You know that junk drawer of yours?

[SwearyBetty]

Your one-day-I’ll-need-that-crap that’s in a drawer/box/cabinet/cupboard. The one that has been overflowing for YEARS and gives you mild to moderate panic feelings when you think of emptying it?

Then one day you become energised and have a decluttering session and you’re ruthless and committed to the cause! Haven’t needed it for 8 years, never going to need it so you happily toss in the bin.

Then 3 weeks later you’re wrapping your secret santa gift and you realise you have the perfect multi coloured tie dye ribbon (that used to be a gift bag handle) and go through the not a junk drawer anymore, looking sadly at the sparseness and tidiness thinking I knew I shouldn’t have thrown that ribbon away...

😂Are you me?

on the other side, that junk drawer is now a junk room, and is spilling into another room, and another room....

and then you remember you have a drawer full of ribbons that are just as good as the one you threw out

Every time!

I had something similar recently. Massive declutter of the hall and found something I couldn't place at all in my head. Really could not work out what it was from, so bit the bullet and in the interests of decluttering I recycled it.

A week later I realised what it was from and why I needed it. The information just popped into my head completely at random while I was putting my socks on.

FFS!

Nope never happened and ive been decluttering since 2020
I just shrug and use something else.

I try and have a clear out of everything in house and shed a couple of times a year, and yes, has happened a few times. Doesn't help if it's something you really needed and can't find a replacement quite the same

Drawer 😂😂😂

yeah, more like 4 drawers 🤣

We call ours the hell drawer. We’ve been meaning to tidy it up for 20 years.

You probably wouldn't have even remembered it if you hadn't decluttered the drawer.

I see your drawer and I raise you my cupboard. DH study though will have us all best, it is the work of a master. 🙏

this!

You would have used a different ribbon, or no ribbon and it wouldn't have mattered at all

I cleared out the junk drawer, but now have 3 rooms of junk.

I have a relatively organised junk drawer. It's the giant bowls of random keyrings, light up dog collars, paperclips, hooks I mean to put up somewhere someday, reflective bike stickers, friendship bracelets from holidays that never seem to get to people, the spare bulb for the outdoor lights, half tubes of lip balm and hand cream that I seem to have multiplying around the house that I am struggling with...

The small bit of useless black plastic I threw out? It was the remote for the garage door. The tie-dye ribbon sounded pretty - I would have kept that!

The worst thing is when you do a big tidy-up, but then realise it’s actually harder to find things than it was before, because at least before you knew it was “in that pile somewhere”.

StockpotSoup · Today 11:09

The worst thing is when you do a big tidy-up, but then realise it’s actually harder to find things than it was before, because at least before you knew it was “in that pile somewhere”.

Very true and there’s nothing more fatal than putting something in a ‘safe place’.

Welcome to my world.

I had a psychological breakthrough when I realised that virtually any object I am ever likely to need can be obtained within 24 hours-thank you Amazon.

My junk drawer came up trumps yesterday... 2 aaa batteries for the tv remote and masking tape to hold them in (we have lost the back, of course).

You probably didn't know it at the time OP, but you caught me in the middle of a coffee break... it is tidy up the kitchen drawers day today, and the task is getting bigger and bigger as I go along. I have now added the cereal cupboard, the cat food cupboard and the baking cupboard to my list, because I have to do those before I can put everything I actually want immediately to hand back in the kitchen drawers. So far, I'm left with unopened foil & greaseproof paper, three boxes of Ikea freezer bags and a shedload of kitchen utensils, all of which I want, but none of which need to actually be in the dreaded drawer. They need to be somewhere else, but where???😭

because I have to do those before I can put everything
@sixteenfurryfeet I do this too. I can’t just tidy one shelf or space. Everything has to be dumped out, rearranged and put back on it’s proper place. Edit to say then I get bored after an hour and put things back in random places.

@misscockerspaniel it was a lovely ribbon but I didn’t think I would use it as it was too short to be wrapped around most boxes. However it would have been perfect for the tiny gift I did wrap this morning, it would have matched the packaging plus my colleague loves anything and everything colourful!

I do have a bag of gift bags maybe I’ll find another pretty ribbon.

I have put all the assorted might-come-in-handy-one-day utensils and funny-shaped spoons into the drawer in the sideboard.

That needs decluttering now - aarghh!!

I’ll heed your warning and leave my junk drawer be!

Did this recently when I had the rage at the state of the kitchen. Literally swept everything on the counter of crap into the bin. Threw out a a "thing" that I looked hard at, had no idea what it was, decided it had sat there for years and so wasn't required.

Two weeks later I'm looking for the screw cap to the insulated flask to take to Parkrun and... yep, it was that thing.

Raaaah!