Most junk drawers get worse, not better, when someone buys an organizer before deciding what the drawer is actually for. The fix is to work in order: empty the drawer, sort what comes out, get rid of what isn't staying, group what's left by how you use it, find containers that fit, and keep it up. This guide walks through those six steps, then covers the mistakes that undo them. For the rest of the kitchen, see How to Organize Kitchen Drawers. Now, onto emptying the drawer.

Tip: Don't buy an organizer until you've sorted the drawer. You won't know what size you need until you know what's staying.

Empty the Drawer Completely

Take everything out, not just the top layer. Spread it on a counter or table so you can see it all at once. Junk drawers fill up in layers, and the bottom layer is usually stuff you forgot about years ago.

Before you plan anything, clean the empty drawer, and look before you touch. Shine a flashlight along the bottom, back, and corners. Loose staples, pins, broken blade tips, and bits of glass collect there. Sweep debris out with a small brush or vacuum it, then wipe the drawer down. If you have to pick something out by hand, wear work gloves. Put any blade or broken glass in a rigid container, and throw it out the way your local waste service recommends.

Don't put anything back yet. You'll choose containers near the end, once you know how much is staying.

Sort What Comes Out

Sort everything into four piles:

1. Keep here: things you use in the kitchen and can't grab faster from anywhere else.
2. Move: anything that belongs in another room, a toolbox, a desk, a first aid kit, or the garage. Make one pile per place so each can go in one trip.
3. Recycle or toss: dried-out pens, broken clips, expired coupons, menus you'll never order from, and halves of things.
4. Decide later: mystery keys, random cables, and screws or plastic parts that might belong to something you still own.

The fourth pile is where most people get stuck. Instead of deciding on the spot, put it all in one small closed box, write a date on the lid, and check it then. Some things will sort themselves out before that, like a cable you go looking for. You'll judge the rest more easily later.

For help deciding what deserves a permanent spot, see What Belongs in a Junk Drawer?. The short version: keep things you actually use, in this room, often enough to justify the space.

Three kinds of items need a safe spot, not just a convenient one:

• Medication. Store it as the label says, and ask your pharmacist if you're not sure. A kitchen drawer is rarely the right place: it can get warm and humid, and anyone in the house can open it. Keep medication where children and pets can't reach it.
• Button and coin batteries. These shouldn't be loose in a kitchen drawer. A child can mistake one for candy or a coin, and swallowing one can cause serious internal injury very quickly. Keep spares and used ones in their original packaging, in a latched or locked cabinet out of reach. A box with a lid isn't enough if it's in a drawer a child can open. If you think someone has swallowed a battery, get emergency medical help immediately.
• Blades. Utility knives, box cutters, spare blades, and razor scrapers need storage a child can't get into. Keep spare blades in their dispensers, and store them somewhere latched or locked.

Relocate or Dispose of What Doesn't Stay

Take the "move" piles where they belong now, before you set up the drawer. If you leave them on the counter, a lot of it ends up back in the drawer by evening.

Batteries of every size need extra care. Many areas ask you to take household batteries to a collection point instead of throwing them away, and the rules depend on the battery type and where you live. Check your local guidance, and tape the ends of lithium batteries if it calls for that.

Don't throw out a key just because you don't recognize it. Figure out what it opens first. If it's for a lock you no longer control, get rid of it carefully instead of tossing it where someone could find it.

Receipts, warranty papers, and business cards slide under everything and get forgotten. Shred or recycle anything with personal information, and keep only papers you'd actually go looking for.

Zone What's Left by How You Use It

Measure the drawer before you group anything, since the layout depends on the space: the inside width at the narrowest point, the depth from front to back, and the clearance as the drawer slides shut under the counter. How to Measure for Drawer Organizers walks you through each one.

Then group what you're keeping by how you use it, not what it's made of. Groups like these work in many kitchens:

• Write and mark: pens, pencils, a permanent marker, sticky notes.
• Fasten and fix: tape, rubber bands, binder clips, glue, a small screwdriver.
• Cut and measure: scissors, a tape measure, a folding ruler.
• Power and light: charging cables, a small flashlight.

Put the group you use most at the front. Lay out long items first, then fit the smaller groups around them. If you have to dig through a group to find something, split it into two.

Contain the Zones

Choose containers last, based on your measurements.

• Fixed trays have set compartments and a set size. They work when your drawer is close to the tray's size. In a wider drawer, a fixed tray slides every time the drawer shuts unless something holds it in place.
• Expandable organizers adjust in width, which helps when your drawer falls between standard sizes. KitchenEdge's utensils-and-junk organizers, for example, come in three sizes: 10.5–18.5, 16–28, and 18.5–33 inches wide.
• Modular bins are separate pieces you arrange yourself. They give you the most freedom, but they shift around unless the drawer is filled close to edge to edge.

Height matters as much as width. In a deep drawer, a shallow tray leaves empty space above it, and that space fills with loose stuff within a week. Either choose something tall enough to use the height, or plan a second layer on purpose. How to Choose a Junk Drawer Organizer helps you narrow it down.

Whatever you choose, leave some room. If the drawer is full the day you finish, the next roll of tape will end up sitting on top of everything.

How Often to Declutter Your Junk Drawer

Keeping a junk drawer under control takes two jobs, and they don't happen equally often.

• A quick reset, about once a month. Take five minutes to put things back in the right compartments, toss anything that's obviously dead, like used-up batteries and dried-out pens, and return anything that belongs somewhere else.
• A full sort, about twice a year. Go through the whole process again: empty the drawer, rethink what belongs, deal with the cables and keys that have piled up, clean it out, and adjust the layout if what you keep has changed. This is when you'll catch things like old cables for a phone you replaced, or keys for a lock you no longer have.

Junk drawers fill up faster than any other drawer, because anything without a home ends up there. A busy household with kids, mail, and school papers may need resets more often. If your monthly reset keeps taking much longer than five minutes, do it more often, or give the group that keeps overflowing more space.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Organizing clutter instead of sorting it. Putting unsorted stuff into neat compartments makes the drawer look tidier without making it any less full. Sorting is what actually helps.
• Buying the organizer first. A tray that's too small slides every time the drawer shuts, and the gaps around it collect crumbs and paper clips. One that's too big won't sit flat. Measure, then buy.
• Leaving things loose on top. A few items rolling around on top of an organized drawer is how the whole layout falls apart. Give everything a group, even if that group is one small bin for odds and ends.
• Too many tiny compartments. A grid of small, identical sections looks neat but is frustrating to use, because real items rarely fit them. A few larger sections that match how you reach into the drawer work better.
• Letting paper pile up. Give paper one compartment with a firm limit, or keep it out of the drawer entirely.
• Putting dangerous things back out of habit. Coin batteries, spare blades, and medication are easy to drop back in at the end of a sort. Decide where they'll go before you start refilling.
• Setting up for things you wish you used. At your next reset, look at which compartments you've barely touched, and give that space to something you use.