Junk and Utility Drawers: Organized!

Circling back around to my mini organization rampage, after I finished overhauling our coat closet storage and garage entry drop zone, I moved on to organizing some of our most used junk and utility drawers. We all have drawers that you can barely open and close, right?! For us, one of the unforeseen adjustments in moving to this house was that we used to have a lot more vertical closet and pantry storage in the old house, but here we have more drawer storage. So things just got dumped when we moved in and I'm ready for a change. I had three drawer types I started looking for organization solutions for - kitchen junk drawer, kitchen plastic bag storage and our laundry room utility drawers.

Kitchen Junk Drawer Organization

First up - the junk drawer in the kitchen that holds all our misc. office supplies, note pads, and really anything loose that needs to be quickly shoved somewhere when people come over. This thing was an unruly disaster, even with the few little bins I thought were helpful to contain things. Problem was, there weren't enough of them. I needed more of a full drawer system.

junk and utility drawer storage organizers

I found this set of clear sorting bins on Amazon. It had 37 binsmof varying sizes so I was hopeful I could tackle a couple of my drawer issues with them.

Plus, they had little sticky feet so I hoped they'd stay put and not slide all over.

While I worked on clearing the drawer out, sorting like things and throwing away things that I could, Abbey got to work putting sticker feet on the bins. This was the most time intensive part of the whole project so was glad my helper was ready to spring into action.

Once the drawer was clutter free, I gave it a good wipe down and started piecing together bins of various sizes to fill up as much of the drawer as I could. There's a little trial and error to this, and you may find that you have more things that would be better separated into baby bins vs. big bins once you start putting your junk away, but that's why I was glad we had the big pack.

Kitchen junk drawer: organized!

Amazing how I could never find a pen before and this many were actually in the drawer!

I left the right side open so items longer than the bins like our ruler, lighters and extra notepads could hang out in here too.

Laundry Room Utility Drawer Organization

While we were on a roll, we moved right into the laundry room where the utility drawers that house all our misc. utility, electric, cords, batteries, etc that live in. When I first shared our laundry room with you, I was solving for the external storage issues we were having with clothes hanging and kids back pack drops. Hidden behind the drawer fronts was a hot mess of cords and crazy.

From charging apparatus for all types of random electronics to tape, candles, flashlights, command hooks, etc. there was no rhyme or reason to where things were and anytime we went hunting for something, you'd get lost in this sea of junk.

Utility drawers: organized!

I used the rest of the set of the same clear plastic bins in here as I did in the kitchen. Items were a little larger in here and I tried to sort things more intentionally by drawer. In the drawer I found this little set of key tags which I used to help label different power cords so that I could get rid of all the various plastic bags I had them floating in.

junk and utility drawer storage organizers - key tags

The stuff we had in these drawers sort of naturally sorted themselves into two groups. The first drawer was "power" - electronic charging pieces, batteries, extra power strips, and even some power outlets. Little charging pieces for toys and other electronics were put in snack size plastic bags with their instruction manuals and all stacked together.

The other drawer is a bit more random. LED candles, flashlights, tape, command strips, etc. The best part about getting these little bins in here is that it allows you to get rid of all the bulky and weird shaped original packaging of these loose little items.

The chaos behind the drawer fronts is better controlled now! And we can actually find what we're looking for without breaking a sweat.

Kitchen Plastic Baggie Storage Organization

Ok, this drawer was not as agitating as the others but when I was searching for drawer storage I stumbled on a really cool set of bamboo wood organization bins for plastic baggies.

The best part about the set was the super fun branding and messages that are printed on everything! At the bottom of each wooden container is a quote about organizing. Sayings like "For every minute spent organizing, an hour is earned." And "Get rid of the mess so you can soak up the moments." I'll take that! LOVE IT.

kitchen drawer plastic baggie wood storage organizer

These also had little sticky feet to help from sliding around in the drawer. They don't fill the entire drawer so a little sliding still happens but things are tidy and quick to find.

Drawer storage I didn't even know I needed in my life, but with uplifting encouragement, when we run out of baggies, I get to have a little reminder of how spending time to do things like this pays off.