Sometimes one oversized junk drawer is far harder to navigate than two smaller, better-organized drawers. That’s why I decided to empty our increasingly chaotic double-wide junk drawer and redistribute everything into some empty drawers on the other side of the kitchen, near the office. It makes sense — we use most of these items in the office area, so storing them nearby is more convenient until we can add storage inside the office.
Below you’ll find the step-by-step of my junk-drawer transfer adventure. I like to pull the drawer out and spread everything on the floor so I can see it all at once, then make three piles: keep, relocate, and donate/trash. That visual sorting makes decisions much easier and helps prevent me from just sliding things back in out of habit.
Here I am sorting and deciding where things should live. I’m definitely more of a casual organizer than a pro, but even basic strategies make a big difference in how a drawer functions.
Some simple tips I used while organizing:
- If you haven’t used an item in six months to a year, consider storing it elsewhere or letting it go. Reserve prime drawer space for things you use frequently.
- Group like items together so you can grab everything you need at once — for example, keep your address book, stamps, and return-address stamp in one spot.
- Limit duplicates: you don’t need hundreds of pens or paper clips.
- Take note of items you never use. We found a Post-it pad we hadn’t touched since moving, which was taking up space that could be used for something we actually use.
- Contain small items in divided trays or boxes so clips, pins, and staples don’t roll around and get lost.
- Shallow, spread-out piles are easier to search through than deep stacks where things get buried.
- Keep snacks handy — a little sugar boost helps the task move along.
These are the empty drawers by the office that made the move easy:
The top drawer now holds envelopes and stamps on one side, our green address book with the return-address stamp, tape and stapler in front, and a brown divided box filled with pens, pencils, scissors, paper clips, binder rings, wire, and band-aids.
The second drawer contains batteries, rubber bands, safety pins, markers, crayons, heavy-duty 3M velcro (great for keeping frames from being pulled down), along with checkbooks and paper tubes for rolling change. Note: the checkbooks were later moved to a more secure location.
Update: We’re babyproofing as we go. Clara doesn’t open kitchen drawers yet and is always supervised, but the moment she shows interest we’ll add safety measures and share how that changes our setup.
The third drawer became the home for cloth napkins, table runners, and paper napkins, which keeps linens tidy and accessible.
At the bottom of the old junk drawer I found a permanent red ink stain from an old floppy disk — a delightfully random, retro discovery.
Side note: for some reason my feet ended up in several of the photos — about a third of them — which made me laugh.
My favorite find was an old soccer button with a young John on it. Ten or twenty years ago he was already adorable, and that little face reminds me of Clara now.
Three takeaways from this quick project:
- Organizing often feels like it will take forever, but once you start it usually goes much faster than expected. This whole transfer took me under thirty minutes once I spread everything out.
- Spending that time now will likely save time later. Keeping drawers tidy makes it quicker to find everyday items.
- There’s a small pleasure in waking up to a freshly organized drawer — it’s the little things that make routines nicer.
What little projects are you tackling lately? Any organizing victories or funny relics you’ve rediscovered? We spent part of the afternoon reminiscing about dial-up internet — I can still mimic the modem sound perfectly — so if you find an old floppy disk you’ll know nostalgia is alive and well here.