Every house has that one drawer where pens, batteries, rubber bands, and mystery screws go to die. Mine was so bad I could not close it without a running shove. A six-dollar muffin tin fixed it in five minutes.

Why muffin tins work

A muffin tin is just a grid of ready-made compartments. Each little cup holds one category of small stuff, so nothing rolls around or hides at the back.

How to set it up

1. Dump the entire drawer out on a table.
2. Sort things into piles: batteries, rubber bands, paper clips, twist ties, and so on.
3. Lay a muffin tin in the drawer and fill each cup with one pile.

The cups keep everything visible and separated. I put the tin in the drawer and left the extra space for flat things like tape and sticky notes.

The one thing to toss first

Half my drawer was dead batteries and dried-out pens. Throw those away before you organize, or you are just arranging garbage. I tested every pen on a scrap of paper and found six that still wrote.

Now when I need a rubber band, I reach in and grab one instead of digging for a minute. The drawer still gets messy, but it takes seconds to reset because every thing has a cup.