June 15, 2026, 5:54 am | Read time: 5 minutes
Almost every household has one, and everyone finds total chaos in it. Yet, the junk drawer is almost a must-have in many homes. myHOMEBOOK editor Laura Kästner has several of them in her home and doesn’t want to miss the messy compartments. She provides three reasons why everyone should have a junk drawer and why it even helps maintain order.
Some homes have the famous chair where a pile of clothes is hoarded. Others prefer to pack all sorts of important and probably useless things together in a drawer. I clearly see myself in the latter group, as I have several drawers in my own home where I store documents, pens, children’s toys, decorative items, or still-packaged batteries. Why I believe this system is actually good for a certain order, I explain here.
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3 Reasons Why a Junk Drawer Helps Maintain Order
I understand if people think such a drawer is total chaos. Because a drawer like this is never truly tidy. Still, these small places of disorder help me keep my home a more organized retreat.
1. Everything Important Is Within Reach
For me, the junk drawer isn’t necessarily always a storage place for useless stuff. In the kitchen, we have a drawer where we keep band-aids, tissues, medications, and sometimes cough drops. So, all the things we might need when a cold comes around. Since the cabinet is also very high, our child can’t reach it–making it all the more practical for us because we don’t have to lock everything away and can access it anytime.
At the same time, I have a fixed place for the things I really need and can store more appropriate items in other places. In the bedroom, it’s bed linens; in the bathroom, towels; and in the living room, decorations from the previous season. So, when I need something in a particular room, thanks to the junk drawers, there’s enough space in the other rooms to store the more important items.
Also interesting: “Anyone who always tidies up perfectly has too much time or something to prove”
2. Despite Order, Something Missing? Then It’s in the Junk Drawer
Order plays a big role for me. Not because I’m pedantic, but rather because it’s important with a child, and I want to be a role model. I have a fixed place for everything–the rest goes into one of the junk drawers. So, I now know exactly which things I need repeatedly and where they are. But if it happens that I can’t find an important document, a charging cable, or spare screen protectors for the phone, there’s only one place where all that can be: in the junk drawer.
Because my first impulse with things I don’t need at the moment but will surely look for later is always to put them in the drawer. Following the motto: “When I need it, I know exactly that it’s there.” It doesn’t always work, but at least I always search there and find it.
3. Especially Small Items Aren’t Lying Around Everywhere
Nothing stresses me more than when small items like pens, hair ties, or small toy figures are lying around somewhere. You trip over them, the child throws them under the couch, or you step on them and they break. It’s better for the items to be in the junk drawer than to become unusable.
Anyone who knows exactly where everything is has the needed items quickly at hand. For example, the child wants to draw and has her own table in the children’s room. But if she wants to be with us in the living room, I don’t want to transport all the pens back and forth multiple times. So, I also have pens in the junk drawer in the living room.
Caution, the Junk Drawer Shouldn’t Become an Excuse
I love our junk drawers and am glad they bring even more order to our home. But one shouldn’t rely on these compartments for too long. About every six months, I do an “inventory.” I take everything out and see what I really still need. The document is then filed, empty pens are disposed of, and the newly purchased batteries can finally be put into the appropriate devices. This way, I avoid the disorder from the junk drawer eventually sweeping through my apartment like a tidal wave. After all, the junk drawer can get full, and then the items end up lying around the apartment again.
Anyone with a junk drawer will agree that it can be very practical in everyday life, but only if the chaos is truly confined to this one place. Those who have this chaos under control bring great order to the rest of the home.