Junk Drawers and More…

Johnny-on-the-Spot … by John Foster …

My brave wife declared war on the junk drawer in the palatial Foster estate.

How do you know when it’s time to clean the junk drawer?

When you can’t open it.

Ours is in the kitchen between the refrigerator and the food pantry.

Eighty percent of homes have at least one junk drawer.

I have a junk drawer of sorts in the work bench as well.

But the kitchen one for the Fosters had some unique items in it.

How about a spool of 8 pound test Triline fishing line?

Obviously a crafting project need for my crafty wife.

A plastic devise about 4 inches long to use when grouting tiles or putting caulk into seams.

It’s been there since our last tiling project maybe 2 years ago.

A combination padlock that works and has the combination taped to it.

We had 6 flashlights in our junk drawer.

Interestingly enough, all of them worked.

The old joke is, “What’s flashlight?”

A tube for storing dead batteries.

We had some of those chemical handwarmers in our junk drawer.

Several pairs of scissors and at least 2 rulers and a tape measure.

There was also a ball of twine.

Historically, junk drawers go back to 1912.

Ours also had a wad of rubber bands (far and away the most popular thing you’ll find in a junk drawer).

Bunches of paper clips and more than our fair share of file binder clips.

Lots of pens, many of them promotional ones and surprisingly, most of them worked.

Several multi-plug adapters, a light timer, and lots of Post-it notes and tiny notepads.

Keys.

Lots of keys.

Many to doors and locks that have been replaced years ago.

At times there’s been an extension cord or two in this drawer and those peel-and-stick

felt coasters for chair legs currently occupy a little space.

You’ll find at least two staple pullers in that catch-all drawer in our kitchen.

There also used to be a refrigerator water filter cap that broke off.

Why didn’t I throw that away?

Sentimental value?

My wife has placed these little plastic storage baskets in the drawer and it’s nice and orderly right now and much less cluttered but we know that won’t last forever.

There are those who say we should have a “junk drawer” in the home but it should hold specific items.

A small screw driver, a tape measure, matches, a lighter, tape, glue and scissors, a pad of paper and a small, working flashlight.

For many of us, though, the junk drawer just won’t do.

We need a storage rental place.

There are currently 3 times as many storage locker units than McDonald’s restaurants in America.

It figures out to 5.4 square feet per person or 2.5 billion square feet of storage space to rent in America.

It’s a $40B+ industry in America.

One in three of us rents a store facility space and the 10 foot by 10 foot units are the most popular.

Furniture is the most-stored item but the “Storage Wars” TV series would like you to believe otherwise.

This idea of storage units started in America in the 1850’s with the Bekins Van and Storage Company building he first units.

The idea really took off in the 50’s with the interstates and increased travel and moving.

So, we Americans have a lot of “stuff” and people are making money on our sentimentality and/or lack of space to store it.

It’s a business that took off after our junk drawers got too full.