The Junk Drawer

My new pantry stands 72 inches tall, 29 inches wide and is 12 inches deep. It has two cupboard doors on the top, two on the bottom, and in the middle is a drawer. I finally have everything that I need in my place, something that had been missing until now.

I have a junk drawer.

Everybody needs a drawer where all those odds and ends can be tossed, where you can store items you don’t have a place for, but might need every once in awhile.

I found this saying and liked it.

A clean desk is a sign of a cluttered desk drawer.

At my other place I had a drawer where I kept all the rolls of foil, wax paper and cling wrap. It also had a dish that held all my spare keys, and the neighbour’s keys, and my extra car key. It’s where I tossed the candles for the grandkids’ birthday cakes and loose change for the laundry.

I also had a junk basket that sat on the table beside my chair. It held pens and pencils, scissors, my favourite and most used crochet hooks, sticky notes, a darning needle for sewing crocheted sweaters together, and a dime for scratching those scratch tickets I like to play.

I think I need a new basket. At the moment I have all those items sitting on one table or the other. Last week I dropped a darning needle, heard it hit the wood floor, but I haven’t yet been able to find it. I’ve looked and looked, even vacuumed but it is still lost. It’ll turn up when I least expect it.

For now, I’m organizing my junk. I put a wood box in my junk drawer, empty for now, but at some point I’ll find something to fill it. It’s just marking the space. There’s a sense of relief that I have that space available, if I need it.

For all that my daughter thinks I’m unorganized, I’m really not. I just have some organization and lots of creative clutter. Like today, I have the sweater I just made my granddaughter sitting on the sofa, done except for the buttons. I searched my stash of buttons and found the ones I wanted, which are sitting on the table to my right.

I did some zentangle (doodle art) letters of the alphabet for the kids. Have frames with multiple openings, for their names. I just want to photocopy the designs, so the kids can colour their own names, and frame them for their walls. The designs are on the table, reminding me I need to go to Staples and photocopy enough copies to allow for each name and extras in case of errors.

I’ve started a new book, so the dictionary and thesaurus are on the table.

I just finished a crocheted chair caddie which will hang over the arm of my chair and hold the two controllers for the television. I also have a space in it for some pens and my scissors, if I can find the right plastic holder for them.

I made the caddie out of off white yarn to match my afghan, though the afghan has a touch of rose. I’m making pillow covers out of the same yarn, to brighten things up as the current cushions are dull and lifeless.

I know, I know, finish one project before I start another. But there are some things I like to do in the daytime, and some I like to do at night when I watch television. Tonight I’ll sew the buttons on and finish the pillows, this afternoon is for writing.

My neighbours used to think I was super organized, even OCD organized, because of my storage tower. Years ago I found one of those plastic storage units with nine drawers, each about five inches tall and a foot wide.

I have each drawer labelled, and have consistently kept those drawers organized. I tired of never being able to find what I wanted when I needed it so I got organized.

The top drawer is TAPE. Scotch tape, masking tape, painter’s tape, even double faced tape. The next drawer is GLUE. White glue, carpenter’s glue, glue-all, roll on glue sticks and glue sticks for my glue guns. The next drawer has the GLUE GUNS, followed by one for STAPLERS, household and a staple gun.

Next is RULERS, of various lengths, in inches and centimeters, along with math sets and measuring tapes.

Then come the SCISSORS, of all sizes and shapes, pointed ends and sharp, for paper and for fabric. You get the idea. The next drawer is OTHER CUTTING TOOLS. This includes my mat cutter, my three hole punch and hand held punches.

The last couple of drawers are CRAFT TOOLS and then TOOLS. See, I’m organized.

I even have a small, three drawer container in the closet that has string and cord in one space, light bulbs and batteries in another. I put all my plastic grocery bags in a container that hangs on the rod, have a hanging organizer with phone books, and garbage bags, blue for recycling, black for garbage and white bags for food garbage that will break down faster than plastic.

I’m organized in my own fashion, but the creative process is not neat, and that’s where my mess and clutter shows.

Except for doing dishes, I always seem to have a counter full of dirty dishes.