How to Organize Miscellaneous Items

Are you wondering what you should do with all those miscellaneous items at home or in your office?

Do you want some practical tips to help you put things in order?

When it comes to dealing with miscellaneous items, it sure can be tempting to place everything into a desk drawer and call it a day.

But the only problem with this approach is that when you actually need to use an item, you can’t locate it.

There’s got to be a better way to deal with those sundry items…

In this post, you’ll find some thoughtful instruction on how to organize miscellaneous items.

Choose from one of the two organization options below and say goodbye to miscellany in your space!

What are Miscellaneous Items?

The definition of miscellaneous items refers to different items gathered together from different sources.

You can use the phrase to refer to anything such as books, makeup, houses, office supplies, cars, and so on.

For the purposes of this post, I’m going to define miscellaneous items as small, yet significant household objects that tend to overwhelm us in our daily routines.

Now, it’s not that a single item itself is one to send your heart racing.

However, several numbers of these errant items can set your heart astir…and not in a good way.

Examples of miscellaneous items include:

  • Electronic chargers and adapters
  • Current converters
  • Instruction manuals
  • Computer tool kit
  • Registration cards
  • Batteries
  • Flashlight
  • Coupons
  • Hardware tool kit
  • Lint rollers
  • Eyeglass repair kit
  • Shoe polish
  • Shoe brushers
  • Twine or cord
  • Spare buttons
  • Keychains
  • Patches
  • Spare thread
  • Waterproofing kit
  • Scissors
  • Extension cord
  • Extra pair of headphones
  • Coin purse
  • Spre wallet
  • Hand lotion
  • Super glue
  • Stamps
  • Envelopes
  • Spare coins and change
  • Transit card
  • Nail files
  • Lip balm
  • Safety pins
  • Bobby pins
  • Souvenirs or mementos from trips and vacations
  • Small toiletry travel containers
  • Sewing kit

On first glance, these items appear to have nothing in common; they are miscellany. 

On closer inspection, however, we can organize things and store them in such a way that they will be helpful to us when we need them.

There’s two ways of doing this:

1) Store items in a specific location and

2) Create a household toolkit

Let’s review each method, one by one:

 

Option #1: Store items in a specific location

Organize miscellaneous items into well-defined groups.

For this first method, you’ll need to organize items in the most logical order.

The idea here is to find a common theme among items. You can choose whatever theme you like, as long as it makes sense to you.

For example, our list above could turn into the following groups:

Electronic Items

  • Electronic chargers and adapters
  • Current converters
  • Computer tool kit
  • Extension cord
  • Extra pair of headphones

Paper Items 

  • Instruction manuals
  • Registration cards
  • Coupons

Supply Items

  • Scissors
  • Twine or cord
  • Super glue
  • Stamps
  • Spare thread
  • Envelopes

Beauty and Personal Items

  • Bobby pins
  • Hand lotion
  • Nail files
  • Lip balm
  • Small toiletry travel containers

Travel Items 

  • Coin purse
  • Spare wallet
  • Spare coins and change
  • Transit card
  • Souvenirs or mementos from trips and vacations

After we’ve sorted items into these groups, we can then identify specific places in the home where one would store or find such items.

So, the lists would then turn into the following:

Electronic Items (Home Office or Computer Workstation)

  • Electronic chargers and adapters
  • Current converters
  • Computer tool kit
  • Extension cord
  • Extra pair of headphones

 Paper Items (Home Office or Kitchen Drawer)

  • Instruction manuals
  • Registration cards
  • Coupons

Supply Items (Home Office, Pantry, or Kitchen Drawer)

  • Scissors
  • Twine or cord
  • Super glue
  • Stamps
  • Spare thread
  • Envelopes

Practical Items (Home Office, Pantry, Hallway, or Kitchen Drawer)

  • Batteries
  • Flashlight
  • Hardware tool kit
  • Keychains

Clothing and Shoe Repair Items (Bedroom, Bathroom, or Hallway)

  • Lint rollers
  • Eyeglass repair kit
  • Safety pins
  • Spare buttons
  • Sewing kit
  • Patches
  • Waterproofing kit
  • Shoe polish
  • Shoe brushes

Beauty and Personal Items (Bedroom or Bathroom)

  • Bobby pins
  • Hand lotion
  • Nail files
  • Lip balm
  • Small toiletry travel containers

Travel Items (Home Office, Workstation, or Bedroom)

  • Coin purse
  • Spare wallet
  • Spare coins and change
  • Transit card
  • Souvenirs or mementos from trips and vacations

Create storage solutions.

