Junk Drawer Warning!

I didn’t know that your junk drawer could be fatal – thankfully I cleaned mine out recently! This news story on Yahoo says it all: How Your Junk Drawer Could Set Your House on Fire.

I have a desk in my kitchen with THREE junk drawers. Most of the stuff I throw in them has a real home somewhere else in the house or shed, but the junk is being shoved out of sight for a while. Since my last clear-out, the drawers have stayed mostly uncluttered, because I have made myself put things away where they belong in the tool box, the office, etc.  I am trying to keep a small stash of supplies on hand that I use all the time, or that don’t belong anywhere else.

Here’s how it went!

Junk Drawer 1: BEFORE

Yes, I could actually close the drawer and ignore it. Let’s have a closer look:

Junk Drawer 1: Contents (Click to Enlarge)

Here we have:

• 5 rolls of tape
• Stack of little notebooks
• Stack of Post-It pads
• Many erasers, new and used
• Pens, pencils and Sharpies
• Thumb tacks, paper clips and elastic bands
• Glue stick
• Twist ties
• Nuts, bolts, screws, nails, picture hangers, and fasteners
• Felt pads for under furniture
• Hex keys
• Eyeglass repair kit
• Lens cleaning cloths
• Mini flashlight
• Keys, keys and more keys
• Key tags
• Ridiculous pile of locks
• Graphite for sticky locks
• Luggage tags
• Laser pointer for cats to chase
• Noisemaker for scaring cats off counter top
• 2 mini stuffed animals (cat and koala)
• Candle holder
• 2 packages Fimo (polymer clay)
• Buttons
• Fake gems and glass stones
• Beads
• Piece of ribbon
• 3 tulle drawstring jewellery bags
• Pins
• Dice
• Bookmarks
• Evil dead battery destined for Hazardous Waste
• 2 -1/2 Remembrance Day poppies
• Cell phone car charger
• Change purse
• Many packages of unplanted flower seeds
• Seat belt adjusters
• Small objects awaiting repair

Honestly, what was I thinking!

Here is the “after” photo. I brought my mini glue gun to the junk drawer so I could actually fix things and not stuff them away to rot.

Junk Drawer 1: AFTER

BTW, the drawer organizer was there all along; it was just buried 🙂

Here’s the next one:

Junk Drawer 2: BEFORE

This is the one where I had miscellaneous batteries, battery chargers and cables, along with paper and plastic items – probably not a good idea!

Junk Drawer 2: AFTER

Note the numerous lint and cat hair removers.

I have rechargeable batteries for most things, but still use a few alkalines for elliptical machine, TV remote, etc.

I have since put all my chargers and cables into a lunch box:

Domo takes care of my charger cables!

Chargers & Cables

And here is the bottom drawer:

Junk Drawer 3: BEFORE

Probably the less said, the better…

Junk Drawer 3: AFTER

And here’s how it looks after resuscitation. The black bags contain binoculars and a wind-up radio for power outages. There is a pedometer, a whistle from the Brisco General Store, a roll of plastic string for the Whipper Snipper (strimmer), a painted box with window ornaments inside, and the reorganized bags of twist ties, elastics and fridge magnets.

OK, I’m done now, and feeling thoroughly exposed 🙂