Ask Lemmy

I have heard of people without a junk drawer.

Heard of.

Of course, the junk drawer.

I don't think I've ever been in a home without one.

Where is the ball of asparagus rubber bands?

Empty the drawer into a box. Whenever you use a box item, it goes into a drawer. After a year, donate the box

At least one. Usually more.

Every family has that drawer

Every family... I have TWO of them

Yep, we have that drawer. Ours is much larger and much more full. My wife loves baking, which accounts for a lot of it - there's about 5 pie servers in there, for example, along with various spatulas of many sizes. There are also three ice cream scoops so the odds are good I'll have at least one that is clean when I need it. Lemon zester, spoons, all kinds of baking and cooking-related stuff. The rubber things you use to get stubborn jars open. I can't even think of what else is in there, but there's a lot.

This is separate from the drawer that has rarely-used knives (we have a knife block for the commonly used knives), cake decorating materials, and similar stuff.

And both of those are separate from the designated "junk drawer" that has random stuff like box cutters, can coozies, gift cards, coupons, etc.

I have multiple junk drawers. Like all of them.

Every family has this drawer.

Everyone has this drawer, but this one is too organized. It appears to be 100% kitchen tools. You need to add a deck of playing cards, a bunch of soy sauce packets, a few half-used books of matches, a few take-out menus, and some loose keys in order to do this drawer properly.

Your wife is right mate, this drawer is what makes a house a home.

We have 3 such drawers, one in the kitchen, one in a common area and one in the laundry room.

Jesus fuck, it's fine.

Yes, I have the where-does-this-thing-go drawer, for food prep items that don't fit elsewhere, and also the junk drawer which includes things like

• Lighter
• Weird long plyers
• Twine
• Self-fusing rubber tape
• Random rubber bands
• Twist ties that came with electronics
• A random assortment of sharpies in various states of abuse
• A weird scissor thing with a blade at 90° to a flat piece of steel
• Random Lego pieces
• Batteries that are good but not in packaging
• Hearing aid batteries (noone in our house has hearing aids)
• A single 12"x18" piece of Scotch Brite
• Matches
• A pencil with the tip broken off
• A pair of 1/2" Cast iron pipe 90° fittings
• A key for a car that nobody can ID
• The manual for the microwave
• A bunch of pennies
• ~~Coupons for McRibs that are expired~~ gone thanks for this thread
• ~~Our home insurance policy~~ nope, 3y out of date
• A replacement impeller for the fish tank
• An iPod charger (FireWire)
• An iPhone charger (usb)
• 2 sets of analog headphones
• A dishwasher cleaning tablet

So...there you go.

Yours is actually much cleaner, but you cannot escape the drawer. We are all the drawer. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.

Our catch-all drawer has screwdrivers, pliers and enough other tools to rebuild an engine, plus office supplies.

I honestly have multiple drawers like it.

Every house has one.

Every household has a junk drawer. Be thankful you don't have more than one.

Not to brag but I have two of these and a proper junk drawer.

Solution: build a new cabinet with a bunch of drawers and put one item in each drawer

Throw in birthday candles, rubber bands, and a few coins and you got yourself a proper junk drawer.

Yes, every family has this drawer, and every family also has a member who despises this drawer and fruitlessly reorganizes, labels and makes it easy for everyone else but it takes one load of dishes and…

What were we talking about again. Oh yeah, that’s normal.

every family has this drawer. We have this drawer. The solution to having this drawer is having this drawer.

Remove the scale, electronics don't belong in the misc food prep and niche baking implements drawer. Once you do that you'll easily recognize it as the food prep and niche baking implements drawer. The scale goes on a shelf, or in a cabinet next to the mixer/food proc/salad spinner.

This drawer is the solution. To everything...

Pretty much every house i cooked at i found an equivalent of this drawer, even when they did other things differently. Maybe with the exception of my girlfriend, she's freakishly organized, but she has one massive drawer that includes silverware where somehow all the weird crap fits and it's organized,

Edit: I lied, I looked at her drawer again today, she has a subsection for random cluttered shit

Pfft you call THAT an overstuffed drawer?

I bet you can open it without anything catching the backside of the cabinet, nerd.

Every family has this drawer

You've lost this one, and if this was a hill you were prepared to die on I would get ready to lose a lot more.

Yes, every household in the developed world has a drawer like this. It's for things that you hardly need or never need, but might do, one day, probably (not).

Why it bothers me: in a more sane world, this stuff would be shared. Every community would have a junk tool shed - not every household of 4 people, or 2 people, or (increasingly) one person. It's reminiscent of that drill statistic: the average electric drill is used for 7 minutes in its lifetime. This is madness. Our planet is overflowing with junk. As a species we need to be smarter.

Thanks, I hate it.

Yes, I have a drawer like that. And yes, every family has this drawer.

Yes. Minus the scale, absolutely. It’s the tools that too big for the utensil drawer but too small to take up shelf space in a cabinet.

my family has had 2 of these since the 90s and now i have 2 of my own.

A junk/misc. drawer? Yes.

You're lucky you only have one, and it's only a single layer deep

Yep, have one. Its perfectly organised, because those things always go back in that drawer so that's just where they go.

What?

It's the miscellaneous utensil drawer. We have 2. Up top for common ones like can opener, corkscrew... big one on floor for the lesser used ones like rolling pin, flour sifter, hand mixer....

If you are arguing over this, don't. Not worth it because there's no better answer unless you have a millionaire mansion with a gazillion drawers

Yep. The "junk drawer". Even in my house with my diagnosed OCD mom had one of these.

That's not even a proper junk drawer, that's all kitchen gadgets, but okay... Yes, in my experience, most households have a junk drawer.

I sort of have 3 variations of this drawer. One is fully named “the junk drawer” and contains things like rubber bands, batteries, scissors, garden snips, things that are sort of odd one out in other spots, but I feel are still relevant to my kitchen. Then I have one that is this but specifically things used on the stove and for mixing. So that puts spatulas, whisks, and such into their own mess. Finally is the “kitchen gadgets” drawer which looks very similar to yours. No organizer tray because everything is odd shapes, but also honestly sees little enough use I don’t really mind digging through it.

Every house have this. And yours is very neetly organised. Congrats. May you "tiroir à bazar" stay this empty of small non identified cluter.

Just to the left of the stove, and the goddamn potato masher always manages to wiggle its way to the top and block the drawer opening.

It’s also how some fruit is grown so leave the drawer ecosystem alone.