Crouching Drawer, Hidden Junk

Cyndi Seidler
05/12/06

Occasionally I find things to do with my time that might make the average person believe I should be committed and removed from society. At least, that's what my daughter said when she saw me organizing the junk drawer.

I ask you, what's wrong with that? Don't you think we all need a place to stash our small "miscellaneous" stuff? And, shouldn't I be able to make a place for all my miscellaneous do-dads so that I can get to them easily?

Call me over-organized, but to me it's just junk organizing.

I'm a firm believer in junk drawers. I may never label a file folder "miscellaneous," but I will always have my junk drawer. Because, there are always household miscellaneous things I know I'll need handy.

I maintain a junk drawer in my kitchen. I think most people do. It's the one place in the house that you usually spend time in (because that's where the food is, even if you don't cook) and it's usually the hub of the home. In that regard, we owe it to ourselves to indulge in having a junk drawer there.

In my line of work, I've seen a lot of people's junk drawers, and even admired some. I mean, you would have to admire what other people end up putting in there, because you probably put it in there yourself at one time or another: Excess reading glasses, ties from plastic baggies, rubber bands from newspapers, dozens of pens (many of which don't work any more), notes, receipts, recipes, manuals, tools, batteries, you name it.

The list of possibilities for a junk drawer are endless, really.

One of my colleagues Joanna begs to differ. She's a stickler for having a place for everything and everything in its place. "Junk drawers just collect stuff," she says. "They are a black hole of stuff we've long forgotten about."

And while I agree with Joanna to some degree, I still hold my position that some household miscellaneous stuff requires its own place together.

The idea is grouping items together, even if it isn't like-items (which is what you're supposed to do when organizing). But, if you consider the junk similar in that you need it handy, than all junk is grouped as being "handy." You have to admit, there's some logic there.

The down-side of junk drawers is that they do tend to get out of control. It's there and therefore it's quite easy to throw things into it when we don't feel like putting something away, or just don't know where to put it at the moment.

And, that's why I purge and organize my junk drawer every now and then, see? When I told Joanna this, she mellowed out. As a matter of fact, when she was over my house one day, I showed her my junk drawer hoping to impress her with how well organized it was.

"What are all those keys for in that compartment?" Joanna asked me. I was embarrassed that I didn't know. But I figured there had to be a reason for them being there, or I would have thrown them away.

"I think those are keys to suitcases and spares," I answered. This white lie wasn't going to hurt anyone; I was sure of it.

At that point, I really didn't want her to look any further. She was probably going to question me on the empty film cases I kept there as "just in case" containers for other stuff, and I couldn't bear to be on the other side of the organizer-client advice lecture.

I proclaim I'm an organized person.  But I confess, I'm not perfect.