You know the junk drawer I’m talking about.
Every time you open it and behold the mess inside, you promise yourself you’ll clean it out. Someday soon. Really.
Yet that drawer remains as junky as ever.
The problem is that, while the drawer might be small, cleaning it out feels like a big job. There’s just so much stuff in there. How can you even start to deal with it all.
Well, you can start with the step-by-step process below.
Here’s a simple, step-by-step blueprint that will help you de-clutter that messy junk drawer. It’s quick and painless. And you might even find it relaxing.
Step 1: Add “Clean Out Junk Drawer” to Your Schedule
No, really.
Adding something like this to your schedule might feel a little silly. But when you set an actual time to do something, there’s a better chance you’ll actually do it.
Choose a time of day when you usually have thirty to sixty minutes free.
Don’t worry. You won’t be stuck cleaning out that drawer for thirty to sixty minutes at a clip. You’re only going to commit to doing it for 10 minutes at a time. But when you want to spend more time on the task, you’ll be able to because you’ll have some “extra time” free.
And, believe it or not, you’ll sometimes want to keep going.
So add “Clean Out Junk Drawer” to your digital calendar. And set an alarm to go off at that time every day as a reminder.
Step 2: Get Two Empty Boxes
The size of the boxes will depend on how big the drawer is, and how much junk is in the drawer. But unless it’s a gigantic drawer filled with oversized items, two nice-sized shoeboxes should be all you need.
Now label one box “keep,” and the other “throw away.”
Step 3: Set a Timer and Start Sorting
You can use an egg timer, the timer on your microwave, or a timer app on your cell phone. It just needs to be close enough for you to hear it when it goes off.
Place the boxes within easy reach of the drawer. Or, if possible, pull out the drawer and take it (and your boxes) to that comfy chair in the living room. Because nobody said you can’t be comfortable while de-cluttering.
Now set your timer for 10 minutes and start sorting.
When the timer goes off after 10 minutes, you’re done for the day. Just set the two boxes somewhere inconspicuous, and return the drawer to its rightful place.
Of course, if you want to keep going, you can. Set the timer for another 10 minutes and sort some more. And if the timer goes off and you still feel like doing more sorting, set the timer again.
Strange as it sounds, giving yourself permission to stop will often make you want to keep going.
Step 4: Empty the “Throw Away” Box
Your junk drawer is now an empty drawer, and everything has been sorted into your two boxes.
Now take your “throw away” box and dump its contents in the nearest trash can.
If you don’t do this right away, the junk in that box will work its way back into your junk drawer. Or some other container or drawer somewhere else in your house. Because that’s how it seems to work.
So rifle through the “throw away” box one last time to make sure there’s nothing in it you need to keep. And, after that, toss.
Now you can return the stuff in your keep box to the junk drawer.
At this point, you might be satisfied with the current state of your junk drawer. So rub your hands together and pat yourself on the back for a job well done.
But if you want to see if you can de-junkify that drawer even more, move on to step 5.
Step 5: Do a Second Sort
During your first sort, I bet you hesitated over some of that junk. You picked up some old bauble and couldn’t decide whether to throw it away or keep it. And, chances are, it ended up in the “keep” box.
Well a lot of the things you hesitated over the first time around will end up in your “throw away” box on a second sort.
So, got go through the process again. On another day, at your scheduled “junk drawer cleaning” time, repeat steps two through four.
Step 6: Do Yet Another Sort
Here’s an optional step that will de-clutter your junk drawer even more.
Some of the stuff in your junk drawer could be put somewhere else. For example:
- Those board game pieces could go in the box with the rest of the game.
- Those coupons could go in your purse or wallet. (After all, when you’re at the store, having coupons in a drawer at home won’t do you much good.)
- That calculator your child’s been looking for everywhere (except the junk drawer, apparently) could be put in his room.
Everything you put somewhere else equals one less piece of clutter in the junk drawer. So take the “throw away” box and re-label it “somewhere else.” Then go through the drawer again, sorting stuff into the two boxes.
When you’re done, you can start moving that “somewhere else” stuff to more suitable places. But you don’t have to do this all at once. Instead, turn your 10-minute “Clean Out Junk Drawer” sessions, into 10-minute “Deal with Stuff in Somewhere Else Box” sessions.
Step 7: Enjoy Your Newly De-Cluttered Junk Drawer
Finally, return the stuff in the “keep” box to the drawer, and you’re finished.
Chances are your junk drawer won’t be immaculate. It’s still a junk drawer, after all.
But it will be less junky than it was before. And you might actually be able to find stuff in there now.
And once you’ve dealt with one junk drawer, you can use this process to deal with other drawers that might not be as junky, but can still use some neatening up.
Seem like a lot of steps? Maybe. But this process works because it breaks cleaning out your junk drawer into small, doable steps.
And that’s the best way to get any project done.
