As you guys know, my Great Aunt Iris passed away on Sunday. Been a crazy week, to say the least. My Aunt Iris is probably the largest reason I not only became a writer, but a successful one. Even though this woman started life on a farm in Paris, TX when people traveled by horse, she still read my books and even my blog. Of all the posts I’d written, this one was her favorite. So, today I am running the Junk Drawer blog again in loving memory of Iris Iona (Lamb) Jackson, born September 12, 1913, died October 2, 2011. She will be greatly missed by many people.
Ah, it is time for spring cleaning. This past week I have been on a mission to simplify and organize. Yeah, easier said than done. I began with the refrigerator, battled the Spinach Ooze of Doom and The Casserole that Time Forgot. I stumbled away wondering how the hell I managed to buy 12 jars of pickles. See, that is the thing about being disorganized. It is wasteful. I am the proud owner of 635 pairs of scissors. They hang out with the index cards and bags of rubberbands. Have you ever noticed that? You have to buy a BAG or rubberbands and after using less than FIVE, the bag disappears????
But I digress….
This reminds me of my nightstand drawer. Hey, I’m a Texan! If only I could find the bullets….
So this week I am scrubbing and sweeping and sorting, all the while putting off the dreaded kitchen drawers. See, I happen to be an overachiever. Most people have ONE junk drawer. I happen to have…okay all of my drawers are junk drawers. DON’T YOU JUDGE ME! Thus, the thing I seem to put off most is cleaning out my kitchen drawers. I secretly loathe those people who can open a kitchen drawer and actually KNOW what is inside–Show Offs :P.
One morning, a few months ago, I was doing my early morning walk through the neighborhood, pondering the universe, when I had a profound thought. My life is like my kitchen junk drawer, and maybe that’t why they were so hard to clean. Stop laughing. It’s true. Sometimes, when I put in a lot of extra effort, it is neat and clean and streamlined…and then the Law of Entropy somehow takes over. It is a never-ending battle against my own selfish will to goof off. And yet, I have to admit, my junk drawer is usually one of the most interesting locations in my house.
The junk drawer is always full of things we don’t want to face—an unpaid bill, a child’s bad report card, a letter from some crazy family member we can’t throw away but try to ignore. Something sticky that we just can’t bear cleaning. Do it later. Full of unfinished business. Write that “thank you” note later. Pay that bill later.
My life is also full of these things I don’t want to face—my laziness, my tendency to procrastinate, my harshness with myself and others. Stickiness that I just can’t face cleaning. Will get organized…later.
Junk drawers are also filled with things of questionable value; an extra screw that we just can’t figure out where it goes, a single AA battery that we are too cheap to throw away, but too lazy to put with the other batteries (wherever they are). Oh, and a tiny calendar from a real estate agent that we will never use, but don’t have the guts to toss. Markers that work when you lick the tip and pens with schmutz clogging the end…but if you scribble real hard they still work. Packets of ketchup when there is a full bottle in the fridge. Packets of salt and pepper and sporks from fast food joints.
My mind, too, holds on to things of questionable value. I have all kinds of experiences and bits of knowledge that puzzle even me. I am flypaper for useless trivia, like the end of a shoelace is called an aglet and the element helium was discovered in the late 1800s when scientists were studying the sun, and it is named after the Greek Sun god, Helios. I don’t know why I know these things, but I do. I don’t know why I can’t find my car keys, but I can remember that Washington Carver invented peanut butter and that the first thing I ever took to Show and Tell in Kindergarten was Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker (yeah, I am a nerd from way back).
Ah, but then there are the hidden treasures of the junk drawer; the sweet card from a husband for no reason at all, a photo that missed the baby book, a $20 bill we forgot we had, a rebate check we forgot to cash, ticket stubs from a memorable concert, or even wheat pennies and Canadian pennies that we have sorted from the real pennies since we were children.
Which brings me to my point. Yes, I have one.
Our lives are all like junk drawers; full of the messy, the missing, the mystifying and the magical. Sometimes I think that is why I became a writer, to “sort out” the junk drawer of my soul. So often my stories feature characters so similarly flawed as me. And, as I help them learn and grow…strangely, so do I. With writing, I can find use for random childhood memories, like the smell of Breck shampoo or the taste of coconut sno-cones. Through stories, I can give them new life in new context so that they can live forever…or at least longer. Through fiction, I can tend unfinished business, like a broken heart that never mended or a dream I was too scared to pursue.
