Where Bloggers Live: Everybody’s Got One
Welcome to the monthly edition of Where Bloggers Live. It’s kind of like HGTV’s “Celebrities at Home,” but…Bloggers! Who doesn’t like to peek behind the scenes and see inside people’s homes? Every month a group of six bloggers share their work-spaces, homes, towns, and more!
So…WHAT is it that everyone has?? A JUNK DRAWER! At least I THINK everybody does. That one drawer that holds all those little random things that don’t really have anywhere else to go and yet…you’re not prepared to throw them out. Twist ties, birthday candles, chopsticks, cards, plastic forks, screwdrivers, old glasses, etc. I feel like that’s The Usual.
I’m gonna brag just a bit and say I think I have a pretty aesthetically pleasing junk drawer (relatively speaking). I don’t have a kitchen junk drawer in this apartment…but I do have a drawer in one of the dressers in the bedroom that holds more like “bedroom junk,” for lack of a better term.
This is the drawer. The top drawer of the ohtjang (dresser).
Heeeeeere we go.
Oh.
Step 1. Empty drawer.
Shoot. I thought everything would fit on one board. Silly me. There was more stuff crammed in there than I thought. Lots of little boxes. I have a hard time letting go of cute lil boxes. What if I’m giving someone a tiny gift? Any of these Mejuri boxes would be perfect.
WHO AM I GIVING TINY GIFTS TO? NOBODY. I’M GIVING NOBODY TINY GIFTS. GET RID OF THE D*MN BOXES, BETTYE.
Sigh. But they’re so cute.
And this is how I have an apartment full of STUFF. “But it’s cute/pretty/funny…and I just want it.”
I kept the one box that actually had earrings in it, which I put in another drawer where I keep jewelry…and managed to throw the others out.
YOU GO, GIRL.
Here’s everything out of the drawer. There were a couple things that went immediately to the trash or their rightful homes and didn’t make it onto the boards: a can of Febreze, a bottle of linen spray, a gift bag, little cards, candle lids, etc. Then I tried to sort of group like items together.
All the little candles in tins went back in the green box. I bought them last year when a friend and I took a trip upstate. I thought it would be nice to have scented candles in our rooms…but in the end you weren’t supposed to burn candles in the rooms so they all came back with me.
That navy blue canister thing is reed diffuser sticks and the scented oil that lives on top of the dresser. And the little black bag next to it holds essential oils I use in the diffuser on the dresser.
The tarnished silver cigarette box was my father’s, it’s monogrammed and I have it holding jewelry at the moment (in the past it held fortune cookie fortunes…cuz I can’t let go of THOSE, either!). So it went in the drawer with the jewelry.
The evil bunny I’ve had since before Katie was born. It hung in her room when she was a baby…and when she stopped having a bunny room it came back to me. I will probably have it forever. It’s silly but I love it and maybe in my next place I can hang it somewhere.
The shamrock beads were from a fun St Patrick’s Day a few years back. A friend brought these beads and silly hats for us to wear when we were in the city. Ha, funny, you can’t see the beads in the picture but they were there.
Ha ha, also, the glasses I’m wearing here are the glasses in the green eyeglass case in the drawer. The “just in case I lose/break my current glasses” glasses.
What else? A linen mask from early covid days when I thought linen would not be so hit, but. It was just as hot.
“BOLD” is from an embroidery class I took and sucked at.
My 60th birthday tiara my niece sent me.
Some scarves and hankies went into their rightful place in the scarf and hanky drawer (a project for another day).
Samsung fanny pack from when we were in the city and needed a bathroom and they were like, “you can use the bathroom if you take a little survey about Samsung products” and then they gave us little goody bags. That is now in the donate pile. A shell. A silver Tiffany knock-off necklace.
And. The Llama.
I can’t remember if I bought this or Katie did, from a street fair in the town where we lived in our cute little house. But I periodically put the finger puppet on and video a little llama puppet show that I send to Katie. She acts like it’s stupid…but someday she’s gonna come across the llama puppet in HER drawer and remember. And I bet she’ll smile.
The llama stays.
No cat can resist the appeal of a new thing on the bed.
So. I managed to put some things away…and put some things in the trash. And this is what’s left.
Ooh Ahh.
It is essentially the scent drawer – candles and oils and matches. The llama, the angry bunny, tiara, woodland creature headband, and a few other things remain.
I’ll consider putting a couple dividers in here so it can hold some other more useful things like…I don’t know…jewelry? Socks? That I never wear? I don’t know.
But now I feel like it’s a more pleasing drawer – with pretty scents and fond memories.
One drawer down. 14 to go (evil laugh).
What’s in YOUR junk drawer??
Make sure to check out the other ladies’ posts and see what things THEY can’t let go of!
Daenel at Living Outside the Stacks
Iris at Iris’ Original Ramblings
Jodie at Jodie’s Touch of Style
Leslie at Once Upon a Time Happily Ever After
Em at Dust and Doghair
Iris Smale
Oh my goodness – you took everything out of your drawer and re-arranged and organized. You’re my hero!
Iris
bettyewp
Oh. Ha. We need to find you a better hero, Iris!
jodie filogomo
I think you came up with this theme just so you would clean out the drawer. Next thing you know, you’ll be telling us we are showcasing our underwear drawer, haha!!!
I used to be the same with boxes until we moved. Then I purged them all and I’m starting again. I thought you’d be glad to know we are alike in some respects!!!
OXOX
Jodie
http://www.jtouchofstyle.com
Leslie Susan Clingan
Great work!! I like the idea of a fragrance drawer very much. I need to start parting with things…not because I am planning a great escape to South Korea. Or North Korea, either. But I just have too much. Have resisted the urge to look at the new Christmas decorations at Hobby Lobby and a couple of my other favorite craft/home decor stores. But it has been hard. I think I am finally getting tired of having all this stuff, though.
But then I see your llama and think of my beaded jack rabbit, my Origami crane, my voodoo money doll…how can I part with these sweet things?
You are way ahead of me in that I have 4 junk drawers to your one now very neat and well organized fragrance drawer. Bravo!!
bettyewp
Yeah, I feel like I’ve been culling for 30 years. Ugh. Each time I let go of a LIIIIIITLE bit more but there is still so much left!
Just today, with Katie’s help, there are two garbage bags and three donation bags out in the car. And I feel we barely made a dent in the apartment! But it’s a LITTLE clearer, enough that hopefully I can focus on some small projects on my own. Where’s SO MUCH TO BE DONE I can’t FOCUS.
But yeah, llama stays forever.
Daenel T.
Ohhh, you took everything out and rearranged it!! Yay you!
A friend of mine shared a post on Facebook that said live a life such that when people are emptying out your drawers they go “What the heck?” So now you have to put one really weird thing in there. Not gonna lie though, the evil bunny might do it. LOL But I do love all the memories connected with what you’ve kept.
bettyewp
“A friend of mine shared a post on Facebook that said live a life such that when people are emptying out your drawers they go “What the heck?”
I love this. I think someone would have fun going thru my stuff. EVERY drawer/box/cabinet has odd, or at least “conversation worthy,” items.