We need to talk about that drawer.
You know the one. That seemingly innocent kitchen drawer that’s become the Bermuda Triangle of your home—where pens go to die, where Scotch tape tangles with rubber bands, and where you’re pretty sure there’s a screwdriver hiding under 17 Post-It note pads.
We feed these drawers like hungry monsters, cramming in batteries, stamps, twine, recipes, prescriptions, staplers, gift cards, and scissors until they can barely close. They’re crowded and unwieldy, and we avoid them until we desperately need that one specific thing buried at the bottom.
Enter Caroline Van Natta of Tidyish, a Richmond-based professional organizing company, who’s out to reframe those catch-all drawers. “We’re calling them ‘utility drawers,’” she says. “They can be really useful, but are far more effective if they’re organized. The reality is they end up getting filled with things that get in the way of the actual utility of the drawer.” If you need that roll of Scotch tape, it’s easier if it lives somewhere you can find it and not in a knotted mess.
Taming that mess requires sorting, and Van Natta suggests starting with taking stock of what’s in your utility drawer and also what she calls “unmade decisions”—something that might be destined for another place, but hasn’t quite made it there, along with “in-transit” items—the earrings you borrowed that you need to return to a friend, but haven’t quite gotten around to it.
Then she suggests committing to an organizing system. Measure your drawer’s length, width, and height, then hunt for containers at places like The Container Store or Target. Think strategically: long, skinny containers for pens and scissors; smaller ones for rubber bands and Scotch tape.
Next comes purging what you know you don’t need—that receipt from 2010—and rehoming. That hammer wants to live in a proper toolbox. Those prescription meds are better served in a medicine cabinet. Once it’s empty, clean the drawer thoroughly with disinfectant.
The final step is pure magic: arrange your containers in the drawer and load them with your keepers. Watch chaos transform into symphony, where every item has a home, and you can actually find things without archaeological excavation. TidyishRVa.com
This article originally appeared in the October 2025 issue.
