Ask Lemmy

We moved to a new house, and I was storing things like a hammer, nails, screws etc. In a kitchen drawer for hanging the 5 millions things to go on the wall. My wife asks me if the drawer will eventually be cleared out.

It's been 2 years.

Yep, this is a junk drawer at its nascent stage.

My mother got into the pampered chef selling bulldonkey when I was young, and despite the dozens of items we got from them, only four really stood out, and she still has three of them. The ice cream scoop (how hard is it to make a shaped chunk of metal, after all), the kitchen shears (which were actually good quality), the slap-chop before there was a slap-chop brand (the one that is now missing/broken), and the kitchen organizer thing for the countertop: pic related. It was great for the longer shaped things, like some of what you have in the drawer. If the drawer bothers you that much, consider something that goes on the countertop or on the wall (or even a hanging pot organizer, which I love above a kitchen island.

Bachelor here, and I do indeed have a random shit drawer. As did my family when I was growing up.

Correct, we have this drawer. And what sucks is that it has been broken for about 20 years.

Everyone has that drawer. You can tidy it with spacers to make it look a bit less hectic but it will still be that drawer full of random specialty shit.

We do

A junk drawer? ... yes, most houses have one.

Ah yes. The “nonsense drawer” as my youngest labeled it. It has stuck. In my parents family it was called the junk drawer.

The only reason I don't have such a drawer, is an overall lack of drawers in my house, don't really have one to spare to be a junk drawer.

Which is a damn shame because I could really use a drawer to throw some miscellaneous odds and hands that don't have any other designated place to live.

Every home has that drawer. What is the problem that needs a solution?

To say what others have said in a different way. Yes, in almost any categorisation system, you're gonna need to deal with some misc haha.

Where else could these things possibly go? (minus the scales, which in my opinion belong on some flat surface in a cupboard of countertop somewhere, since I use my scales all the time)

We have one of these drawers at home, also. I think your wife is right on this one friend.

I have three small awkward necessary crap drawers, and my apple slicer doesn't fit into them. But my kitchen is so small, I call in the galley (facetiously, it's not actually on a boat).

We don't have one, we have multiple

I want to know how OP would like this drawer to look instead. Random kitchen utensils always seem to get shoved in a drawer like this

Yes, every family I've ever known has had a drawer with bulky oversized kitchen utensils and gadgets. The harder you try to organize these things, the more you will realize that you'd just end up with an entire drawer taken up by a single pizza cutter, garlic press, or zester. Theoretically, if you had enough storage space in your kitchen you could do that, but these things are used so infrequently that they either get shoved into one drawer which fully takes up that one space with disorganized chaos, or placed in a receptacle of some sort to sit on the countertop for when you need it, which is ugly and takes up then takes up the counter space instead.

Everyone I've ever known personally has a "junk drawer." It's where various random doodads and thingamajigs go when they don't neatly fit any other category. And batteries.

For every item in that drawer, ask yourself: "When was the last time I used this?"

If it's more than a year ago, it's not in the right place.

If it's less than a year ago, it's also not in the right place.

If you already have a maxed out sharps drawer, then you probably don't actually need any of the knives in this drawer. Like how often do you actually use the pizza cutter? I just cut pizza with a chef knife. Or the egg cutter? How often is that used? Sometimes the answer is to go through all your drawers and see what can be tossed to make space for the things you actually do use.

We all have one . Mines right next to the oven so I have quick access to various things I use

I'd filter out metal things that has handles like this pizza cutter and meat hammer and try to give them some sort of a stand or a magnet surface to stick them on.

I also don't have that drawer, but I have a box next to the toolbox labeled "useful crap that aren't tools"

It's your house's shrine to Anoia. Rattle it every once in a while.

I have whole cabinets like this

My wife got snap apart customizable drawer organizers and it's a big difference. She showed me the way.

Every family has a junk drawer. Just accept it and move on in your life.

Yes. It's so common that it's been a well known joke in the UK for the last 16 years: The "Man" Drawer.

My family has a junk home, not just a drawer :)

Don't known, but that big green thing with the clamping white blades...do not put your dick in that.

Sorry man but I have to side with your wife here. We have even one such junk drawer per room.

• In the kitchen with scissors, jar opener, potato peeler, nut cracker, sticks, tooth picks...
• In the living room with matches, candles, coasters, birthday decoration, fertilizer for house plants, ...
• In the bedroom we even have one per person with protective gear for sports, single socks that have their partner missing, scarves, baseball cap, luggage straps, ...

Could go on with bathroom, laundry room etc. Junk drawers for the win!

I do have it.

Have you ever visited other people's kitchens? Everyone has that drawer.