January 4, 2019

Cleaning Out the Junk

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Happy 2019!

We all have one, some of us have several. If you don’t have one, you can’t be human! I seriously believe that even the most organized people still have one, or at least something that resembles one. What am I talking about? I’m talking about a junk drawer, of course! 🙂

My junk drawer

I was off for two weeks during the holidays. I had so much planned. I was going to organize my cabinets of pots and pans, organize my cabinet of a hundred thousand plastic containers (half of which I can’t find lids), and I was going to clean out the junk drawer and get rid of what I didn’t need in there. When a junk drawer has so much “junk” in it that you have to rearrange things just to get it closed- it’s time to thin it out!

Guess what? I did not accomplish one single thing that I had planned, and now I’m back to work.

So, I’ve made an executive decision that I’m going to sort through the junk drawer this evening..and YOU are going to do this with me! Oh, my.. I’m afraid this could be embarrassing.

Let’s get started…

Well, hmmm. Should I pull each thing out one by one, or should I just dump the whole thing out on the counter and see what we have? In my mind I’m hearing chants of “DUMP IT,DUMP IT, DUMP IT”!! Okay, I’m dumping it!!! Wow, this is crazy.

Here’s what we have…

2 Decks of Cards
1 Pedi Roller with a refill roller
1 Stapler
1 Hole Punch
2 Toenail Clippers (just bought another pair because I couldn’t find one)
2 Plastic bandaid holders (holds about three bandaids, could be handy if they weren’t stuck in the junk drawer)
3 Hair Ties
1 Portable Phone Charger
1 Small string of battery operated Jack-o-lantern lights
1 Small coin purse (with brand new lipstick and earrings inside)
1 Air Force Lanyard

More…..

1 Infrared Thermometer (great for ghost hunting ) 🙂
1 Loofah Sponge with string attached
1 Pet brush
1 Tin of Crazy Aaron’s Thinking Putty (fun stuff)
1 I-Phone 5 with shattered screen
1 Tape Measure
1 Small Digital Camera
1 Smart Watch (cheap, not so smart)
1 KC Chiefs Watch (think it just needs batteries)
1 Pack of watch batteries (there ya go)

2 Mini Flashlights (one works, one is trash)
1 Package screws
1 Package panel nails
1 Screwdriver
2 Pair Pliers (I think thats what they are)
1 Pair Scissors

Still more…

1 Small tea infuser
1 Flash drive (wonder what is on there)
1 Bottle of Eyeglass cleaner and cloth
1 Tiny red purse (wasn’t even big enough for my cell phone)
50-100 White index cards
1 Needle and purple thread (everything looks better when sewn with purple thread, ha)
1 Old fashioned ice pack (for the huge headache I’ll have after this)
1 Package safety pins
1 Carmex lip balm

Getting close…

1 Plastic headband (ouch)
1 Cell phone cover (that fits none of our cell phones)
1 Corkscrew (dang, I was looking for that the other night)
5-10 Misc. cords and chargers
1 Brand new package of “C” batteries
1 Eyeglass case (with my spare glasses-THERE they are)

Finally…

1 Pair of broken earbuds (hey son, I found your earbuds)
2 Cabinet knobs
1 Dry erase marker
1 Black sharpie
8 Ink pens
1 Ultrasonic pest repeller
1 Ball of Cotton String

ALL of that was in my junk drawer!!!

Wow, no wonder I couldn’t shut the drawer. I threw a lot of stuff away, but there’s still a bunch of priceless gems that I put right back in there.

It makes me feel a bit like those people on the “Hoarder” tv shows. As I was going through the junk I would say to myself “but I MIGHT use that someday”. Oh, hey… here’s my chance to throw some mental health into my post again! We all have “junk” in our lives that we really need to get rid of, but instead we keep hanging on to it. That “junk” can be literal or figurative. It’s a new year, so take a deep breath and throw some of that junk away!