Do you have a junk drawer?

What do you do with all those little odds and ends that you are not quite sure what to do with? Where is that drawer located?

I admit that I don’t have a junk drawer. I’m not saying this as a point of pride but as a straight up fact. And really, I don’t have a junk drawer because I don’t have enough room to have a junk drawer. Every single drawer and shelf in my house has a specific purpose. I just try really really hard to give all those little doodads a home that makes sense…and sometimes I’m really pushing the limits of making the connections.

I admit I have what I refer to as a multi purpose drawer– the threads that hold this drawer together are loose. This drawer contains my regular cameras, unused video camera, foreign country adapters, underwater camera, extension cords, waterproof bags for phone and ipad, and a baseball that we got at a game, that’s there’s a long and mainly uninteresting story involved.

Do you know what the hardest thing for me to find a place for is? The extra command strips that come when you use those hooks and clips. I KNOW that at some point I will need them again. So where should I store them? They’re not really a tool, so they don’t go in the tool box. Don’t belong in the kitchen. Hmmmm. So where should I keep them? In the end, I got a box and I put them all in a box and I store that box in the cabinet when you walk into my apartment. They are self contained and easy to find.

Rubber bands? Kitchen drawer I have a little box that holds them.

Batteries?- small drawer in my end table in a box specifically for batteries.

What are the little objects that you never know where to put? Or, what items, big or small, do you struggle with storing?

Discuss

79 thoughts on “Junk”

  1. We keep all things related to hooks and strips in a small storage box so that (hopefully) we can find them when needed! But I have a really small space and three other people in the home so and do struggle with everything having a place that it actually stays out in! We have a junk drawer and a few spots where things that don’t have a home congregate — eg a cabinet above a pet cage where tool and pet things try to find a home.

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  2. Junk will be the end of me. All those odds and ends, some of which may or may not serve a purpose in the future…

    At the family house whenever I drop in periodically, the first thing I do (not intentionally, just habitually) is to put items back in the place they’re supposed to reside in when I stumble on them. Theoretically there is no junk drawer… I never created one when I lived there full time. Except, there are multiple ones now… 🤷‍♀️

    At my mom’s place, where I live most of the time now, there is no junk drawer per se, although there are a couple of spots that are multi-purpose for those odd items that you can’t categorize clearly.

    I spend zero time looking for things at mom’s place. I need x, I go to x and use it, then I put it back.

    This does not happen at the family house. 😐

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  3. I have 3 “junk drawers” Each has a specific collection and purpose. One has batteries, the odd screw or nail, string and the ever present collection of device charging cables and blocks. Another houses battery candles, LED light strings, which if you dont properly store them becomes a project the next time you want to use one. And the third which is simple the et al drawer.

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      3. I’m a regular Sandford & Son. I don’t have a lot of junk but I know exactly what I have. Recently my wife bought a small stained glass window thingy and I knew exactly what “junk” would work perfectly to hang it from the top of the window and avoid the blinds.

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    1. I helped my daughter move into her dorm. She looked at how pretty her drawers looked, and she said she didn’t know if she’d get dressed…

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  7. Yes! I have a junk/multi purpose drawer. I have several. One in each room, probably. My China cabinet even has one “junk” drawer too. Multi purpose is a better name for those drawers. For instance the extra drawer in the China cabinet is filled with odd numbers of napkin rings, decorative plate holders, small China dishes for butter, sugar cubes etc. ( I used to set up high tea luncheons and used vintage Victorian China pieces. (I think it was in the 1990’s when that was a thing). My gal pals would combine book club and tea luncheons back then). So now I have singles of items that used to be a pair and are too pretty to discard or have a sentimental value. Many of those items my grand daughter used to play with when she was in her tea party phase. She could go to my “junk” drawers in various rooms and she’d turn her play table area into a restaurant. I can’t tell you how adorable that was. ( Keep in mind, I raised two boys so finally having a little girl in the house to have tea parties has been so much fun)!

    Having accessible junk drawers are a treat for children. My old mismatched sock drawer in the bedroom is perfect. The kids would pick a few mismatched socks and turn them into puppets. My sewing drawer houses a plethora of items they can to add to decorate their puppets.

    So yes, I have a multi purpose drawer in several rooms. And yeah, I definitely need to get rid of things. (I keep telling myself that). I’ll get around to it one of these days…. But I like to think of my junk drawers as magical places. You never know what you will find! I guess parts of my home are set up like my classroom was. I had creative centers ( stations) where the children could go to create. And I did that with my own children and my grandchildren too. What’s that saying? One person’s trash is another person’s treasure!

