A while back, I did a quick Junk Drawer cleanup using nothing but things I had around the house.  Using just space tupperware containers and a few clippings of rug gripper, I successfully transformed our junk drawer into a functional, usable space.  Well, recently, my mom was tossing out a few things that I thought could be useful!  One of them was a large drawer organizer.  Unfortunately, it’s black, so it renders a bit dark in pictures, but it was the perfect fit for the drawer!  So, I decided to do another overhaul.  But… THIS time, I got rid of the “junk drawer” all together.  How, you ask?  I can already hear the callouts…

Is this girl crazy?

Every home needs a junk drawer?

Where do you put all the stuff if you don’t have a junk drawer?

Seriously, I know the list could go on and on!  BUT, hear me out!  I’m not crazy.  I still have a place for all that “stuff.” And, best of all, it’s organized.

Instead of just “organizing” the junk.  I broke it all down even further.  After almost three years of living in our home, I know exactly what we use all the time and where it needs to be located.  And, I’ve decided, that we only need to keep the bare necessities (cue the Jungle Book song  please…).

But, just breaking the junk drawer down to the bare necessities and compartmentalizing it all just didn’t seem like enough.  To really break the cycle of the dreaded “junk,” I decided to play a little mind-trick on ourselves.

I renamed the drawer!  Junk Drawer no more… We are the proud new owners of a very useful, organized, contained… “UTILITY DRAWER!”

Yup, it’s amazing what a little name change can do for something.  It really forces you to look at a space differently.

So my recommendations if you’re planning to do away with the junk drawer and opt for the much more useful “utility drawer” are:

1. Rename it.  You won’t regret it.
2. Get rid of all the crap you don’t need.  “Bear” necessities people.
3. Containerize it all, with either a drawer organizer, or you can get creative and use tupperware like I did in the past
4. Don’t leave any room.  Every space in that drawer should have a purpose.  Extra space is just begging to get cluttered!

That’s it.  Plain and simple.  You’ll be amazed how excited you can get over a junk drawer re-do!

WHAT PROJECT DO YOU GET SO EXCITED ABOUT THAT YOU JUMP UP AND DOWN UNCONTROLLABLY? DID YOU THINK I WAS NUTS WHEN YOU FIRST STARTED READING THIS POST?

This blog post is part of the series, Operation: 30 Days to an Organized Home. To see the posts in the rest of the series, go here.