The Junk Drawer

I'm pretty sure we all have a junk drawer. You know, the one in your kitchen, or maybe your office, that holds all of the miscellaneous items you just don't know what else to do with. It probably contains items you use decently often like scissors, but if it's like mine it probably also has batteries, rubber bands, birthday candles, matches, small manuals, tape, screws, leftover pieces from small diy projects, corks, bag clips, paint chips, etc. 

This wasn't the first project I tackled but I did decide to clean it up today. Not only did we have one junk drawer in the kitchen, we had two! I pulled everything out and separated it into piles. I found that most of the stuff in it actually fit in another place in the house. 

Here were my piles:

• tools and related items (electric checker, electric tape, plumbers tape, screwdriver, painters tape, outlet covers).
• office supplies (tape, scissors, notepads, sticky notes, pens, pencils, sharpies, rubber bands, clips, paperclips, packing tape)
• crafty and diy items (drawer hardware)
• batteries and flashlights
• kitchen appliance manuals
• miscellaneous: playing cards, matches, an old phone
• trash (old receipts, small odds and ends, paint chips)

Most of these items actually belong in other places of my house, so evidently we've just been lazy and thrown the little odds and ends in a drawer. With a little more thought, I can actually use these drawers for something more productive or leave them empty. 

All of the tool items go downstairs in a designated space set aside for tools, etc. The office supplies go in the office (that we just cleaned through), the crafty items go in my craft room, the batteries and flashlights go in the basement where there are other batteries, the playing cards go with the games, and the trash goes in the trash. The phone does need to be recycled - unless anyone wants an old LG phone with a pull-out keyboard.

The only things I decided to leave in the drawer were a small flashlight, the kitchen manuals, matches, the clips for food, and scissors for ease of access. 

I did find that most of the stuff in the drawers are items we use or will use so they didn't get thrown away or in the get rid of pile like I'm trying to do with a lot of other items. 

This project took all of 15 minutes and was very productive so there isn't an excuse not to start here. If you have stuff you really don't use throw it away or donate it.

First Steps-Declutter a.k.a. Get Rid of That Junk!

I have a hard time getting rid of things because I always think what if I could have a use for that later or I just don't want to be wasteful. And no, mom, I am not a hoarder. : ) 

My house is actually pretty neat its just when you get right down to it and open the doors and closets we have more than we need for two people. I have a lot of unused stuff that takes up space and just collects dust. I figure there are two steps to weeding some of this out:

1) Getting the motivation to tackle it
2) Letting go - either giving it away, selling it, or realizing it's not worth the energy
3) Also knowing that just because you have the space doesn't mean you have to keep it filled

My first step in simplifying is to get rid of the excess "stuff."

While watching TV in the evenings this week I have taken the time to pull out drawers and clean through them. Two-fold help in the simplification process: wasting less time and cleaning out.

It's somewhat overwhelming but it feels so good when I get a drawer cleaned out and can throw some stuff away! It's going to be a slow process, but at least it's progressing.

How do you mentally prepare yourself for cleaning through stuff? Any tricks you use or thought processes to help you let go?