Thursday, March 4, 2010

Not enough room in the junk drawer?

When I was growing up, we had a junk drawer in our kitchen. It was the collection drawer for odds and ends, things we needed often, and also those things that just needed a keeping place until a better place could be determined. You know...stickers,tattoos, batteries, paper clips, tape, a bouncy ball, a spider ring, etc...
Well, in my house, a drawer simply will not do. We just have too much of that little stuff. So, here is our solution. It really works quite well.

A clear shoe bag is attached to the wall inside our kitchen pantry. You could also use the back of the pantry door if needed. Use strong nails/wall mounts for hanging, because it will become heavy as more stuff is added.
The top of the shoe bag is filled with items that are not especially kid friendly, like wire cutters, screwdrivers, nails, tacks, etc...

The bottom pockets of the shoe bag are filled with kid friendly items. Crayons, stickers and tatoos, glue sticks, chalk, kid scissors, calculators, bouncy balls and spider rings....just to name a few.
It is really amazing to see that with this easy to get to, easy to see, plenty of room for storage organizer, all of us can put things where they go...and they are there the next time we need them.
As my kids have grown, I have noticed that some adult friendly things are now within their reach. For my older ones, I am okay with that. Just like junk drawers, the shoe bag needs a good reorganizing every now and then.
Here's to Spring Cleaning!


4 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for linking me to your post! I'm going to Target this afternoon and I will look for one of these guys!! It will be perfect on the back of the pantry door! I have lots of little papers, wrappers, sticks, etc. for candy making and this will come in so handy. Now I can finally clean out that junk drawer in the kitchen! What will I use the extra room for? The possibilities are endless! Thanks for the tip...and for creating more work for me!

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  2. So glad to help...sorry about the extra work. Ha! Ahhh...candy making. I hope I get to see lots of posts about that!

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  3. Help! Where did you get your "clear" shoe bag? Target and Walmart both had shoe organizers but they had prints on the front of them! Wouldn't the purpose be to see the shoes inside the organizer? Geez! Of course, if I was trying to find a "pretty" organizer...then I wouldn't be able to find any...that's just how it goes!

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  4. Oh! I am thinking it had to be Walmart or Target, but maybe Bed Bath and Beyond. Yes! I agree it should be clear. Let me know where you find it. I'll be looking while I'm out too.

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