The infamous junk drawer

Everybody has one.

It’s the drawer of detritus. The has-been drawer. The this and that repository where you toss your odds and ends. Sometimes your very, very odd odds and very, very ends. It’s the drawer filled with the meaningful and the meaningless. It’s the drawer, typically in the kitchen, where things you just can’t throw out because someday they might be useful. It’s the drawer filled with things that shouldn’t go because you know if you throw them out, a week later you’re going to need them. You know the drawer I’m talking about.

It’s the junk drawer designated for the storage of various, often motely, small, occasionally (but probably not) useful items of little (but still can’t be parted with) value get stored. Everybody has one.

They say you can tell a lot about a person by what’s in their junk drawer. Maybe. But mostly what can be found in them are familiar bits of life. Well, those along with some “what the heck is this?” items.

In my grandma’s house that drawer was the last one in the counter near the back door. It was the best drawer in the house. I loved digging through it for treasure or change for the ice cream truck. There old keys, one-off buttons, small rubber bands, large rubber bands , thin and thick rubber bands, small flathead and Phillips screw drivers, paperclips, partially used books of matches, miscellaneous stamps, old prescription glasses, worn rubber jar-lid openers, half-used packets of flower seeds, needle and thread, Scotch tape, single batteries of various sizes, old cough drops, bobby pins and birthday cake candles among many other things found a home.

I don’t know what the contents of my grandma’s junk drawer said about her except that nine times out of 10 if you needed some doohickey for the thingamajig, you could probably find it in gram’s drawer.

Our next-door-neighbors, a couple with 10 children, kept “spare” rosaries in their drawer right next to what, as a kid, I thought was an implement of torture but later learned was a potato masher. There were no rubber bands in their junk drawer but, there were always several tubes of half-used lipstick, change, a crumpled halfpack of Kool cigarettes and old racing forms from the Kentucky Derby.

I had a friend named Jane, and when she moved away from home for the first time, her mother gave her a junk drawer. It was literally an old drawer from some trashed bureau that she filled with, well, junk. I remember the typical junk drawer items — batteries, rubber bands, tape and a bottle of glue. There was also several screws and a mini tool kit with a hammer and screw driver too small to be of much use but they came in a nifty leather case. Among the flotsam and jetsam other treasures that could be found in the drawer were a half-used bottle of aspirin, a broken watch, a two-year-old pocket calendar, a roll of undeveloped camera film, an old photo of distant cousins and a red plastic clown nose.

I loved Jane’s junk drawer. I thought it was such a fun and clever gift. These days though you can actually buy “junk drawer starter kits” on line. These pre-fab kits typically come with a few rubber bands, a measuring tape and other usual junk drawer items but they lack the personal touch that make junk drawers not only the repository for memories that can’t be parted with, like that hotel key from that fabulous vacation your took to the Caribbean, but also for that really cool rock that looks like a frog or that dried up, now broken into a dozen pieces spaghetti noodle. You know, the good stuff.

I decided to delve into my junk drawer this week. Not because I was in the mood to clean but rather because I couldn’t get it closed anymore. It was there I found the key to a lock for luggage I got rid of 10 years ago. Among the usual suspects of more various sizes of rubber bands than anyone will use in a lifetime, twist ties (again enough for a life time of twisting and tying) and several open boxes of toothpicks, I also found a screwdriver with a broken handle, scissors, bandages and an old flip cell phone charger. I found a dried up stain remover pen, a wad of used but washed plastic bags ranging from sandwich to gallon size, picture hooks, thumbtacks, two balls of string, a 25foot measuring tape, a bag of purple sequins, several old shopping lists, multiple bag clips including three with broken hinges, leather halter ties, a mini Coke flashlight with dead batteries, a half-used tube of 12-year-old horse ivermectin, my husband’s old driver’s license, an “I love you note” written in crayon on the back of an envelope by my daughter when she was 5-years-old, screws and nails and little plastic I-don’t-know-what thingies along with some “good intention” items like a leaky tube of sunscreen and a bunch of multivitamin packets, expiration date 2018.

I discovered that in the event of a world-wide sauce packet or one-time use chop sticks shortage, my junk drawer contents will be worth millions.

I think it was Buddha who said “you can find wisdom in a junk drawer.” Well I’m not sure I found any wisdom there but I did find several yellowed take out menus from a Chinese restaurant. I also found the broken pieces of an old favorite tea cup, an anniversary card from my husband and no small amount of grit in the corners but mostly what I found was comfort in the collection of bits and pieces from my family’s life even if I didn’t know what a lot of them were for.