31 Days: Day 14 - Tackling the dreaded junk drawer

I drank my second cup of coffee and set the timer for 30 minutes. I opened the first drawer in my long bar in the kitchen, pulled out the contents and this is what I saw...

Then, I took that pile and tried to separate it out so I could see exactly what it was I was looking at. It was quite a mess. Everything from hair accessories to coupons to a fake tattoo sleeve. You see, this is the drawer that on occasion, spends a week, at the most, being organized and then people start using it as a place to dump things they don't know what to do with. If I hand one of my kids something and say, here, take this to your room and put it where it belongs. They will usually get distracted with something else and that item will magically appear in the junk drawer. When I clean for company, whatever is left on the bar that I don't know what to do with, I slide it off into this drawer. It's a pitiful mess.

Some things I could immediately tell needed to go into the trash, then it was just a question of sifting.

After the trash pile was established, I started categorizing. School stuff, stuff to go to the bathroom, to file, pictures, etc. 

My timer went off and I was not finished. So I put everything back into the drawer that I wanted to stay there permanently, minus pretty shelf liner paper, and admired my work. All I have to do now is find a place for the stuff that didn't make it back into the drawer.

Here are some interesting finds from my junk drawer foray. 

Storage containers. Not filled with anything in particular. Just floating around in a mess of objects.

A picture of an unidentified woman getting a hug from Elvis. Who knew he was such a committed hugger?!? From now on, when I'm feeling neglected, I'll just say I need an Elvis hug.

An assortment of past years Christmas picture cards. My refrigerator isn't magnetic on the front, so I don't have any place to display these kinds of things. And where do things go that don't have a home? The junk drawer, that's where!

Napoleon Dynamite glasses my son wore for Halloween a couple of years ago. He won the contest and now I can't thrown the glasses away. I popped out the scratched lenses and put them in the kids dress up drawer.

A hopeful craft project supply. We'll see.

More to come. I have three more drawers like this in my kitchen alone!

Click here for the rest of the 31 Days posts.