Day 15 Purging Tips – Junk Drawer

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Today is Day 15 of the 31 Days of 10-minute Purging Tips Challenge.  Today we’ll be tackling an organizing buggaboo for most people – the junk drawer. We’ll take 10 minutes to purge items we don’t need from that black hole of a junk drawer. Remember our goal is to clear the clutter of things we don’t need from our lives and home so that we can better enjoy life, so let’s go. 

Some people choose to call their junk drawer an “everything drawer” with the idea that it will help them keep from collecting junk in it. I’m a simple girl and I call my junk drawer a junk drawer. I’m of the mindset that one woman’s junk is another person’s treasure. But to keep it from becoming a useless junk pit of a drawer, it’s important that you purge and reorganize your junk drawer frequently. If you purge the junk drawer every month or two, it will never get to that scary movie stage and you’ll be able to maintain it with just 10 or so minutes. 

Clearing Clutter – Tips for Purging Pens, Pencils and the Junk Drawer

Grab the 6 purging bags you created earlier,  print out your free printable Purging Clutter Checklist and head over to the junk drawer. 

Take Everything Out- Keep in mind that we’re doing this in 10 minutes, but unless you have a surprisingly large junk drawer, you should be able to tackle the entire drawer today.  Lay the items you take out on a table or counter. 

Group Like Items Together – Quickly group like items together. Place items that belong somewhere else in piles by either where they need to be returned to or by who they belong to. Don’t take the time to relocate them right now, that will come later. 

Evaluate – Look at each group you’ve created. Throw away any broken items. Throw away any pencils less than 5 inches long. Really. You are worth more than a stubby pencil. Consider each group you’ve created. How many rubber bands do you really need? How many paperclips do you need in the junk drawer? If you have a large pile of change, do you need to keep it in the junk drawer or can you turn it in at the bank for cash?

Purge – Remove items you don’t need to keep and place them in one of your 6 purging bags. Get your family to help you relocate the items that belong somewhere else. Take a minute to talk with your family about what items belong in the junk drawer and why those other items don’t belong in the drawer. 

Put Everything Away – Put the items you’ve decided to keep back away.

Anyone else a Big Bang Theory fan? Make your own Sheldon’s Bazinga Pencil Cup. 

You can make these recycled bottle organizers for free. They’re great for organizing small items in your junk drawer. 

Organizing with a recycled container is an easy way to keep your junk drawer neat and it won’t cost you a penny.

Whew! Another day of purging down. Open that nice clean junk drawer up and smile. Then be sure to join me tomorrow for Day Sixteen in the 31 Days of 10-Minute Purging Tips challenge. Let’s purge some more so you can enjoy life more.

Find all my decluttering tips, printables and challenges in the table below. You can scroll though the table and look for ideas or search for specific ideas with the magnifying glass in the upper right-hand corner (on desktop). Click on the topic and then click through the specific article.