This is how you keep your junk drawer in order | Living

It is an annual ritual for Marja: putting the junk drawer in order. “The drawer remains tidy for a long time, but then suddenly it is a complete chaos. I have a junk drawer in my office and my kitchen.”

Marja collects all kinds of things in her kitchen junk drawer. “My father had a thing for rubber bands. He thought that was such a great invention, so we were raised picking up rubber bands. And I still do that now. And that means I now had the most worn-out, pathetic rubber bands in my drawer. Some of them were completely exhausted.”

To put the mess drawer in order, the cleaning expert first takes everything out. Then it’s a matter of seeing what’s in the ‘treasure chest’, as Marja calls it. “Whatever you encounter! I had three garlic presses, even though I never use them. I find cleaning such a press far too much of a hassle, so I always cut garlic by hand.”

She also has scissors in all shapes and sizes. “But if I’m honest, the big scissors hardly cut anything. The very small pair of scissors belongs more in a bathroom than in the kitchen. And what about the cheese slicer. I have two: one for young cheese, a longer one, and one for old cheese, a shorter one. But I’ll never shave cheese again. I sometimes use it as a cake server or to peel the skin of a cucumber.”

After selecting the item, the cleaning expert will clean the drawer with soapy water. “To keep everything neat and organized, I used an old letter tray. We don’t get that much mail anymore, so it just sat unused in the cupboard. I also had an old pencil box that fits right next to it. My foils, such as aluminum foil and cling film, fit exactly next to it, giving me a kind of Mondriaan-like drawer. Beautiful.”

And that is also the trick to keeping a drawer organised. “Work with small containers to keep things tidy. For example, a small one can hold paper clips or small pins. Very handy. And I just have a separate drawer for my batteries. I have so many of those. I also have a lot of fake candles and they work with a battery. When I go to a hotel, I always take a fake candle with me, because many hotel rooms have such an unpleasant light. Then a candle is of course very useful.”

Marja’s junk drawers are back in order. These types of drawers say a lot about people. “During the recording of How clean is your house Mom and I always sprinted to such a drawer. We were curious about the content. And then we found a stray child’s sock next to the rubber bands or a bristled brush near the cheese slicer.”

Do you also have a pressing cleaning issue that you would like to submit to Marja Middeldorp? Send an email to this adress ([email protected]) with your name.

On her YouTube channel ‘Cleaning with Marja’ cleaning videos can be found. See more cleaning tips below: