About Junk Drawers

There are ways to opt out of junk mail but I have yet to find a way to opt out of junk drawers. No matter how many times a junk drawer is organized the contents morph into junk overnight. Junk drawers I have discovered are essential for a well unorganized kitchen. I have also discovered that in the quiet of the night junk drawers beget other junk drawers and in a fit of passion they will beget junk cabinets. If stringent moral conduct is not imposed a junk household results.

Why a junk drawer? Apparently when one is looking for something smaller than a shoe box it is much easier to go to a single location instead of searching through multiple drawers and cabinets. In baseball parlance a designated drawer is the answer. However there is still a problem. Opening up a junk drawer is like rummaging through a treasure chest. After marveling at and fondling objects cast aside months or years ago one tends to forget what he was looking for in the first place. Even if he remembers, horror sets in when a survey of the junk drawer does not reveal what he was looking for. Junk drawers after all are meant for junk which is rarely useful.

Even though junk drawers are unsightly they do provide a lesson in diversity. Made in China, the USA, Thailand, India, Italy, Germany, the articles all find a home in one household. Here in one place are objects of all colors and sizes living peaceably together. That is until someone in the course of rummaging through them starts to prioritize their usefulness. It is then that a junk drawer emulates the world that we live in. Once declared expendable an article if fortunate finds it way to e-Bay or at the very least a Salvation Army bin. Articles less fortunate are deported to the dumpster. Having declared war on junk one would think it would be the war to end all wars and peace would now reign in the world of kitchen drawers but wars create displaced persons or in this case displaced junk . Peace is short lived as the household struggles to accommodate junk which survived the ravages of organization. What else, a junk drawer.

( Warning! If there is any suspicion that weapons of mass destruction found their way into the junk drawer a preemptive invasion would be warranted so that we can live in peace with our values.)