After the decluttering process is completed, every space in your tiny home should be pristine and completely organized.
Yeah, right.
Everyone knows there is going to be those random odds and ends that just don’t have a home: rubber bands, extra (but necessary) pens, tea lights, Post-It Notes, paperclips, and fun, but annoying corporate swag. The junk drawer happens to be a worthwhile place to keep those items. It also happens to offer interesting insight into the person that owns it.
There are just some items that don’t have a home. Hence the junk drawer.
It’s no Instagram darling, but the junk drawer actually happens to be a worthwhile part of any home. Even a tiny home.
It just can’t get out of hand. The junk drawer works best when it stays in one drawer, or one box, or one storage container. It becomes a problem when the items within begin to wander out into the rest of the house.
The author’s junk drawer. The ping pong balls are for the cats.
While it is best to find specific places for the odds, ends, and pens, there are a few ways to keep your junk drawer from filling up your entire home:
- Make sure that the junk drawer is just that: one drawer. It can also be a junk box or a junk storage container. No matter where the junk lives, it should stay and fit in that drawer or box.
- Regularly go through the junk drawer to re-declutter and become familiar with what is in there. For example, I know that my best pair of scissors and the garbage/recycling schedule is in the junk drawer.
- Don’t be afraid to actually organize the junk drawer. It doesn’t have to look like the photos above. Use plastic organizing containers to herd smaller items like pens and paperclips.
- Be ruthless about what you actually use and need. Sure, those sample hand sanitizer bottles have been around since last year, but are you actually going to use them while they sit in the drawer? If not, maybe put them in your purse or car. Just don’t let that purse or car become the next junk drawer.
Featured photo by liz west
By Christina Nellemann for the [Tiny House Blog]