With fiction…it all oddly makes sense.
And I will continue filling the drawer with experiences and information and ideas and dreams and heartbreaks and disappointments and tragedies. Then I will sit down and sort and take what will work and then I will toss the remains back in and label them “Miscellaneous” until I find them a home.
Can you relate? Are you like me and a Junk Drawer Overachiever? What do you do with random memories and experiences? How do you use them? Keep track of them? What cool stuff is in your junk drawer? Leave a comment and share.
I do want to hear from you guys!
And to prove it and show my love, for the month of October, everyone who leaves a comment I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. If you leave a comment, and link back to my blog, and mention my book We Are Not Alone in your blog…you get your name in the hat THREE times. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly.
NOTE: For those of you who haven’t yet gotten your pages back, please resend to my assistant (if you haven’t already). I get about 500 e-mails a day, so I am redoing things so submissions don’t get lost in the ether. Thanks for your patience.
Gigi at gigi dot salem dot ea at g mail dot com. Gigi will make sure I get your pages.
I will pick a winner every week for a critique of your first five pages. At the end of October I will pick a winner for the grand prize. A free critique from me on the first 15 pages of your novel. Good luck!
I also hope you pick up copies of my best-selling books We Are Not Alone–The Writer’s Guide to Social Media and Are You There, Blog? It’s Me, Writer . Both books are ON SALE for $4.99!!!! And both are recommended by the hottest agents and biggest authors in th biz. My methods teach you how to make building your author platform FUN. Build a platform and still have time left over to write more great books! I am here to change your approach, not your personality.
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{{{{{{{hugs}}}}}}}}}
I can see why she loved this post. And if she had input in shaping Kristen Lamb-the-Writer, she must have indeed been an awesome lady.
Author
You guys are so awesome. I am richly blessed with amazing friends for sure. Now what’s in your junk drawer? Dish!
Boy can I relate to this big time. One of my kids said, “Mom, if you don’t get rid of all this stuff, we’ll have to do it after you are gone.” God helped us out (because he knew I’d never get rid of it all) and gave us a house fire. Poof.
Organized chaos. My way of grappling with the creativity and the problem. But wait, isn’t that were all creativity comes from? Great post, and I mourn her passing, too. Love and please do find those bullets!
I am so sorry for your loss.
Yeah, I totally have the junk drawer dilemma. In fact, my husband and I started moving in March. We were gonna get rid of that junk and we started out doing really well. Then we got overwhelmed and started dumping it into moving boxes… So now I have junk drawers, and I have moving boxes in the basement full of detritus from junk-drawers past. However, in the move, we did find every box of ammo that my husband has been stockpiling for the past 10 years. Now if we could just find the guns…
Awesome post, I’m glad you put it back up because I’d never seen it. It’s funny how everyone has a junk drawer. They sell organizers for your junk drawer which to me is missing the point entirely. If it’s not a jumbled mess, it’s not a junk drawer. Mine looks pretty similar to your first photo there, but alas no gun. I’m in Texas but never got around to getting one. My junk drawer currently has batteries, pens new and old, hair bands, chargers for every electronic device known to man (most of which I don’t even own anymore), menus for take out, odd buttons, 3 pairs of scissors and two cat toys. I just moved into this apartment a week ago, so my drawer isn’t quite done with the mulching process yet. When I moved, I even had a special bag just for the junk drawer. Didn’t even bother cleaning it out, just dumped it into the bag, then dumped the bag into the new drawer.
I also have a junk closet but I won’t go there…
It’s a good time to de-clutter everything after a shock like this. it must be hard to carry on as normal, when she meant so much to you. I am de-cluttering my wardrobe today and cleaning the fridge (but only because I’ve been such a butter fingers today. I spilled milk down almost every shelf in the fridge, then cut my finger cutting through a hot cross bun). I’m staying at home today, just in case I’m jinxed. It must have been the dentistry I had done yesterday lol. Take care.
This blog resonated big time. I have junk drawers everywhere. The kind where you slip in an item you don’t want to look at but you don’t want to take the time or energy to find its ‘correct’ home. Most often I slip the drawer open an itch or two, shove in a pencil, random photo, stray batteries, chopsticks and tamp down the items, tuck on the strays trying to escape their drawer and slam it shut with authority! 🙂
Sorry for your loss. Reminds me of my most beloved Aunt Alice. I smile at her picture every day and thank her for her influence in my life.
