The Kitchen Drawer Relic You Can Safely Toss To Free Up Space

The kitchen is one of the most important rooms for staying organized. It's where the most stuff seems to magically accumulate, yet it's also where we spend most of our time and need to be able to access things easily for enjoyable, stress-free, and efficient chores, socializing, and relaxing. Despite many of our best efforts, though, there are still plenty of things we overlook and kitchen organization mistakes we tend to make. Chief among them is ignoring that junk drawer. Few ever declutter this kitchen area when it actually needs it the most. We're here to encourage you to clean it out, turn this drawer into another part of a streamlined kitchen, and enjoy the space freed up by starting with one of the most unnecessary items you've probably got in there: instruction manuals.

We know it's tempting to keep every single one. After all, referring to manuals is the best way to make those pricey appliances last longer, since you're keeping up on proper care and maintenance that way. But nowadays, manuals are available and easily found online. This makes hard copies obsolete, so get out your recycling bin and make some serious space in that kitchen drawer. Cleaning them out may make you realize you have old manuals for appliances you don't even have anymore — stuffing manuals in drawers was never a flawless organization system, was it? You'll likely find other papers you don't need, too, like takeout menus, which are also all online now.

Since you do want to reference manuals to take good care of your appliances, it's smart to have them better organized than stuffed in a drawer, anyway. As you're recycling them, you can either scan them or just go one by one for each appliance you have and download or bookmark them online. Create a folder for all of your manuals, with each one labeled for exactly what it is with its model and year. On a decluttering Reddit thread, some commenters suggest adding this folder to your cloud so that you can sync it to all of your devices. That way, you're never without information you need should any issues arise with any appliances.

Some exceptions to the general advice of tossing all your manuals and other papers (like menus) include manuals for anything vintage — make sure you can in fact find that manual online before tossing it — and menus from restaurants that you have nostalgia for, which you could frame to create special, personalized kitchen art. When it comes to storing any manuals for older items you do need to keep, look to these clever kitchen storage spaces you may be overlooking. Leave that drawer free for utensils or other better-suited items and place manuals in a file pocket stuck to the back of your pantry door, for instance. Move any other papers, such as bills or other important materials, to your office to avoid possible damage from spills and further clear drawer space.