Admit it, you have one. Everyone has one!

I’m talking about the dreaded junk drawer. It’s that catch-all place where people drop items they want to keep, but don’t know a better spot to place them. Over time, the junk drawer becomes a messy area full of miscellaneous stuff that no one wants to organize.

Marie Kondo has thought deeply about how to make our homes more organized. This includes bravely tackling junk drawers! On her website she has advice on how to start clearing up this clutter-filled space which contains what she refers to as komono. The process starts with the core KonMari principle of emptying the space.

This process isn’t simply about organizing a single junk drawer. It can reunite mismatched socks, lost rolls of washi tape, leftover coins or scattered booklets of stamps, so tackling all your komono at once — rather than location by location — is key. That means emptying out every junk drawer in the house, so you can see them all at once. Putting all of your komono items in one place before starting the tidying process will reveal what (and how much) you have.

Since komono can be taxing to sort through, there is a tendency to abandon the work with a promise to return later. Kondo recommends sticking to the task and completing it in one session.

Even if you grow weary, don’t lose momentum! Conquer komono in one go, so you don’t leave it half-finished. Once everything is reviewed, either bid farewell or retain and re-home. Close the drawers, take a breath and then open them again. Congratulate yourself on your hard work and take pleasure in the space you have given new life and meaning.

Learn the rest of the tips to clear out the junk drawer by reading the rest of the article on the KonMari website. Then if you dare, go ahead and tackle that komono and see how you feel afterwards.