How to Declutter a Messy Junk Drawer in 15 Minutes (and Get It Totally Organized)
Apartment Therapy’s Decluttering Cure is a free two-week decluttering program that’ll help you achieve a tidier home. Sign up here and get all 14 assignments delivered to your inbox.
Junk drawers are often magnets for odds and ends, ultimately becoming a disorganized mess of “junk.” But with some dedicated organizing, you won’t have to deal with this messiness any longer!
Today, we’re obtaining an organized junk drawer with a quick, productive decluttering session.
Day 3: Declutter a messy drawer.
The assignment is simple: Tackle one messy drawer in just 15 minutes. For a successful clear-out, follow these steps to declutter and organize your junk drawer.
- Take everything out — and we mean everything.
- Put items through the five-question assessment and utilize your outboxes for things you want to relocate/revisit, donate, or sell (if any).
- Throw away any trash or unwanted items.
- Put everything back in an organized fashion.
That’s it! It’s really that simple. If you notice anything sentimental that’s worth reevaluating, make sure to set this aside from your outboxes. We’ll get to those much later in the Decluttering Cure program.
PRO TIP: Before returning everything, consider getting a junk drawer organizer. This adjustable set, which was a 2024 Organization Awards winner, has non-slip feet so it won’t move around in the drawer.
Did you find anything interesting in your junk drawer? Tell us about it in our community forum!
More ways to participate in the Decluttering Cure:
- Sign up for email updates.
- Visit the 2024 Decluttering Cure page and catch up on assignments.
- Download the Decluttering Cure calendar.
- Join the conversation by checking out the Decluttering Cure board in our community forum.
- Check off that you’ve completed this task and track your overall Decluttering Cure progress here!
- See all the winners from our 2024 Organization Awards to get your home organized.
The Cure Program is a tradition here at Apartment Therapy — it happens every January, April, and September. Click here to learn more about the year-round program and when to sign up.