That's right. I said "junk drawer" and I'm not afraid to say it again. Junk drawer.  (See?) Although you may assume that in order to get organized you must stay away from creating a junk drawer at all costs,  even with that ten foot pole, think again. The free-for-all nature of a home for miscellaneous items is...important! But like anything else, there are rules to keep in mind. So, here goes. 1-2-3 JUNK DRAWER!

Let's start off by not going too crazy. After all, we must keep everything in moderation. There's a big difference between a junk drawer and a dumping ground for things you're too lazy to deal with. Curate the items to those that you use often, will need to access soon or don't want to lose track of. Think: your measuring tape (assuming you like to know the length of things), Bed Bath and Beyond coupons (we all know about these), the keys to your journal (shhhh), or a pair of scissors (how often are you on a desperate scissor search?). Avoid throwing things that belong in a specific place into your junk drawer.

Beware of the size of your junk drawer. An extra large junk drawer will become a dumping ground that swallows all of your belongings and we already know that we're avoiding that. So stay small and shallow - allowing full-view of everything that's in there when you pop open the drawer. Sometimes less really is more.

Throw a drawer divider or two in there because we're not hooligans. Keep the smaller items separated from the bigger ones and nothing will get lost. Drawer organizers come in various sizes and are perfect for containing trinkets and creating divides. It's like, now you kinda have three junk drawers in one. This is the sloppiest day of your life.

That's it. We've created a tidy junk drawer and this may be the craziest, best oxymoron ever.