The next step is to move these items to the appropriate area of the house. After that, you’ll want to make use of existing storage, such as vanity boxes, drawers, containers and so on.

The other choice here is to create storage solutions. You could designate a certain drawer, container, box, or counter top area in which to store the items.

Option #2. Create a household toolkit

If the above organization method doesn’t appeal you to, there is another alternative.

In this approach, you’re going to keep miscellaneous items together. The only difference here is that you are going to organize, properly store, and label your collections.

Organize miscellaneous items into well-defined groups.

Organize miscellaneous items into specific groups or collections. Do keep in mind there’s no wrong or right way to do this.

Create the groups that make the most sense to you. You may find it helpful to refer to the groups we created above.

Choose a permanent storage location.

Next, it’s time to identify a room in your home where you will store all of these items.

It’s a good idea to place all of these items in a single unit, such as bureau, filing cabinet, vanity, dry sink, credenza, or other such storage unit. Make sure you have adequate drawers and sections available for you to use.

Once you’ve selected your storage location, neatly arrange items into smaller units or storage packets. 

Carefully and neatly wrap cords, cables, and twine, and use drawer dividers, small trays or flat boxes to contain other items. You could also use large, clear zippered plastic bags to store items in a pinch. 

Lastly, you’ll want to carefully label items. This makes it easy to both locate and store items in a pinch.

I have an organization guide that could help you get organized around the home and office. Click here to find out more.

If you want to organize your office or home so you can find what you need when you need it, let’s talk. Click here to schedule a strategy session with me.

How about you? What method will you follow when it comes to organizing miscellaneous items in your home or office? Join the conversation and leave a comment below!

5 Unexpected Things You Need to Organize a Work Notebook Mockup
About the Author

Rashelle

Rashelle Isip is a New York City-based productivity consultant who helps successful entrepreneurs and business owners manage their time and energy so they can reduce stress, work less, and make more money in their businesses. She has been featured in Fast Company, Forbes, NBC News, The Washington Post, NPR, and The Atlantic. Get her free guide, 5 Unexpected Things You Need to Organize a Work Notebook, by clicking here.

9 Comments

  1. Jenn

    These are great ideas! I have been struggling to contain electrical miscellany and now that you suggested the other things that might be grouped and stored with chargers/cords, I will be making a clear bin for rounding them all up!

    I am so blessed by the way your mind works. 🙂
    Thank you!

    Reply
    • Rashelle

      Hi Jenn, you are quite welcome. I’m glad you found the electronic miscellany tips helpful.

      When you do round up your chargers and cords, I’d suggest creating labels and/or tags for each of the items, so you easily know what charger and cord goes with which device. Another idea would be to place chargers and items for a particular item into a zippered plastic bag, label that, and place the lot in the clear bin.

      Thank you so much for your kind words! I’m always happy to help. You really made my day! 🙂

      Reply
      • Jenn

        Another great idea- the bagging and labeling! Then, when my 9 year old stepson says he cannot find the cord for charging his game, I will tell him to look in the bin for the Ziploc labeled “Matt’s game cord.” 🙂

        Reply
        • Rashelle

          You’re welcome. 🙂 Hopefully, this will save you a lot of time and headaches. Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy!

          Reply
  2. Tara

    These are such great ideas! I honestly need a site where I type in random items and there are different ideas that pop up to determine how/where to organize them!!!

    Reply
    • Rashelle

      Glad you liked them, Tara!

      Reply
    • Rashelle

      I’m glad you enjoyed the ideas, Tara. If you’re looking for organization idea help, be sure to use the search function at the bottom of the site. I’ve written lots of articles on organization, decluttering, etc. I do hope you’ll find them helpful. Let me know how it goes!

      Reply
  3. Alban De Rozario

    Hi Rashelle,

    All I can say is “Wonderful Site!”. It’s like a one-stop for all especially in the miscellaneous section. I like the way that you have broken the miscellaneous into groups, makes sorting them much easier.

    regards,
    Alban

    Reply
    • Rashelle

      Thank you so much, Alban! I’m glad you enjoyed the site and found it helpful.

      Reply

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