Lost in the Junk Drawer

Every culture is different. In places like the U.S. or Germany, strict punctuality is expected for everything from business meetings to casual social gatherings. Meanwhile, in Latin America and some Middle Eastern cultures, time is viewed as more of a fluid concept over adhering to a rigid clock.

It’s not just time. The “A-okay” hand gesture (thumb and index finger forming a circle) signifies approval in the U.S. However, it means “money” in Japan, is a crude insult in Brazil, and translates to “worthless” in France.

Despite our different cultures and understandings, I’m convinced that wherever people call home around the globe, most homes have a junk drawer. And in that drawer they keep the miscellaneous stuff—junk for short—that we collect and come across in our lives.

You Never Can Tell

In my house, this universal truth lives in an old hutch that my father refurbished forty-plus years ago.  I love the old piece for the memories that it brings. In the top-most drawer, we keep things like tape; extra pens; every random electronic cable, power cord, and extension cord you can imagine; scissors; outdated glasses; and notepads. It’s a mishmash of everyday things.

Unfortunately, our junk drawer was getting out of hand recently. I had to take matters into my own hands. I drew the short straw and decided that I needed to clean it out. As soon as I started, though, I had to laugh. It wasn’t just the number of things in the drawer, but the craziness of it.

For example, there were two old appliance manuals. The first one was to the microwave that we bought three years ago. Now the microwave is self-explanatory, but we still felt the need to keep the manual. I’ve never once opened it to check something out.

We have another one for the refrigerator. I kind of get that. Please note my phrasing: “kind of.” We had the refrigerator for ten years. It’s long since gone to the Great Landfill in the Sky. But we’ve still kept the manual. Um, hello.

I didn’t feel so bad, though, when I heard one study that found that homeowners typically keep appliance and home system manuals for as long as they own the item or the house. Many users retain them for troubleshooting, repairs, or to increase resale value. We’ve owned our house now for more than twenty years. If that’s the case, that means we have manuals for appliances we’ve long thrown away.

My desk drawer – All valuable stuff!

The Junk That Will Outlive Us All

There’s something else that gets thrown into our junk drawer: all the little Allen wrenches (hex keys) that you need to put together a desk or bookcase that we’ve bought over the years. We have at least four or five of them. There are the little extra screws and screw coverings that you get, too.

Why do we still have them? Umm, you just never know.

The desk that we bought in 2010 might wobble, the appliances in our kitchen will eventually upgrade, and the centuries-old debates over cultural differences will roll on. But as long as humanity keeps inventing DIY furniture and losing the caps to random ink pens, the universal junk drawer remains secure.

It turns out, we aren’t so different after all. We’re all just trying to keep it together—one mystery cord and outdated manual at a time.

What’s the weirdest item currently surviving in your household junk drawer?