Ask Lemmy

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.

Where is the ball of asparagus rubber bands?

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

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.

Of course, the junk drawer.

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

Every family has that drawer

Every family... I have TWO of them

I have heard of people without a junk drawer.

Heard of.

At least one. Usually more.

Every house has one.

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

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

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

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• ~~Our home insurance policy~~ nope, 3y out of date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.

A junk/misc. drawer? Yes.

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 honestly have multiple drawers like it.

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

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

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

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

Almost every home has a junk drawer or other junk container. Mine has multiple.

All that being said, I don't think I've seen a drawer as confusing as this.

Jesus fuck, it's fine.

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

I have multiple junk drawers. Like all of them.

That's essentially the "overflow" drawer. The only solution is to have less stuff... Or just live with it like i do lol

This is not a junk drawer. A junk drawer has flashlights, pocket knife, some tools, tape, bandaids, pens. This drawer doesn't have anything like that.

This is the food prep drawer.

I have three food utensil drawers. Dining, serving, and prep.

If you have a small kitchen, maybe you would combine serve and prep utensils into one drawer.

Can opener, cheese grater, scale, rolling pin, whisks, mixer parts, and cooking knives, all go into drawer. But like the bread knife and cake knife go into serve drawer, along with ladels, and serving spoons, for example.

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

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

Sorry OP, we've got two in our home.

Every single organization system will fail. When we try to put things into categories, there will always be some things that don't fit. That is why every organization scheme needs a miscellaneous category. That seems to be the purpose of this drawer, and that's great.

When my daughter was 4, she named it the “Don’t know where go drawer” and that’s how we’ve referred to it since.

I also have a man drawer.

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.

My wife has serious ADHD, this is every drawer.

Aaaah, the "As seen on TV"+drawer! Yes we have that one.

I do not have that drawer. Mine is at least twice as full.

Sorry to say, your wife is right. Sorry to say, even if she is wrong she is right.

Of course, everyone has this drawer. It's called a junk drawer. Where else would you put this crap. What planet are you living on?

Every family has a misc. drawer. Staplers, pens, rubber bands, paper clips. Lots of office supplies usually but it often will broaden out to all kinds of random crap.

That one is not exactly what I’d expect in the misc drawer but it’s not totally out of bounds?

Exactly like in the picture

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

I am ridiculously organized and clean. I do that 5 minutes of swift pickup/wipe a few times each day.

That said, still have this drawer. There is always a collection of items that don't seem to go "together" but they're always used. That's what this drawer is for.

I don't get the stock picture though. It's an obvious arrangement of tools that haven't even been used.

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

My life is this drawer.

We've got 2