The Original Junk Drawer Starter Kit(TM)

According to the Oxford American dictionary, junk is “anything regarded as useless or of little value.” A drawer is “a boxlike compartment without a lid, which can be slid horizontally in and out of a piece of furniture.” The plural, drawers, means “underpants.”

So, junk drawers are really “useless underpants.”

The idea for the Junk Drawer Starter Kit came during the fourth of four consecutive moves. Everything was going into storage for an indefinite period – anything that didn’t belong in a categorized, labeled box was being thrown away. The house was pretty much packed up when I opened one last drawer in the kitchen. Ack! This stuff didn’t belong in any category. So, I dumped it all in its own box, taped it up and labeled it “Junk Drawer.”

The joy came when I finally moved into a new house. All I had to do was pick a drawer, open it up and dump in the contents of the Junk Drawer box.

Voila! Home sweet home. Last out, first in. Everyone that moves should have that junk drawer box available.

The take out menus from another state were pretty useless. And the sticky pennies and melted rubber bands were still gross. But, the Sharpie and the scissors and the tape measure sure came in handy before everything else was unpacked.

As I talked to friends about the experience, we realized that the junk drawer was a universal phenomenon. We compared notes on what was in our junk drawer growing up (John Denver eight track tape, Mr. Yuck stickers, keys to long ago lost locks . . .) and what would be most useful now.

Tell us . . . what’s in your junk drawer?