Before
Just for fun, I thought I’d organize the junk drawer in my husband’s desk with my 5 1/2 year old daughter. These are the crazy things organizers do for fun! When a desk drawer is jammed full of seemingly random items, the drawer loses all functionality. Searching for items lost in the drawer just makes it more of a mess- and you probably won’t even find what you thought was in there.
My daughter and I pulled out the desk drawer and put it on the floor. Then we quickly got to work. Here is what you should do:
- Empty the drawer putting everything in groups of like items. All the pens together, receipts, coins, etc.
- Throw out/recycle any broken or no longer useful items. (Donating useable items if possible of course!)
- Purge or at least organize your business card collection into a more useable system- even if that just means putting all the restaurants in one pile and colleagues in another.
- Relocate any items that don’t belong in the desk drawer.
- Use small baskets, check boxes, extra food storage containers, ziploc bags- whatever you have on hand- to separate and store each grouping of items.
- Like a puzzle, fit all the small storage pieces you are using back into the drawer with things used most in the front and things used least in the back.
After
My daughter enjoyed sorting things and figuring out what would be best to store each category. In less than 10 minutes, we had a beautiful looking desk drawer, my daughter learned some valuable organizing skills while having fun with mommy, and my husband got a desk drawer he can actually find things in!