Oh this is so me! Thank you for writing it, for sharing it. I missed it the first time around and today, I really needed it.
I write my memories, my pain, my anger, my desires, my hungers, my dreams. I write them all… I write the different characters of me and I grow from it. It’s one of the reasons I love being a writer.
And along with junk drawers, I have junk cabinets, junk baskets, junk storage bins, junk closets…smiles
So sorry for your loss. She sounds like an amazing woman!
I can also see why she loved this post, it’s hoot 😀
I don’t have a junk drawer :ducks: However, I’ve got boxes, and I mean boxes, of memorabilia I swear will get scrapbooked or tossed if it kills me!
Your Aunt must have been very proud of you.
I’m sorry for your loss. Sounds like she was a great advocate. And she almost made it to 100! Wow.
Excellent post.
I have junk drawers, probably one in every room, but I stopped keeping little packets of condiments from restaurants several years ago.
The junk of my life gets jotted down on a scrap of paper, a napkin, or envelope back. These treasures used to exist wherever. Now I throw them in a file.
I must have missed this post first time around. It is a lovely tribute; I can see why your aunt loved it.
My literal junk drawers include enough hairbands and elastics to wage warfare Canadian-style. There’s also a collection of unsharpened pencils as well as random things that have fallen off of other random things.
My metaphorical junk drawer–of thoughts/memories/writing ideas–is greater than the sum of its parts.
Wishing you a peaceful weekend, Kristen.
Condolence. Loosing ones beloved aunt (mine died the past June at the age of 99 years 6 months and 2 days) leaves a void no-one nor no-thing can fill. I am glad you ran this post again, it is one of your best.
Your Aunt adored you, hunny, what a great post.
Hmm, I have a few ‘junk’ drawers which also double up as ‘safe places’ to keep stuff. You know, the things you ‘must’ have but forgot where you put them, so bought more. Rubbers, pencils, pens – especially favourite pens – and sticky post it bookmarks and scissors and lip gloss. No idea why, but lip gloss turns up everywhere.
Ahh, just noticed I’ve said rubbers. What I mean is erasers. Here in the UK we call them rubbers, just to clarify in case anyone got the wrong impression.
But what confuses me and has done for many years are – socks. Where do they go? I have drawers and drawers of odd socks, they drive me nuts. And why is it you only lose one of your ‘favourite’ socks? And another thing, why is it that you always, always, spill something on your ‘favourite’ sweater? Why is that?
I could go on, but I won’t. It’s been one of those weeks.
I love the junk drawer stories and the way you relate them to our lives.
I have similar tendencies of collecting “junk” then frantically trying to declutter my life.
I also give some of my characters similar traits.
I love to “imitate life” in my books by modifying real life events and situations and adding them to my novels.
It gets a little scary when events and situations I’ve made up for my novels occur in my real life.
This is a lovely way to remember your great aunt, Kristen. The memories we keep become those random characters we cannot abandon. It is not just the mind “junk” drawer where we keep our secret memories, those intangible items we cannot discard. I am a person who needs roots, tradition and stability. While I am also on the weird neurotic side, it is that other me who cannot let go. I had the experience of moving after 20 years and discovered when I finally had the nerve to unload some of my old storage boxes, not only every journal and story I had ever written, but another box with my old personal phone books. I moved a few years after I lost my mother and in one of those dusty boxes I found her old phone books, her impeccable hand writing that this southpaw could never duplicate, old letters from my aunt’s or a cousin, “mass” cards from funerals dating back to the sixties and a treasure box of her costume jewlery, circa 1940’s. Junk drawers are like opening an old box, a trunk in the attic or a crushed bag in the corner of a closet … they are filled with the good, the bad and the ugly … Yeah, you never find where that lousy screw was missing until three days after you finally throw it out and notice a jiggle on your office chair! Hair pins and curlers no one has used for thirty years, take-out menus and one time a neatly folded $20 dollar bill.
