Please help resolve a disagreement in our home

Where is the ball of asparagus rubber bands?

I have heard of people without a junk drawer.

Heard of.

Of course, the junk drawer.

I don't think I've ever been in a home without one.

Every family has this drawer.

Everyone has this drawer, but this one is too organized. It appears to be 100% kitchen tools. You need to add a deck of playing cards, a bunch of soy sauce packets, a few half-used books of matches, a few take-out menus, and some loose keys in order to do this drawer properly.

At least one. Usually more.

Every family has that drawer

Every family... I have TWO of them

Empty the drawer into a box. Whenever you use a box item, it goes into a drawer. After a year, donate the box

Every household has a junk drawer. Be thankful you don't have more than one.

Your wife is right mate, this drawer is what makes a house a home.

This drawer is the solution. To everything...

Throw in birthday candles, rubber bands, and a few coins and you got yourself a proper junk drawer.

Yours is actually much cleaner, but you cannot escape the drawer. We are all the drawer. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.

Yep, we have that drawer. Ours is much larger and much more full. My wife loves baking, which accounts for a lot of it - there's about 5 pie servers in there, for example, along with various spatulas of many sizes. There are also three ice cream scoops so the odds are good I'll have at least one that is clean when I need it. Lemon zester, spoons, all kinds of baking and cooking-related stuff. The rubber things you use to get stubborn jars open. I can't even think of what else is in there, but there's a lot.

This is separate from the drawer that has rarely-used knives (we have a knife block for the commonly used knives), cake decorating materials, and similar stuff.

And both of those are separate from the designated "junk drawer" that has random stuff like box cutters, can coozies, gift cards, coupons, etc.

Every family has this drawer

You've lost this one, and if this was a hill you were prepared to die on I would get ready to lose a lot more.

Yes, I have the where-does-this-thing-go drawer, for food prep items that don't fit elsewhere, and also the junk drawer which includes things like

• Lighter
• Weird long plyers
• Twine
• Self-fusing rubber tape
• Random rubber bands
• Twist ties that came with electronics
• A random assortment of sharpies in various states of abuse
• A weird scissor thing with a blade at 90° to a flat piece of steel
• Random Lego pieces
• Batteries that are good but not in packaging
• Hearing aid batteries (noone in our house has hearing aids)
• A single 12"x18" piece of Scotch Brite
• Matches
• A pencil with the tip broken off
• A pair of 1/2" Cast iron pipe 90° fittings
• A key for a car that nobody can ID
• The manual for the microwave
• A bunch of pennies
• Coupons for McRibs that are expired gone thanks for this thread
• Our home insurance policy nope, 3y out of date
• A replacement impeller for the fish tank
• An iPod charger (FireWire)
• An iPhone charger (usb)
• 2 sets of analog headphones
• A dishwasher cleaning tablet

So...there you go.

Every house has one.

Remove the scale, electronics don't belong in the misc food prep and niche baking implements drawer. Once you do that you'll easily recognize it as the food prep and niche baking implements drawer. The scale goes on a shelf, or in a cabinet next to the mixer/food proc/salad spinner.

Pfft you call THAT an overstuffed drawer?

I bet you can open it without anything catching the backside of the cabinet, nerd.

Not to brag but I have two of these and a proper junk drawer.

I have multiple junk drawers. Like all of them.

Yes. Minus the scale, absolutely. It’s the tools that too big for the utensil drawer but too small to take up shelf space in a cabinet.

Yes, every household in the developed world has a drawer like this. It's for things that you hardly need or never need, but might do, one day, probably (not).

Why it bothers me: in a more sane world, this stuff would be shared. Every community would have a junk tool shed - not every household of 4 people, or 2 people, or (increasingly) one person. It's reminiscent of that drill statistic: the average electric drill is used for 7 minutes in its lifetime. This is madness. Our planet is overflowing with junk. As a species we need to be smarter.

I honestly have multiple drawers like it.

Jesus fuck, it's fine.

We have 3 such drawers, one in the kitchen, one in a common area and one in the laundry room.

every family has this drawer. We have this drawer. The solution to having this drawer is having this drawer.

What?

Our catch-all drawer has screwdrivers, pliers and enough other tools to rebuild an engine, plus office supplies.

It's the miscellaneous utensil drawer. We have 2. Up top for common ones like can opener, corkscrew... big one on floor for the lesser used ones like rolling pin, flour sifter, hand mixer....

If you are arguing over this, don't. Not worth it because there's no better answer unless you have a millionaire mansion with a gazillion drawers

Yes, every family has this drawer, and every family also has a member who despises this drawer and fruitlessly reorganizes, labels and makes it easy for everyone else but it takes one load of dishes and…

What were we talking about again. Oh yeah, that’s normal.

A junk/misc. drawer? Yes.

