby and me.  I use to have drop boxes for each child at my old house but now I have to use this drawer and the file works perfectly to keep it all in order.
• coupons, I keep these clipped to my family folder so they don’t get shoved under stuff.
• pencils, pens, paper clips, glue, paper
• mailing envelops and stamps
• flashlight
• measuring tape, magnets for the fridge
• keys

ok, its that easy my drawer took me 22 min because I already had a system in place.  It’s so much easier to keep the drawer organized if you have small drawer bins to hold all the different things.  I got mine from the container store and Target. you can see they don’t match but they fit perfectly and that’s what mattered to me. you could use sturdy little boxes from jewelry or your iPhones as well whatever is in your budget. I’ve linked my favorites below.

container store starting at 3.99$

Amazon  14$