Decluttering That Junk Drawer

I kind of freaked out the other day when I realized one of my kitchen drawers was evolving into a junk drawer. When we first got married, I we had a few drawers that were a mismash of items, but I have really become more organized since those early days. Nothing is more frustrating to me than not being able to find something.

Most people I know have a junk drawer or two or three. Most can even mention a few things that are in it. But if the items are just mingled with other items, it can be really difficult and frustrating to find what you're looking for even if you know it's in the drawer... somewhere.

I thought to myself, why not reduce that stress and take 15 minutes to clean out the drawer? So today I am decluttering that pesky kitchen junk drawer. Even though I really try not to let things get out of control, it happens.

I use a simple system of Assess, Delete and Save whenever I declutter a spot in my home.

This is what I saw when I opened the drawer to get a bottle opener the other day. I have to say I was a bit shocked that I had let this get out of hand.

Well, this was going to bother me so the first step was to take everything out of the drawer to review if I really needed it and if it was still useful.

Assess

I had quite a variety of items in it including: cookie cutters, airline crackers (really? yes really), assorted straws, a solo zero birthday candle, candy, a flavor injector, dish towels and the bottle openers. I go through every single item to assess its value to me and my life.

Next I cleaned out the drawer and peeled off the old liner paper.

Delete

Before I put the items back in the drawer, I hit the delete button on anything that is unusable or belongs elsewhere. The crackers were old so they went straight into the trash as did the zero candle since it was by itself. I put some of the packages of unopened straws in my donation box because I truly do not need as many as I had. 

Save

The cookie cutters were put in the appropriate boxes in the kitchen. I bought some clear acrylic boxes at the dollar store and put items such as the straws, bottle openers and flavor injector in them. If I am going to save something, it needs to have a designated home that makes sense to me. This drawer is in my kitchen island where I do most of my food preparation. There is actually space now in the drawer!

Now I will easily be able to find my openers and reduce some stress. Imagine what you could put in an empty drawer. If you have a junk drawer and it was cleaned out what kind of things would you store there? Do you have a junk drawer that needs decluttering?