Isn’t it grand that you can use this metaphor for a person who will always be the most precious of those new found treasures? Bless and keep her memory 🙂
Ahhh, Kristen, you’re so energetic while I’m a slug that it’s hard to believe we have so much in commong, but we do. I love the analogy. One thing I do with my memories is put them into family history books–I’ve done one for my mom and one for my mother-in-law. Now I’m doing one for my dad’s family and including all the stories he told me of his family plus all those other family members have remembered. My brother is helping and we hope to have it published before Christmas. But the kitchen junk drawer–the one by the phone I seldom use–yesterday I found mouse poop in the drawer. Arrrgghhh! I hate killing things, but that mouse has to go!
By the way, I love this post and will save it. No wonder your Aunt Iris loved it. I’ll bet she was an awesome lady.
So sorry for your loss, Kristen. Everyone has a junk drawer; however, I’m trying to get mine under control. After my sisters and I convinced our dad to move from his house to a more manageable apartment we had to clean out his house-sized junk drawer. Then after he passed away we had to do it again on a smaller scale. Yes, we found some treasures, but it was mostly junk. So at this point in my life where I’m closer to the end than the beginning, I’m trying to make sure I leave behind more treasures than junk. That’s one reason why I am finally trying to write in earnest. I want to tell my children’s story in a memoir because they deserve to have it set down. But I’m also trying to pare down so they don’t have to dedicate weeks to deciding what to do about “stuff” when I’m gone.
My biggest junk drawer, however, is my computer. So many orphaned files and documents never given a proper place and random things saved for who knows what reason. I intended to wrestle my computer into submission soon.
That said, I think this weekend I’ll rummage through my own junk drawers this weekend and see what they say about me, too.
After my mother broke her hip she came to live with me. I sold her house, got rid of most of the furniture etc. and brought boxes and boxes of papers that I had no idea what they were – until after she died. There were phone bills and hydro bills and gas bills from the time we moved into that house in 1954. All of them. And all the tax bills. I had to go through every one to make sure there was nothing important tucked in between before shredding them. What a job! And the scary thing is that I think I take after her! On going through one of my drawers one day I found a receipt for a pair of shoes I bought back in the 70s. Oh, dear.
Sorry to hear about the loss of your Great Aunt. No matter how long and great of a life she lived, dealing with loss is never easy.
Really enjoyed this post – I’m a notoriously bad organizer, and our junk drawer is from the circles of hell, I’m sure.
I think it’s one of your best posts too, Kristen. I’m sorry your aunt passed away, but I know from what you’ve posted that she was loved and lived a full life. Love to you and your family. Peace.
I love this post. Junk drawers are like treasure chests, especially when you unearth a memory. I have a metal (old) trunk that’s part of my decor, every year “the things I forgot to put away after Christmas” are put in this metal trunk — one year the kids and I were cleaning it out (for Christmas) and at the bottom we found a card my dad had given to my older son. He opened it and there was dad’s handwriting and a 20 dollar bill. My son was overcome — my dad had died 10 years earlier.
It was like having him back for a little bit.
I swear you’ve been in my house opening up my drawers! The only difference between you and me is that I am in denial. Although I say I only have one junk drawer, every drawer in my place fits the bill. So sorry to hear about your Great Aunt Iris. Like others, I can see why this blog piece was her favorite. I guess I better put on the plastic gloves and get to work. I think you have inspired me to step away from the computer and give the frig a once over. Thank you for the nice read!
This is so true for me as well. My husband hates my junk drawers (yes, I too am an over achiever). It is also the story of my life….I’m too busy. For everything. I’ll do it later. 🙂 And I am so sorry for your loss.
What a lovely tribute to your aunt. And such a true observation about human nature. I remember visiting somebody’s house once and asking where the junk drawer was. I think I was looking for rubber bands. The hostess said with smug pride that she didn’t have a junk drawer. I’d felt uncomfortable in the house since I arrived. At that moment, I knew why.
Thank you for this post. I’m sorry about your Aunt Iris. But I’m glad (and I am sure she is as well) that she influenced you in such a positive way.
You have, in turn, influenced me. Your blog is in my RSS feed and has been for a while (since March to be exact). After watching and listening for a while, I finally started my blog. And taking from your blog style, several of my days have themes (e.g., Ask Missy Monday and What Works Wednesdays). So THANK YOU!!!!
Your aunt probably loved your post — being a Virgo, and all.
My junk drawer is my office. The whole room, but especially the desk. My laptop fits on the desk but knows better than to argue with the papers, notebooks, unopened mail, printer, ink cartridges, earphones, coffee cup, pens or the other laptop (closed) that closely surround it, and guard me. I came home yesterday and saw that my laptop must have acted out. Little notepads, papers and books lay unconscious on the floor. Uh oh.
