Junk Drawer Wars

Admit it… you have a junk drawer. Is it in the kitchen? Or hidden in your bedroom? Junk drawers are notorious for growing and taking over other drawers. You can combat junk drawer migration by following these suggestions:

Sort: First, you have to know what’s in it. Find a space to dump it out and sort it. There’s stuff that should go in there (in ours: extra batteries, spare keys, friend’s keys, parking permits, a small accordion file for museum membership cards and takeout menus) and stuff that shouldn’t (screws, tools).

Return: stuff that should go elsewhere should go elsewhere. Put the screws and tools back in the toolbox, the working pens in their place, the broken pencils in the garbage, donate the old eyeglasses.

Rethink: for items that should go elsewhere, make sure there’s a place for them so similar items don’t end up here a few months hence. For example, have a place to put items you need to keep for your taxes so old movie ticket stubs don’t end up here again.

Head over to the Unclutterers blog to learn some more great tips to tame those wily drawers!

Practical Uses for JunkMail

Ok moms, this tip was originally geared towards those little extra flaps of paper inside the Netflix envelopes you tear off before sending the movie back - but I think it can work with all sorts of junk mail! Your little one will be happy to learn that next peice of mail just might be for him. Thanks to Lifehacker.com for finding this site:

Although most origami requires special paper squares, we have adapted these designs so you can use NetFlix flaps without alteration. Just tear them off carefully at the perforated line and follow our step-by-step instructions for making paper-folding magic.