Yes, I have a drawer like that. And yes, every family has this drawer.

That's not even a proper junk drawer, that's all kitchen gadgets, but okay... Yes, in my experience, most households have a junk drawer.

Yep. The "junk drawer". Even in my house with my diagnosed OCD mom had one of these.

These misc drawers are the best way to worship anoia, Goddess of Things That Get Stuck in Drawers (also luck).

Every house have this. And yours is very neetly organised. Congrats. May you "tiroir à bazar" stay this empty of small non identified cluter.

I regrettably also have this drawer.

Attempts at cleaning it usually end up with the drawer now being somewhere else, but it clings to life somehow.

I think they're just a fact of life at this point.

Well this backfired on OP

my family has had 2 of these since the 90s and now i have 2 of my own.

Every family has this drawer.

Every single person does not have this drawer.

Every child has this for every drawer.

Not only does everyone have one of these, they suffer from quantum entanglement.

I wish my drawer was that empty.

Solution: build a new cabinet with a bunch of drawers and put one item in each drawer

Yep, have one. Its perfectly organised, because those things always go back in that drawer so that's just where they go.

Almost every home has a junk drawer or other junk container. Mine has multiple.

All that being said, I don't think I've seen a drawer as confusing as this.

Yes, everyone has this

The 3rd drawer down from the top

This is not a junk drawer. A junk drawer has flashlights, pocket knife, some tools, tape, bandaids, pens. This drawer doesn't have anything like that.

This is the food prep drawer.

I have three food utensil drawers. Dining, serving, and prep.

If you have a small kitchen, maybe you would combine serve and prep utensils into one drawer.

Can opener, cheese grater, scale, rolling pin, whisks, mixer parts, and cooking knives, all go into drawer. But like the bread knife and cake knife go into serve drawer, along with ladels, and serving spoons, for example.

That's essentially the "overflow" drawer. The only solution is to have less stuff... Or just live with it like i do lol

where's the sauce packets?

Just to the left of the stove, and the goddamn potato masher always manages to wiggle its way to the top and block the drawer opening.

It’s also how some fruit is grown so leave the drawer ecosystem alone.

Pretty much every house i cooked at i found an equivalent of this drawer, even when they did other things differently. Maybe with the exception of my girlfriend, she's freakishly organized, but she has one massive drawer that includes silverware where somehow all the weird crap fits and it's organized,

Edit: I lied, I looked at her drawer again today, she has a subsection for random cluttered shit

Yes. I've tried to sort it, but there are too many small things that don't go anywhere else, so they are dumped together.

Trust me, that one is fine

Every single organization system will fail. When we try to put things into categories, there will always be some things that don't fit. That is why every organization scheme needs a miscellaneous category. That seems to be the purpose of this drawer, and that's great.

Every family afaik has at least one of these drawers. Just accept it and live your life.

The "junk drawer" is supposed to have old receipts, loose batteries, the toy(s) you took from your kid when they threw it at your head, some vaguely kitchen-esque looking tool you got as a wedding gift but don't know what it is....crap like that.

That's just a normal large/specialty utensil drawer.

Yes. Most kitchens have a junk drawer. This is often where the household hammer is kept, among other random things.

Compromise in marriage means not organizing everything to death and allowing your partner to maintain some jumbled spaces. A junk drawer is organized, out of sight chaos that still maintains a certain logic.

We’ve also floated the idea that not having a junk drawer in the kitchen may be a marker of psychopathy. I jest, but also not. Just know, junk drawers are common, diverse, and almost as expected as silverware drawers.

You're lucky you only have one, and it's only a single layer deep

Sorry OP, we've got two in our home.

When my daughter was 4, she named it the “Don’t know where go drawer” and that’s how we’ve referred to it since.

I also have a man drawer.

This is not a junk drawer, there are no coins or condiment packets.

This looks to be a kitchen accessories drawer although I'm unsure why you have a pill cutter in there.

Ah yes, the "junk" drawer. I have three! :-)

Ours is a little more organized with dividers, but it doesn't look much better. Everyone I know has a drawer like that. I'd take the scale out and put it on a shelf. Scales are delicate.

PS, we have the exact same can opener, pizza roller, and grater as you guys.

Exactly like in the picture

Yes absolutely

But not the scale tho

Thanks, I hate it.

Aaaah, the "As seen on TV"+drawer! Yes we have that one.

As others have said, this isn't even a junk drawer, this is the miscellaneous kitchen tools drawer. My homes have always had one of them plus an actual kunk drawer full of keys, batteries, loose pens and caps, tape, rubber bands, stamps, and lighters. This thing is organized and coherent and i jave no clue what your complaint is.

My wife has serious ADHD, this is every drawer.

I do not have that drawer. Mine is at least twice as full.

