The JUNK Drawer

In the house of my childhood, there was such a thing as a "junk" drawer.  It was always called a "junk" drawer though it actually had assigned contents.  The things that belonged there were scissors, tape, string, and small hand-held household tools.  But, the fact that it was called the "junk" drawer meant that anyone and everyone felt free to put pretty much anything else in there.  Therefore, it always looked rather junky. 

I swore that I'd never have a junk drawer at my house.  Truth be known, there is no such drawer in my kitchen.  Each drawer in the kitchen has an assigned purpose and assigned belongings.  Yet, there are  drawers in our sideboard in the dining room, and those drawers tend to fill the role that our old kitchen junk drawer filled.  Today, those drawers are under attack!

Here they are.  The left one is full of miscellaneous things.  And, oh, look... so is the right one.  The right one has built in dividers.  As I looked at these two drawers, I figured that those compartments could be assigned and that would help organize them.

So, I took both drawers out and put them on the floor in my living room and sat done with the dear things.  I first went through and took out anything that was trash or didn't belong in the room at all.  I made two piles of those things.  The trash was the biggest pile!

Then, I decided what ought to go in those compartments in the right drawer.  I assigned one for gift wrapping supplies, one for office supplies and one for Steve's things.  I suppose that's only fair since all the drawer space is otherwise mine!  The compartment in the back has seldom used items. 

Then I took a couple of sticky notes and made temporary labels for the compartments.  It doesn't help to put things away if you don't know where they go.  And, thus far, no one in this home can read my mind about where things should go.  Here's a large picture so you can check it out.

 The other drawer received a less glamorous makeover.  I already had the white tray and so I took out pens that didn't work and put pencils, pens and highlighters into the tray.  Everything else is simply neatly arranged.  I will need to get a few more trays.  These drawers are quite shallow (about 2 inches deep) and when you open them quickly, everything goes sliding around.  A few more trays will help corral the items.

In the end, the main thing about junk drawers, or any drawers for that matter, is that they need a little attention from time to time.  It is well worth the little bit of time to cull the unwanted items, rearrange the things that you want, and enjoy a nice neat drawer until, well, until the next time they look like a mini-tornado went through them.

Facing the dumping zone

My house is filled with dumping zones -- places where people conveniently drop things when they come into the house.  It seems that every room has some kind of drop spot.  This is not-so-organized behavior.

Today, I am facing one of those rooms -- our music/office room.  Right now it is filled with clutter!  I'm going to tackle it and make it the lovely, usable room that it ought to be... instead of the room with the closed doors and fear of something escaping from it!

My to-do list:

1) Make a plan -- there's nothing quite so aggravating as getting into a project and then realizing that you don't know where you're going with it!  And, that is par for the course for the not-so-organized!  I have thought through where the major pieces of furniture will go and what will be stored in them.

2) Take action -- here's my steps for the day:

• Take out the trash!  Grab a grocery sack, or a kitchen garbage bag, or even a bigger one if you need to, and start tossing the things that you know need to get OUT of the room right now!  I'm going to focus on the floor and the horizontal surfaces.
• Move the small things out of the way.  For me, that means hauling them into the next room, which happens to be my living room.  I'm prepared for the reality of this -- my living room is going to be a disaster for a few hours!  It's OK.... there is a higher purpose.  Just don't leave it there overnight, or it might put down roots!!
• Move the big furniture into place.
• Replace the things you want to have in there.  Everything should go to a) Goodwill or other charity, b) the trash, or c) the room where it actually belongs.  I will be taking some of my music things to school, and that will clear some space.

We lucked out and found two bookcases (with cabinets on the bottom) that matched our current bookcase.  Ours was a little smaller, but we just put it in the middle to make it symmetrical.  It worked like a charm.  We purchased the bookcases at our local re-sale shop for a fraction of their original price.  Here is a glimpse of the end result.  (Note: my dear husband secured the cabinets together and also secured them to the wall.  They won't fall over unless the house falls down!)

3) Finish-up -- I'm not quite sure what all this means, but today I think it will mean making sure that my poor living room doesn't become the next dumping zone and that things are dusted and put back into place.

For the not-so-organized, this was a big day.  I'm imagining that I'll have more projects that have to do with keeping this room humming along nicely.  Thanks for joining me.  Good luck with your spare room project!  Let me know how it goes for you!