{piles of junk}

I’m not sure about you, but I love the idea of having a built in desk in the kitchen.  When we moved into our new home, I was thrilled that it had this feature.  My husband on the other hand wasn’t crazy about it because he said it would turn into a place that we dump stuff (keys, bills, unread mail, sunglasses, baby stuff…you name it really).  Well, he was right.  Our kitchen desk typically looked like this…

Not to mention the drawers were very unorganized and somewhat chaotic…

Random huh?

I think this side, might have been the worst!

Well, I took everything off the desk and out of the drawers and gave all surfaces a good cleaning.  I purchased a larger desk organizer from Wal-Mart for $5.99 on sale and had all other items on hand already to get organizing.

The top drawer in the middle of the desk is where I put a lot of miscellaneous items such as post its, paperclips, stamps, glue sticks, tape, scissors, etc.  It may look a little chaotic, but everything has its own container which helps immensely in my opinion.

I own a lot of scissors.

The other two top drawers hold mostly pens (also in a drawer organizer).  One side has pens, pencils, and highlighters, the other side has permanent markers and colored pens.

I made a drawer for crafting supplies that I use a lot.

And another for stationary, envelopes, address labels, and my address book.

Another drawer has a file with all of our paid bills and the receipt file that I keep (to keep track of monthly spending and in case we ever have to return something).

Now, my favorite part…

There is no more clutter on top of the desk!  I have made it a resolution to keep the desk looking this way at all times!  The only items on top of the desk are a small lamp (that I’m pretty sure was in my bedroom when I was a teenager), a giant decorative paperclip (I think that was a Home Goods find) to keep a picture or important announcements, a small bud vase (that I just won at my friend’s baby shower), a glade candle (you know I bought that with a coupon), and my calendar desk frame that I showed you how to make here.

I’d still like to find a cuter and smaller chair for the desk, but the extra one from our kitchen table set works just fine for now.  Maybe in the future I’ll just recover that one, we’ll see!

So, what do you think?  Do you have a kitchen desk or an area in your kitchen that just collects junk?  Do yourself a favor and get organized!  It will make you feel so much about your space!