Organizing junk.

My wife'd been after me for a little while -- maybe six or seven months -- or years -- to organize the junk drawer. 

Now, I feel in my heart that the junk drawer, a staple of the American kitchen, ought to be as full of junk as possible. After all, if it doesn't have a little something for everything, how can the thing you need be there when you need it? But I gave in on the issue when it got to the point that pulling open the drawer led to flying projectiles or unknown objects being dumped into the cabinet below. 

I intended to follow the four-step plan for organization:

1. Empty the contents into an area in which I could sort them;

2. Categorize the contents;

3. Throw out obvious garbage; 

4. Organize the remainder. 

The kitchen table was up to the task, so I got to it. 

The challenging part was categorizing the contents, because, let's face it, junk is by definition an amorphous mass that defies division into categories. But digging around I began to detect patterns, and those emerged as:

Tools: Screwdrivers, pliers, scrapers, box cutter, Allen wrenches, scissors, shoehorn, etc.

Batteries: AAs, AAAs, miscellaneous button batteries

Things that join other things together: Tape, plumber's tape, electrical tape, Command hooks, paper clips, twist ties, rubber bands, thumbtacks, superglue, string 

Keys and key-related objects: The latter being color-coded key caps, mostly; one (1) padlock too

Things that were supposed to help but didn't: Reflectors, napkin rings, toothpaste tube squishers, etc.

Things that were related to things that may have been thrown away: Charging wire fixed with tape, instructional booklets, etc.

Things that have been superseded: Chair leg floor protectors, tiny Post-its, etc.

Things that should go on my workbench instead: Many, many wood and metal screws, nails, pieces left over from furniture assembly

Things for writing: Chalk, Sharpie, pencil, pencil sharpener

Car stuff: Tire pressure gauge, vent air freshener (unopened), de-icer

Garbage: Everything else

The last category was joined by many things that were in the other categories as I went. I kept about 10 percent of the twist ties, for example, and half the Allen wrenches. Most of the rubber bands had dried out. A set of three napkin rings is useless for entertaining. The Post-its were bunched up and dirty. And so on. 

Car/key related things. Plus shoehorn.

Stuff for the workbench. I don't even
know why those wrenches were upstairs. 

Here is the completed junk drawer, with approximately a quarter of the mass inside previously:

The problem is, so much of that junk has to go in the cellar, and now it's all in a bag waiting to go down. So ultimately I've moved the problem from the kitchen to my workbench, which is also an unholy mess. So therefore the problem is in one regard not solved, but relocated. 

On the other hand, my wife is happy. She never uses the workbench. So really, the problem is solved. Hooray for me!