You know, the drawer that starts out so nice and tidy and is heir to every loose item smaller than a bread box? When’s the last time you saw a bread box anyway? Now, if the drawers were made as big as bread boxes, that might help. Note to self, buy a bread box.

What do you put in your junk drawer? Don’t bother denying that you have one, ’cause everybody does. Mine gets lots of pens, tape, scissors, and string. Then there’s Krazy Glue and duct tape, because we need strong stuff to put broken stuff back together with. And then there’s string, ’cause I never know when I’m gonna need more string. Oh yeah, the package of catnip. Nobody in their right mind would ever give Maybe, my cat, catnip. She’s nutty enough all on her own, but I still don’t throw it away. Not as long as the drawer can still close and Maybe’s still around. Yeah, I’m nutty enough.

Mine has a deck of cards (though I never play, hence its resting place), a screwdriver (or three) that I’m too lazy to put away, magic markers, shoe laces, tape measures (’cause I need more than one) and various things I can’t live without and bring myself to throw away.

Then there’s the little screws and nails that are extra when you put something together (or in my case, bribe a grandson to assemble it for me). Yeah, gotta save those, except I almost always go buy screws when needed if they’re not in the shed, ’cause I never think to look in the junk drawer. Oh yeah, my shed? There’s one way in and one way out and no guarantees of safe passage. That’s another blog.

There are organized junk drawers like mine with little baskets to keep the junk in its proper place. Of course, I don’t know what goes in each basket, but it appears that I’m less of a slob this way in case a stranger opens it up. Boy, the burglar that ransacks my house would be entranced by my design, delayed, and subsequently caught while checking out all the valuable junk.

Then sometimes there’s the old roll of undeveloped film, a treasure if ever there was one. Don’t waste time, grab it, head to Walmart, and get it developed. One of the last ones I found was of my late husband, Jeff, dressing up as Shrek for a Halloween costume contest. He was putting on his green tights (okay, they might have been mine). Only a man would try and stand up in a camper and put on tights. He was like the perpetual Weeble Wobble and almost fell a few times. I snapped a picture before tipping him off (instead of over) that it was easier to do sitting down. He won second place, by the way. Lost out to a cell phone costume and since cell phones were the fairly new rage, we didn’t get too bummed not to win first place. But he was number one in my book, on many levels.

I’ve come to realize that maybe the term, “junk drawer” isn’t a fair description. After all, it gives shelter to the homeless, provides a resting place for the lost and also gives back in the form of memories. Perhaps “treasure chest” might be a better choice.