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UHeart Organizing: The Junk Drawers That Went Glam

Two contributors, two junk drawers, two ways!  I love that something is in the air and folks are tackling their junk, or what I like to call "everything", drawers.  These can be the most challenging drawers to keep under control so it is always interesting to see how others take on the types of drawers that have no single purpose.

Leave it to my buddy Cassie to color me impressed!  Her and I are two birds of a feather and have an appreciation of making organizing functional and fun.  This girl has some serious style, which you can see over at her blog Hi Sugarplum, and today she is here to show us how she organized a couple of drawers doing multiple duties in her kitchen.


In our Kitchen remodel a few years ago, we were able to remove the dated wall oven and microwave, and carve out this little nook with two rows of drawers.  While I think drawers are a more efficient use of space than cabinets, they are easy victims for accumulating junk. It's just so easy to toss in any random object, then quickly close the drawer and ignore what's happening inside.  Hence the term junk drawer!  At first glance, no one knows about all those skeletons hiding just beneath the surface!


The height of the bottom drawers made them perfect for pots, pans, and appliances, but the top two drawers are too short for much of anything...so they immediately became the dumping zone.  The size also made it hard for me to find organizing trays and dividers, so most everything was sliding around willy-nilly.


Besides more junk, the second drawer held a bunch of my craft supplies.  But I've since organized all of those into one efficient Craft Closet, so that left the drawer pretty much empty.  Don't you love how good organizing actually creates more space?


I knew if I wanted to keep the drawers tidy long-term, then I'd need to make them cute.  Just like with our Pantry, if it looks good, my family is more likely to put things back in the proper place.  The junkier it looks, the junkier you're likely to keep it.  You can knit that on a pillow if you want.

So after cleaning out the drawers, purging all the dried-up pens, empty gum wrappers, 2-year-old coupons and receipts from 1981, I lined the bottoms with wrapping paper, held in place with washi tape.


I love this set of baskets because they are shallow and allow you to customize to your drawer like puzzle pieces. But since I'm a blogger, I had to jazz them up to keep me interested.


Liberace and I go way back, so of course I went gold.


I love the combo of graphic paper with pretty metallic...there's no mistaking these drawers for junk anymore!


Then I sorted the remaining items, and rounded-up all the other random things we seem to need daily, but can never find, and organized them in the two drawers.


My kids are old enough that I don't have to keep dangerous things out of reach, but there's no sense in mixing box cutters with glue sticks.  So I dedicated one drawer to everyday kid stuff they need for homework and projects, and the other holds the more grown-up items.  They have free reign to access this drawer, and help themselves to anything in it.  As long as they put it back, of course. Ain't nobody wants to see mommy's head spin around.


I know ya'll are nosy like me, so I labeled everything to make the snooping easier.


Double-decker organizers are perfect for using every bit of vertical space in a drawer.



Having this drawer has cut down on the, 'Mooooooooooommmmmmmmmm, where's a staaaaaaaplerrrrrrr?' #halleluiah


The other drawer holds mostly things the Mister and I use, and like to have handy. Because sometimes walking to the garage for the tape measure is just exhausting.


Get your snoop on....


We have a charging station at our Family Command Center, but somehow we still have 87 more chargers, cords, and headphones. (I lean towards the exaggeration, if you hadn't noticed.)  Look how pretty they are corralled together!  You're petting the screen, aren't you?


Each is wound with a cable tie and labeled, so there's no mistaking the electronic.


Same goes for all the lenses, cords and accessories for my camera.




Now these drawers make me so happy I could join the circus. Sometimes I keep them open just to admire...no more slamming them closed before anyone sees 'the real me.'


I dare you to call them junk drawers now! Them is fighting words! Happy organizing, lovebugs!



"Hi, I'm Cassie, a DIY and design-obsessed Texas girl, and lover of travel, fashion, sarcasm and Mexican food. When I'm not hanging with my sweet and funny family, you can find me kicking the '80s out of our home, one budget project at a time, on my blog Hi Sugarplum!"




Update!  Thank you sweet readers for warning Cassie and myself the dangers of the 9-Volt battery storage.  Cassie is making tweaks to her drawer based on the response.  This blog is all about educating one another, and I truly appreciate you guys mentioning it!  xoxo!