Just about everyone has a “junk drawer,” a catch-all place for stuff that doesn’t seem to fit anywhere else or that you’re putting away in a hurry. We must be overachievers because we have, by my count, FIVE junk drawers. That’s in addition to several other junk spaces.
By definition, if your goal is to dispose of stuff you don’t need, a junk drawer is definitely a good place to start.
Today, we tackled two junk drawers – the top and bottom drawers of our nightstand. We have crammed stuff into these drawers and taken very little out for years. The only thing I knew for sure that was in these drawers is a big stack of receipts for HSA-eligible expenses, mostly Laura’s monthly prescription.
After sorthing through the junk in these drawers, I’m a little embarassed we didn’t do it sooner – it only took a couple hours, and wow – what a difference. We threw a LOT of stuff away, put a few things where they belong, and, to be fair, moved a few things to areas we still need to clean. We only put a few things back in the drawers, so they’re mostly empty, especially the bottom drawer.
Some of the stuff we found:
- Lots of pens. About two-thirds didn’t work and ended up in the trash.
- Some change, but not as much as I expected. Not even two bucks’ worth.
- Some pictures, ticket stubs, and other things that we want to keep, or at least go through when we have more time, that we just put back in a stack in the bottom drawer for now.
- A few Nintendo DS games. Laura bought me a DS about ten years ago. Someone had it in the hospital waiting room when her Aunt Micaela was sick, and I played it some, especially Big Brain Academy. I played the game she got me for a few months but haven’t touched it in years. I need to do something with it – either rediscover it or give it away. At the very least, it should be in the closet with our board games for when people come over.
- Some old medicine and cough drops. Most of it ended up in the trash. The oldest expired in 2005 – nearly fifteen years ago.
- All the HSA receipts. We didn’t go through those; instead, we put them in a box to organize at some other time – that seems like a different project.
- Lots of iPhone chargers and cords. To think how often we’re looking for a charger, and we had several right next to our bed.
We didn’t finish these two junk drawers 100% tonight, but we made a ton of progress. Not a bad start.