Before & After: Organizing the Kitchen “Sad Drawer”

Almost every kitchen’s got one. They go by different names: my old flatmate and I called ours the Drawer of Doom, and with my current one, The Sad Drawer. It’s that one place in a kitchen, be it drawer, pantry shelf, or simply an unfortunate corner, that attracts random debris like nobody’s business. From the actually useful (tupperware, kitchen foil) to the barely-used (madeleine pan, anyone?), the Sad Drawer is where things that don’t go anywhere else find themselves.

Last weekend, in a fit of procrastination, I decided to clear out the Sad Drawer, a decision I make approximately twice per year. This time around, I photographed the process for posterity. Click through the images above to see the sorry state of my drawer pre-tidy, and what I found in there.

After a thorough cleaning (drawer and contents), I was ready to make some edits and put things back. Because this was a spontaneous tidy, I decided against lots of drawer dividers or fancy organization products, which I sometimes find just create more confusion and make storage less versatile, anyway. Instead I opted for paring down the contents, relocating some items and getting rid of others, and replacing them with an eye for order.

Click through to see what I kept, and what I ditched. I’m aware that this sense of order will last a week, maybe two at the most, but I’ll take it. Better a sad drawer than a sad kitchen, after all.

Do you have a Sad Drawer? How do you keep it in check?