This is a lovely post to honor your great aunt. 🙂
Hm, I think I might be the opposite. I don’t have a junk drawer, maybe because I’ve become accustomed to not holding on to things. The same kind of goes for my life; there are a lot of things I don’t want to remember, so I’ve trained myself to forget a lot, even recent things. I used to think that if I ignored the junk, it would go away. (Obviously not true, so my metaphorical junk drawer is really more of a suitcase tucked in the back of the closet.)
Wishing you warm thoughts during your grieving.
Your Aunt Iris sounds like an amazing woman. I’m glad you reposted this because it’s a good one. All my drawers are junk drawers, too. Sometimes it’s pretty darn embarrassing. I can sure relate to the packets of ketchup, old photos, loose screws, old letters. It’s crazy! Your analogy is cool and right on. Our lives are like junk drawers! I love it!
My life is a giant junk drawer. It seems no matter how much stuff I throw out, I seem to acquire even more. I try to combat it, but it’s impossible. I try to stay away from having so much stuff that I become a hoarder. I know two people that actually are and I refuse to set foot in their homes.
A great post I can see why it was her favorite. I don’t have a lot of space, and far too many people sharing it with me so I have one small drawer and a basket- but my head- my head is a major junk drawer. So many odd facts- and then I’ll think something “I should tell Rod we need pickles” Then I can’t remember if I told him or only thought that I needed to tell him, so I ask and he smiles that worried smile that spouses of writers get- you know the one- and says “Yes,Alica for the fifth time, I will get you pickles.”
I know random facts which I sometimes blurt out randomly and sometimes are actually used to answer questions that asked of me.
I’m so sorry for your loss. I loved this post, it was so me.
I had a very large UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) with a dead battery that had been sitting in my office for well over a year. It would cost more to replace the battery than to purchase a new unit. Besides it was now fulfilling a different role. I was using it as a table to stack a box full of bank statements. My wife found an ad for a recycler who would pick up anything electronic. He said he would pick up my unit for no charge. To make his trip worthwhile I started looking through my electronic treasures and found:
An IOMEGA 100 megabyte cartridge drive (yes, I said 100 megabyte and cartridge not floppy disk or CD. At one time this was groundbreaking technology, invented shortly after charcoal and papyrus.
A little more digging yielded a Port Replicator for a Dell 4000 Aspire laptop. Has anyone out there heard of a Port Replicator?
Next I found a telephone answering unit (tape not digital) and several headsets with built-in radios.
Maybe one of these days we’ll even open some of the boxes that we brought when we moved from St’ Louis.
Donald (Don) Bueltmann
I notice most of you have posted a picture with your reply. Where do you post these pictures.
Donald Bueltmann
Go to Gravatar, Don, and follow the instructions. It’s part of WordPress and easy.
Aw, Kristin, what a sweet tribute to your Auntie. So sad for your loss. *hugs*
Kristin, I loved this post. I don’t need a junk drawer (though I have many) because I have a junk room. And I have stuff (especially papers, notes to myself, phone numbers with no name attached, ideas for articles that I wouldn’t know where to find if my life depended on it) covering my desk, my night table, my coffee table, my dining room table, my…Well, you get the picture. And when I run out of room there, I start with piles on the floor. I have a large file cabinet and two file drawers in my computer desk where I keep business things like invoices and customer receipts as well as my manuscripts, both finished and partial. But then I get lazy and everything I need for bookkeeping (something I always put off as long as possible) are in piles all over the place. It takes me more time to round everything up than it would to put it away in the first place, but that’s too easy. And I am never sure whether I have it all or not. At 66 I’m not likely to change now.
I am sorry for the loss of your great-aunt. It’s always hard when someone who has had such an influence in our lives is suddenly missing.
Kristen , sorry about your aunt. I can see why she loved this post. I loved it too. So much to write about in a woman’s life.
My condolences for your loss. I can see why your aunt loved this post so much. It’s great that you reposted it so those of us who hadn’t read it before could enjoy it too.
My house has a lot of junk too. We have a closet where we stuff things that don’t have a place elsewhere. And most of it we need maybe once a year or never again. And there’s a drawer in the hallway that fills with random stuff every two weeks. The worst is the paper mess. I write lots of random notes on loose pieces of paper and never know where exactly the note is that I need. I glut information and rip off all cool articles that I see. And I order a lot of magazines 😛 And lets not get started with all the online newsletters and my tons of bookmarks. This is likely a maven thing.
