Updated Oct 12, 2025 1:44 AM EDT
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Junk drawers hide in different spots—some tuck them inside a desk, others tuck them into the kitchen—but what’s inside tends to be universal: faded sticky notes, old wedding invitations, souvenir pins, yellowed magazine tear-outs. These misfit mementos pile up into what we politely call clutter. Pull them out of their hiding spot, though, and they become something worth displaying.
Skip the standard mood board. What we’re proposing is closer to a love letter to all the odds and ends you’ve held onto simply because they spark a random jolt of joy or motivation. Arrange them artfully somewhere in plain sight, and you’ve got one less drawer to empty out come spring cleaning. The best part: Not a single item needs to hit the trash to get organized. Here are three ways to put your bits and bobs on display:
The Pinned Patchwork
Estelle Bailey-Babenzien, one half of the husband-and-wife team behind menswear label Noah, swathed a section of their New York flagship in burlap wallpaper by Ralph Lauren (yes, the same fiber as potato sacks!). The material’s ultra-porous quality lets the couple pin things directly to it—letters that look borrowed from vintage varsity jackets, iron-on patches that start conversations.
From Eyesore to Exhibition
This built-in storage nook, designed by Alissa Pulcrano of Bright Designlab, pulls triple duty: the drawers below hold recycling; the round niche on the counter corrals keys; and the magnetic wood wall displays photo-booth strips, travel pamphlets, ticket stubs, and colorful buttons. Some objects overlap, lending the streamlined setup a hint of that homemade, hodgepodge charm that defines any good mood board. Inspiration really is everywhere—even business cards and takeout menus. “It’s the ultimate refrigerator magnet utopia, or scrapbook wall if you will,” says Pulcrano.
The Cork Wall Collage
To disguise an ugly vent in their kitchen, Keziah Beall and Jack Carlson covered most of the wall in fine-grain cork sheets, then used nearly every inch of the surface to show off miniature works of art—think postcards with serious punch, stickers that never got peeled, and family photos.
Read more like this: A KonMari Consultant Fixed My Junk Drawer—Here’s What I Learned 5 Things an Interior Designer Wants You to Know How to Tidy a Coat-Cluttered Entryway in 10 Minutes
Lydia Geisel
Home Editor
Lydia Geisel has been part of Domino’s editorial team since 2017. These days she writes and edits home and renovation stories—house tours, before-and-afters, DIYs—and leads our design news coverage. She lives in New York City.
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