Do Life Simplified: everyone has one...

Some homes house more than one...

It usually lurks in the kitchen...

Martha Stewart's looks like this:

Yup, I'm talking about the junk drawer.

That insidious little spot in your house that seems to breed batteries and paperclips seemingly as quickly and furtively as the dryer eats your one sock.

The nice thing about the junk drawer is that it's usually smallish. Which makes it a great place to spend 10-15 minutes organizing, once a month or so, to give you that small feeling of accomplishment or perhaps a little bit of motivation to get going on a larger part of your house that needs attention.

Here are a few tips to get that mess straightened out:

first, dump that baby out, when I organize, everything must first come out of the space, which seems like you're just making a mess, but it's the easiest way to make your three piles: give away, throw away and keep
clean the drawer, I don't understand people (my husband) who organize stuff but don't bother cleaning it, I usually haul out the vacuum to get in all the little grooves of the drawer in addition to wiping it with a cloth
make sure there is nothing in the drawer that has belongs in a different area of the house (ie. bills, receipts, pennies - all the pennies in my house seem to find their way here - too bad it wasn't all the toonies)
dividing the drawer into compartments is the most efficient, check out the dollar store for inexpensive little trays/containers ***make sure you measure your drawer before you go shopping to ensure all the containers you find will fit, including the height!***
ice cube trays are a great inexpensive corral for all those little things that fall to the bottom of the drawer
group like items together and start putting them in the containers you have
if you keep an extension cord in your junk drawer, wind it loosely and slide it in an empty paper towel tube

Here are a couple more drawers for inspiration!

I like the way they used these little tins in this one: