Cleaning and organising are always related tasks. When we’re trying to tidy up, we often find that rubbish comes in handy for containing the clutter and storing essential goods. Are you aware of how many rubbish drawers you have in your office? If you can’t answer that question, you’re not alone. We would like to believe that we are organised enough to have only one, but in reality, this is often not the case. In a well-organised office space, there is actually no need to have junk drawers, but when every day is focused on deadlines and productivity it is inevitable that they occur. With the right coping strategies, it is possible to live in a world where you can reap the benefits of junk drawers, while they are less…well, junky.
The junk drawer is never designed to be a junk drawer on purpose. It usually starts off as something really practical, like a place to keep our stray cables or HDMI adapters. Cables, batteries, USB sticks, old hard drives, and random pens are all of a sudden thrown in with paper clips and staples.
This can be different if you know how to organise junk drawers and turn them into useful storage areas. Even though rubbish drawers have a bad image, they are frequently the first place we look when something goes missing. We value their presence when they deliver. When they don’t, they simply become another place on our regular housekeeping cleaning list to clean and arrange.
You don’t need a professional cleaner to keep your junk drawers in order. All you have to do is follow this guide and use your imagination.
Organising your office junk drawer
The junk drawer is the ideal place for goods like batteries, earbuds, and keys, but not when it’s your office drawer. It’s ridiculous to expect your workplace drawers to be always organised and “business,” but if they are overflowing, there are a few hacks you can use to make your office area more productive.
Start anew
Pour the contents of your workplace junk drawer onto your desk and get rid of anything you don’t actually need. Next, declutter quickly by sorting and grouping similar objects. To get things organised, use the suggestions below.
Extra tips
Use a cardboard bottle divider from liquor, beer, or wine case to construct a junk drawer organiser. They are easy to cut to size and can be used to create a number of isolated storage chambers that will suit practically any drawer.
Make little compartments in your junk drawer with ice cube trays.
Repurpose a cutlery or utensil tray to separate similar products. Because they make the contents of garbage drawers visible, these removable trays are ideal.
Give purpose to your drawers
Once you’ve sorted the contents of your desk drawers, it’s time to assign each drawer a purpose and maximise each space. Begin with these three categories and expand as needed:
- Documents: You’re already ahead of the game if you have a file-size drawer. Set up and label some hanging files. Use a couple of files for important personal documents such as car titles, tax returns, and medical records.
- Electronics: You’ll want to keep your most frequently used chargers, headsets, cables, and other accessories in an easily accessible drawer. Other gadgets, electronics, and cleaning equipment should be kept in another drawer or a neighbouring closet.
- Office supplies: We’re not asking you to throw away every pen, notepad, and sticky note in your top drawer, but how many do you really need? Large notepads can be housed in a hanging file, a couple of pens are usually plenty for most people, and a couple of sticky notes every day should suffice.
Your top drawer is always the most important
Put some thought into reserving the top drawer only for products you frequently use. The top drawer may include regularly used chargers, thumb drives, eyeglasses, and other items you use on a daily basis.
Divide your space up
To make personalised storage compartments, use the above-mentioned DIY drawer dividers. For even more home office organisation, stack your drawer organisers if one of your desk drawers is unusually deep.
Make a promise to yourself that you will not allow your first untidy rubbish drawer to become out of control again. Remember that everything should have a home. Now it’s time to tackle the remaining rubbish drawers!
In general, know what you need the most, keep it easily accessible, and don’t let any unimportant intruders into your drawer. Include this in your usual cleaning routine, and don’t forget to create an inventory every now and then to keep track of what has ended up in there.
You can turn your junk drawer into a useful drawer that will no longer clutter your house or life by tidying it once every two months.