Then books. Both me and husband hamster those and they are so hard to give up even when we never read them. Because books are valuable. I just have to get it through to my head that a book we don’t actively need could be a huge treasure to someone else. Libraries, hospitals, book crossing… all good ways to pass on old friends who have now become just faint acquiantances.
Thank you for the great topic. Tomorow is a de-cluttering day.
TCHAIKOVSKY!
Ahem.
Seriously – 635 pairs of scissors? Really? I own about four pairs. Admittedly I keep losing those too, but…. wow.
I’m hoping you were exaggerating there, I really am.
My sympathies to you and your family, Kristen. One of the wonderful things about someone like your Great Aunt Iris is that she will live on forever and continue to be an influence in your life. It’s truly a blessing when a person we love has had such a profound impact on us. From the way you speak of her, I’m guessing she knew exactly how much you loved her and the feeling was mutual.
Loved the junk drawer analogy! How can we write without one? Thanks for re-posting and giving us permission to revel in ours.
What a lovely woman. I’m so glad you had her in your life.
For some reason, I have an electric screwdriver that doesn’t work with or without batteries, every loose screw that didn’t find a home in my ticky-tacky build-it-yourself furniture (that sits beside nice antiques), and half a dozen bottles of stuff to spritz on my reading glasses to clean them. The glasses are always dirty because I forget the bottles of spritz are in the drawer.
Many prayers and big hugs your way.
The left-over screws from build-it-yourself furniture struck a cord in me. And once I bought an over-the-door book rack and couldn’t find some of the brackets I needed so I took it back and got another one. A year or two later I found those original brackets! Oops! So now I still have the brackets which are good for nothing else that I can think of.
Well, um… I used to work as a Professional Organizer so my drawers are impeccable. But I loved going into people’s houses to figure out what their issues were. I was always fascinated by people who had tons of notecards or sticky notes or all different sizes of envelopes. Or 22,236 binder clips. Fascinating stuff.
What an awesome tribute to your aunt. May her name be a blessing.
That said, even I have ONE junk drawer. Because everyone needs a place to hold things for a little while before we can finally commit to the garbage can
I am sorry for your loss. What better way for a writer to pay tribute to a beloved family member and fan than to re-post a favorite entry!
My junk drawer? Umm…yeah. We’ll just talk about the drawer because I don’t even want to talk about the rest of the mess. Anyway, there’s all the batteries for the countless remotes, a pair of scissors (but not the sewing scissors or the kitchen scissors — they might get dull and that wouldn’t do, would it), a giant stack of twisty ties — all unused — because we can’t get rid of them. We might need them some day. Seriously. Also, any spare keys to various locks go in the junk drawer too. That makes sense, right?
A mental junk drawer, though? I am trying to discipline myself to write these things in one little notebook. I carry it for just such an occasion an have put in a few things. Admittedly, I don’t put as much in there as I should. Mostly, I do it in case I have an occasion in a story where I need something quirky to say or do.
The title of your blog post sold me today, Kristen! It reminded me of my mom. Because a few years ago, I asked her what the title of her life would be, if it were to be titled.
And she said: Junk Drawer.
You two are on the same page, which is a compliment because my mom is awesome!
Like the happiness you would feel after you get rid of hoarder stuff, You will definitely feel great by developing more appropriate ways of thinking, we can free ourselves and regain mastery of our minds.
Everyone I know has more than one junk drawer and often in more than one room in the house/garage/shop and even at work! They are full of semi-treasures as well as junk/trash/things that they do not need such as some examples you gave: Christmas cards, old batteries, cards lost from their decks, pins-bobby pins, safety pins, Girl Scout and Boy Scout pins, straight pins and clothespins too, earrings, event ticket stubs, erasers, long forgotten mail, baby bibs used by their babies years and years ago that never were thrown out, clothespins, keys, old phones, hardware, etc. etc. etc. Sorry, I have to say that this blog is what many (most?) people consider ordinary everyday normal. This is not abnormal or unusual and we ALL know tons of useless or almost useless info that we call trivia. I am slightly amused you find this a worthy topic to write about. Start asking your friends and family “where’s your junk drawer?” and then you will find out…