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  8. I get the limited space storage dilemma! In some ways it’s frustrating but in other ways, and ideally for my obsessively organized personality, it’s a positive. I have a decent size cabinet with doors between my kitchen and bathroom that houses various bins plus larger supplies. I laughed at the Command Strip remark! It’s a love-hate with all those extras. Mine are in one of the bins.

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  9. All my drawers are becoming junk drawers! Well, not all, but I do have six. Seriously. I have a lot of drawers in my kitchen. They have misc. hardware and old phone chargers and work gloves and all kinds of crap that I need to throw out! My husband inherited his dad’s hardware hoarding gene. Lol. I’m just thankful I have so many drawers, but they are getting pretty full. I’m always impressed with your organizational skills. I’m curious, if it’s not too personal, how much sq. footage do you have? Do you ever wish you had a bigger place? Our mobile home is 2000 sq feet but it lacks in closet space.

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  10. You crack me up.

    My hardest is storing items that require stacking. Clearly, the least-used category needs to be at the back (say, like Christmas décor) but those will need to be gotten at when their time comes around.

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  11. I have a drawer for command strips in the laundry room. It also has a small hammer, nails, picture hangers. That’s all. I do have a junk drawer in the kitchen, but it houses lottery tickets, receipts, Rx instructions and coupons. Not sure that qualifies as a junk drawer.

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  13. I have reorganized my closet, and my bedroom drawers but the double garage is daunting. Anytime I say I will throw something out, my wife says she will find someone who needs and give it to them. One thing did go this week ! When my daughter’s new home is constructed then some space will return and my garage will be my biggest project will be sell or get rid of all the saws and things I don’t use anymore.

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  14. Unfortunately we have a junk drawer and there is zero organization there. It catches all the odds and ends but trying to find something therein is an absolute nightmare.

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  15. My wife has a drawer just off the kitchen where she keeps all sorts of ties, twine, mini-staples, rubber bands, adhesive hangers, paperclips, etc. I have no earthly idea where anything is when I open it, but she knows exactly where everything is. There must be 50 unique, different items in that drawer. She is the Drawer Whisperer.

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  16. We moved to our new home a year ago and there are still all sorts of items in the garage lingering with out a home but what I can’t seem to part with are pictures in the frames from the old house. No place for them here but they sit in frames in a box – for how long?

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    1. I used to have a big picture wall, and my daughter said it felt like a shrine, so I let family me,hers choose a few favorite framed photos and I put the rest in an album

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  17. I do have a junk drawer that others in my house can’t seem to keep organized when they go into it. However, my favorite way of organizing smaller items is a shoe organizer, on the inside of my linen closet. It has clear pockets so you can see what’s in them. And you can close the door and not see the organizer. Honestly though, finding a place for bits and bobbles is definitely a challenge.

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  19. Ummm. I’m counting. So far, four “junk” drawers. But important junk, like old love letters and old bras I can’t throw away and an old ashtray that my dad used (I don’t smoke) and, am I embarrassing myself? :-_

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  21. Guilty, in a way. We have a “catch as catch can” in our kitchen cabinet. It’s actually an old ice bin from a fridge we had about 20 years ago. Filled with random items like picture hangers (the old kind) and thumb tacks. Also impossible to access. I must get rid of it!

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  22. I often think we need to reorganize kitchen baking trays because like a lot of people we store them in the warmer under the oven. We have a drawer in the desk we keep mostly batteries in and a few other other things that don’t consider junk that are happily sharing living space with the batteries.

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  23. We have many junk drawers and we currently have a bedroom that I’m calling a junk room. I cannot imagine living without the drawers, the bedroom is in transition so it’ll be back to a usable space soon enough.

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  24. My house is very clean HOWEVER I have two drawers that house all kinds of crap. You’ll find all different types of tape, gum, band aids, small screw drivers for tightening up chairs or cabinets. and the list goes on and on! LOL

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  25. You mean there are people who don’t have a junk drawer? 🤪 I think the only place I have not had a junk drawer was in a high rise apartment in Buenos Aires where we only lived for two months. I think more space ends up meaning more “stuff.”

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    1. Ok…I have this thing that hangs in the closet that holds wrapping paper, gift bags, even scissor and tape. And I have a box in my front hall cabinet that holds assorted cards, stamps and return address labels. I know. I’m annoying like this. Nail files…one in my vanity, and one in my night stand, one in my purse

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  28. I bought a battery case from Home Depot. I love it. You open up the cover and all the batteries are in front of you neat and organized. I have two junk bins. Don’t know exactly what is in there.

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  30. We have 2 drawers that catch some junk, it’s sort of a hiding place for things I don’t know where to put away otherwise. Plus, there is tape, batteries, tools and things I need occasionally in one of them, the other has some appliance manuals and pure junk. I should look in there and clean it out…. maybe tomorrow. LOL

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