The junk drawer is fine, actually, if it has edges

The battery cover on the toy needs a tiny screwdriver. You open the junk drawer, and it sticks halfway because something in the back has caught on the frame.

You work it open. Inside: rubber bands, birthday candles, a phone charger for a phone nobody has, soy sauce packets, three pens that do not write, a tape measure, the manual for a toaster you no longer own and five keys. There is a screwdriver, but it is the wrong kind.

You use a butter knife. It works, mostly, and you close the drawer with your hip.

Every few months you decide to get rid of the junk drawer altogether. You empty it, the things go somewhere else, and within a few weeks the drawer is full again. That is not a failure of willpower. It is a sign the drawer is doing a real job.

Every house needs one

The junk drawer exists because a home is full of small useful things that do not belong to any room. Tape. Batteries. Scissors. A pen. A screwdriver for a battery cover. They are used everywhere, so they need a home that is central, and the kitchen is where people are.

Trying to eliminate the drawer is why it keeps coming back. The things still need a place, and they find one.

So keep the drawer. Give it rules.

The problem is the lack of edges

A drawer of small things with no dividers turns into a mix within days. Every opening and closing slides things toward the back. Small things fall under big things. The drawer is not too full. Nothing in it has a boundary.

That is the whole fix. Give every kind of thing its own box, and make the boxes fill the drawer from edge to edge, so nothing has room to slide.

Decide what belongs

Before any boxes go in, decide what the drawer is for. A good junk drawer holds the small tools and supplies you reach for in the kitchen or on the way out the door.

For most homes, that is a pair of scissors, a roll of tape, a tape measure, a screwdriver, batteries, a pen and a notepad, rubber bands, twist ties, a lighter for candles and the spare keys you actually use.

It does not hold food packets, mail, manuals, chargers for things you no longer own, or anything broken. Those belong somewhere else, or nowhere. Takeout menus can go too. Most of them are online now.

A box for each thing, and the boxes touching

Now the edges. Empty the drawer, measure the inside, and fit a set of small trays to it, with each tray holding one kind of thing.

Clear trays in mixed sizes work best. Long narrow ones for scissors, pens and the screwdriver. Small square ones for batteries, rubber bands and keys. A wide one for tape and the tape measure.

Arrange them so they touch on every side and fill the bottom of the drawer. A gap is where the next stray thing goes, so close every gap you can. If one remains, a small box from the recycling cut to fit fills it.

The tools that earn a place

The tools in the drawer get used more than any toolbox in the garage, so they are worth choosing on purpose. Four cover most of what a household needs on a weekday.

A good pair of scissors that stays in the drawer and is not used for the yard. A tape measure that locks, so you can measure a window or a doorway on your own. A multi-bit screwdriver that holds several tips in one handle, so the battery cover, the cabinet hinge and the outlet cover all have the right one. And a roll of clear tape.

One screwdriver with six bits is better than six screwdrivers in a drawer, because there is only one thing to find.

Label the keys, or let them go

Keys are the strangest part of a junk drawer. Most homes have several that nobody can identify.

Once, try every key on every lock you own: doors, the mailbox, the bike lock, the shed. Put a tag on every key that matches. Keys that match nothing go in an envelope marked unknown keys, with the date, and the envelope goes somewhere other than the drawer. If a year passes and nothing has needed them, let them go.

Five minutes on the first of the month

Even a drawer with edges collects strays: a receipt, a packet of ketchup, a loose screw from something, a broken pen.

On the first of each month, open the drawer and take out anything that is not in its tray. Put it where it belongs, or throw it away. Push each tray’s things back into place. It takes five minutes, and the drawer opens smoothly all month.

What to actually buy

You can start tonight with small boxes from the recycling, cut to fit the drawer. The system is edges and a short list of what belongs, not the trays.

These are the pieces that make the drawer work.

The edges. A 10-piece set of clear stackable drawer trays in mixed sizes, made in the USA, that fit together to fill the bottom of a drawer. Each tray holds one kind of thing.

The tape measure that locks. A 25-foot locking tape measure with a one-inch blade that stays out while you measure, so a window or a doorway does not need a second person.

The screwdriver that replaces six. A 6-in-1 multi-bit screwdriver and nut driver with Phillips and slotted tips that swap in the shaft, two nut driver sizes and an extra-long reach. The battery cover, the hinge and the outlet cover all have the right tip.

The scissors that stay put. A pair of 8-inch stainless steel everyday scissors that live in the drawer and nowhere else, for packages, tags, paper and cardboard.

When the drawer fills up again

It will, after a holiday, a move or a month with no first-of-the-month clear. You open it one day and the trays are buried.

Pull the whole drawer out and tip it onto the counter. Put each thing back into its tray. Anything that does not fit a tray either goes to the room where it belongs or goes out. Ten minutes, and the edges are back.

If one tray overflows every time, that kind of thing needs a bigger tray, or a home of its own somewhere else. Adjust the drawer to what your house actually uses.

Who this is not for

• If your household has a workbench or a real toolbox, keep the tools there and use the drawer for supplies only. Two places for screwdrivers usually means neither has one.
• If you have small children, batteries, lighters and anything sharp need a drawer they cannot reach. Coin-sized batteries especially belong up high.
• If you love a drawer with no rules and always find what you need in it, keep it. This is for the drawer that sticks shut.

Start on any Monday

Tonight, empty the junk drawer onto the counter.

Throw out what is broken, and walk the things that live somewhere else to where they live. Measure the inside of the drawer.

Then put what remains back in groups, with a box or a lid between each kind. That is the junk drawer with edges, and the next battery cover takes a minute.