'From Trash to Treasure'

Before

Everyone has one. A drawer in their desk, bureau or side table that houses all of life’s odds and ends: cables, rubber bands, spare change, spare keys, batteries, pencils, erasers, plugs and other essential but non-essential miscellaneous items.

Well enough of keeping this your household dirty secret. In just one hour, you can transform your junk drawer into your go-to drawer. This may not be your typical decorating/fashion tip, but it’s the starting point if you want to continue those crafty décor projects, you’re going to need to find your tape, pencils and screwdriver.

20 minutes: Empty, sort and throw out

For the first 20 minutes, empty out all the contents of your drawer in a clean, uncluttered surface. Then separate and group items that go together (pens and pencils, spare change, keys, etc.).

During this time, you should be throwing out any items that are no longer useful, or have become outdated and are not used anymore.

Items that don’t belong and take up too much space should be placed and labeled in separate plastic bags, to be housed somewhere else later. Labeling items that you would like to keep, but are likely to forget its purpose, won’t take up too much of your time.

After

30 minutes: Restructure and redo

This next half-hour will be spent finding creative storage items to remedy your junk problem. For example, votive holders and tea cups can store items like paper clips, loose change and pens. Ring dishes serve as a good place to keep rubber bands. For the future, considering buying kits for your much-needed tools or sewing supplies. The kits will already come packed in a handy box for easy storage.

Line the bottoms of your drawer with a colorful drawer line, wallpaper, or place mat. This will keep the holders from sliding around.

10 minutes: Put it all away

The last 10 minutes will be placing your sorted groups into assorted containers. The containers will prevent your things from getting jumbled around into the drawer and messy to begin with.

In putting the items away, think of arranging the drawer in such a way that every container fits neatly. The items that you use most should be placed at the front of the drawer, will the rest should fall to the back.

**Rather not look for containers around the house? Go shopping for some junk desk drawer organizers. Yes, they exist!

-S. Gonzalez

*Photos courtesy of apartmenttherapy.com