A well-appointed junk drawer’s essentials

I came upon a pair of old scissors the other day that had been my mom’s. They are engraved with her mother’s maiden name initials. Which makes them around 100 years old, back when they made really good scissors meant to hold their edge and last a lifetime, or two, or three.

They were our kitchen junk drawer scissors. Do you have a junk drawer? It’s the catch-all drawer or bin where everyone goes to  find some odds or ends for minor tasks.

Ours had a roll of scotch tape, pens, pencils, scraps of paper for notes and maybe a notepad or two. There would be rubber bands, paper clips, safety pins, straight pins, at least one marble (the cats liked to play with marbles) and some bread sack twist ties. A couple spools of thread with a needle stuck through the label on the top. Cereal box tops and soup can labels we would collect. You used to be able to turn those in for programs to help supply schools.  S&H Green Stamps. … They were the precursor to present day loyalty rewards you get at grocery stores. A paper punch and a couple screwdrivers would be in there. Random screws, bolts, nuts, nails and a few washers could be found with some digging. Mom’s address/phone number book sprouting scads of bits of paper tucked inside  with phone numbers and addresses yet to be added to that book (old school … all handwritten) resided close to the front of the drawer.

There wasn’t any organization to ours. It was just a big shallow drawer built into our breakfast bar. There was a smattering of crumbs in the bottom, because it was right below the cupboard that contained cereals, crackers and chips. So, in pawing into a bag or box for a handful of chips or cereal, it was quicker to sweep the crumbs off the breakfast bar into the junk drawer rather than cross the kitchen for a dish towel and wipe them up. We were kids. What you gonna do?

Ours also had a few carboned-up sparkplugs. Why? Well, that was on me. I used to make “things” from nothing. I remember transforming a pop bottle cap (another relic of my youth) by melting wax into it, sticking a birthday candle into the wax and adding bits of plastic greenery and colorful straw flowers. Instant knick-knack. Ta da! So, I was challenged to do something festive to a handful of sparkplugs that had been destined for the trash after a tune-up on our car. Challenge accepted. Some velvet ribbon, glitter, a sprig of plastic holly and some wire: Christmas tree ornament. It hung on our tree for years. I think most of those sparkplugs did migrate to the trash. But there were a couple left in there awaiting their repurposing makeover. 

The most used item in that drawer were my mom’s scissors. I have them now in another junk drawer at my computer desk. A lot of the same accoutrements surround them, along with a couple jump drives, charging cables and power banks. Batteries for remotes. All the current odds and ends. The world is changing yet remains the same. A modern-day paradox.