Taming the mighty junk drawer

[ABand3]

How do you do it?

Right now my junk drawer stuff is packed up in a couple boxes, but I'll be moving into a house in a couple weeks and want to have a plan for dealing with it other than pouring it into another drawer. I have things like batteries, pens & paper, a couple small tools, rubberbands and twist ties, extra wire, screws, pieces and parts that have come off of something which one day we might need again!

I was thinking of maybe organizer trays to fit in a couple drawers, or something like a tool box or fishing tackle box with lots of little compartments.

Any ideas?

[kewb]

I have a bunch of different sized deep trays in my junk drawer. It has helped.

[minta]

I stopped having a junk drawer as such because it became a dumping ground for all and sundry. Much more effective to separate things and store them in more appropriate places.

Oops, toddler waking -- sorry! Best quick advice is don't do a drawer, find more specific areas and means of organization eg. hardware in one location, mending in another, arts and crafts elsewhere, and make sure you set aside a box or something for the totally random!

[holliebug]

Like the previous poster, I did away with my junk drawerS! Yes I had more than one
I sorted through all of the bits, and pieces stored in said junk drawers, and decided a better place for them. So picture hooks, mini screw driver etc went in the tool box in the garage. Odd toy pieces went back with the toys they belonged to.
Pens are in a nice mug now, and I never have to go hunting for one these days. I know exactly where to find them.
I also have four rubbermaid (smaller) containers that hold batteries, cables/chargers, flashlight, scissors, tape, and pet brushes etc. These stack on top of eachother in a cupboard in the kitchen, and now I have an extra drawer in the bedroom, and two in the kitchen to store things in!