17 Junk Drawer Before & Afters to Make Your Jaw Drop

Junk drawers are a weird phenomenon, but they’re also inescapable, if you ask me. There are just way too many odds and ends that don't have a logical place in your home, yet can't be trashed either. All of them eventually find their way to the junk drawer.

Elastic ties? Junk drawer.
Store receipts? Junk drawer.
Birthday cards? Junk drawer.
Batteries? Junk drawer.

The problem is that after a few years of collecting random bits and bobs, you're left with a giant, unmanageable mess on your hands. If you’ve reached this point, and your junk drawer is groaning under the weight of its contents, it’s probably time to call in some virtual assistance, via the professional organizers of Instagram.

Lo and behold: 17 amazing-to-the-point-of-unbelievable junk drawer (and other messy storage drawer) transformations that will make you think, "I can do this." Yes, you can.

Note: Make sure to hit the arrow on the right side of each image to see the before and after photos.

I think my exact words here were, “Oh, wow.” There was definitely some purging that took place between the before and after pics, and the result is every neat freak’s dream. Imagine being able to find thumbtacks that easily?

This junk drawer was such a mess that it needed multiple organizers to get everything into place. Check out how they paired a wooden utensil organizer with another (probably repurposed) plastic bin to create a space for all their necessary junk.

Okay, I’ll admit this isn’t a “junk” drawer, but it got such an impressive makeover that I had to include it. There are actually multiple drawers tackled in this IG post, all of which took messy, cringe-worthy bathroom spaces and turned them into organized, efficient storage systems.

Pens in one section, Post-its in the other. Erasers stay separate from binder clips. Even gum gets its own little space. This drawer is truly a sight for sore eyes.

Now that's an office supplies drawer that would inspire me to work! And those trays are so perfectly configured for the drawer. (Also: very glad to see that there are others that pile up batteries like I do...except most of mine are spent!)

Again, this isn’t junk. It’s very essential kitchen content, in fact. Check out how crazy beautiful this drawer of spices is. What was once a mishmash of seasonings is now every cook’s dream. Love isn’t a strong enough word.

The more space you have in a junk drawer typically means the more the mess, but not in this case. Sure, it used to be overflowing with “stuff,” but now everything has its place in cute but simple acrylic bins. Even the batteries are sorted!

Raise your hand if you have several some kitchen tools that you don’t ever use. Now that we all have our hands up, let’s take a minute to appreciate this lovely kitchen drawer, which got purged and organized during a spring cleaning. I’m going to go ahead and bookmark it for next season's cleaning inspiration.

Also raise your hand if you've turned entire closets inside out looking for the WD-40 to fix a creaky oven door. Or run out in the rain to buy Goo Gone only to find two bottle of it hiding in (two different) places you'd never think to look in. This Instagrammer has all her handiest tools organized, so fixing things around the house is a cinch.

There’s no “before” picture here, but I’m so obsessed with it that I’ll let it slide. Is this little coffee and tea drawer not the sweetest, most organized thing you’ve ever seen? It’s such a great way to keep all your hot beverage essentials in one place.

The before-and-after here is like night and day. This junk drawer starts out packed with too many golf balls, and it ends up looking incredibly chic and minimalistic with its acrylic drawer dividers. No chance of losing your keys in this hyper-organized drawer.

This organizing pro calls her junk drawer the all-purpose drawer, because it's full of the things she reaches for most. Seems like a very good idea to have one.

Bathroom drawers can so quickly and easily become one of the most disorganized places in our whole house. Note: the deep containers to keep larger toiletries standing up (less chance of spills and drips), and the clever(er) use of what is essentially a tiered spice rack (I've got one and can't recommend it enough) for smaller-sized beauty products.

This 'grammer tests out a cool new system on the family's out-of-control spare cord & charger situation: Each member got to pick a color, using thick rubber bands for cords and washi tape for chargers, to make sense of the mess. There's something about color coded organization that is so satisfying. Let's just hope they remembered to put the rubber bands back on after use!

Just. no. words. Look at what was achieved by purging expired or unused items and finding the right homes for others! Professional organizer Emily Moore used clear drawer dividers to create zones for her client's most common household items, and just got rid of the rest.⁣ Her advise? "If you are looking to organize your home but feel overwhelmed, start with that junk drawer and a couple of drawer dividers. This small task will make the biggest impact." Amen.

There's a lot to love about this kitchen drawer reorg, but if there's one lesson we're definitely taking away from it, it's that labeling each of the drawer dividers or trays is a very good idea. Remember, label and contain is the name of the (organizing) game.

Wondering what it takes to actually get you from holy-mess-before to can't-stop-looking-after? There's a process involved. Take a look at this video of a professional organizer in action. She meticulously measures every compartment to make sure they all fit together and that she's maximizing the space available to her. Ta-da! Fits like a glove.

Do you have a drawer that needs some extra attention? Let us know below!

This article first appeared in 2018. We're resurfacing it because, somehow, junk drawers always seem to fill up.