Sorry to say, your wife is right. Sorry to say, even if she is wrong she is right.

My life is this drawer.

Junk drawer. Yes, everyone has one.

We have a junk room. LOL.

The misc tools drawer? I have one that's overflowing. My parents have multiple drawers and cabinets of this.

Your wife is correct.

Every family has a misc. drawer. Staplers, pens, rubber bands, paper clips. Lots of office supplies usually but it often will broaden out to all kinds of random crap.

That one is not exactly what I’d expect in the misc drawer but it’s not totally out of bounds?

I am ridiculously organized and clean. I do that 5 minutes of swift pickup/wipe a few times each day.

That said, still have this drawer. There is always a collection of items that don't seem to go "together" but they're always used. That's what this drawer is for.

I don't get the stock picture though. It's an obvious arrangement of tools that haven't even been used.

Of course, everyone has this drawer. It's called a junk drawer. Where else would you put this crap. What planet are you living on?

I sort of have 3 variations of this drawer. One is fully named “the junk drawer” and contains things like rubber bands, batteries, scissors, garden snips, things that are sort of odd one out in other spots, but I feel are still relevant to my kitchen. Then I have one that is this but specifically things used on the stove and for mixing. So that puts spatulas, whisks, and such into their own mess. Finally is the “kitchen gadgets” drawer which looks very similar to yours. No organizer tray because everything is odd shapes, but also honestly sees little enough use I don’t really mind digging through it.

Hate to say it, but just about everyone I know has a junk drawer, myself included. Same as you with the other drawers, organized to the max, but the junk drawer will always be the junk drawer.

We've got 2

3d printed some Gridfinity stuff and fixed a couple of these drawers. The rest are under way.

Yep, I have a 'random shit' drawer too

Definitely got one of those.

Families only have one drawer like this?? How do they manage?

Every family has at least one packing drawer of course!

Team junk drawer. Where else do you keep your used batteries?

I have one of the drawers and I'd consider myself organized. I try to keep it organized with one of these rather large Ikea Stodja drawer organizers. I used to use silverware organizers but stumbled upon this thing, 14"x20". They come in other shapes and sizes too but is a lot handier than using a regular silverware organizer because the compartments are pretty large.

Pens and notepads/post-it notes in one, batteries and an Eneloop wall charger in another, hair ties/lip gloss/rubber bands in another, big compartment holds a roll of packing tape and various other tapes, and another slot has a couple pairs of scissors.

I'd recommend getting a larger organizer just so you can compartmentalize larger things together, something a silverware organizer usually can't accomplish

I had way too many of these drawers 🫠

Yes, embrace the drawer

You guys can open THE drawer?!

In reality you live in a junk drawer cozy. Just support the junk drawer and everything will probably be OK.

I have this drawer.

It's not a junk drawer.

It's an irregular kitchen items drawer.

It's just the cost of being someone who actually uses their kitchen. We have the garlic press, scissors, pizza cutter, bench scrapers, microplaners, thermometers, etc... in there. All useful things that fit poorly with other things, so they get a drawer all to themselves.

The junk drawer with batteries and twist ties is another drawer.

The only surprise is that your family didn't have this drawer, apparently?

Why is it on the top. It should be second or third.

I have accessory drawers, but they have organizers in them and I never put sharp things just randomly strewn i n a drawer. I have some baskets with random stuff in them for like extra cotton balls, the other of a 2 pack of soap, and stuff like that which could be considered "junk drawers", but none of it is junk really. And I do have in my basement workbench a drawer that has random leftover parts from projects like screen spline, insulation spools, etc. That could definitely be called a junk drawer, but non of that is dangerous to reach in and grab, nor will any of the items damage each other when fumbling through them.

I live alone and have this drawer.

You have the OCD strain of autism and so do your parents.

Wife is always right

Not only do we have the "one", we each have one in our own space as well.

Only if you have extra drawer space to waste. Most beneficial would be to give a dedicated space to the scale

Yeah, we have this drawer. There are always going to be some tools you use in the kitchen enough to justify the purchase but not enough to be in any of the daily driver drawers. Honestly, this is not bad, we have a drawer that is the awkward necessary crap drawer for the awkward necessary crap drawer.

Attempt at organizing said drawer of ours

Not in my house: We have like, 4 or 5 of that drawer. Between me and my wife we have a shitload of kitchen gadgets and accessories.

I have no drawers that are not this drawer.

Every family has this drawer

What do you mean? This is organized! And I have such a drawer too. This is the collection of slightly large kitchen tools that are not large enough to place them in the cupboard.

Whether every family has this drawer or not, I wouldn't know, so I'm not very helpful with settling your argument. I'd bet, every family has this drawer though. Because everyone must have those kinds of utensils, and there's no other logical place to store them. Some people hang some of them on the wall, but even then, there are some that cannot be hung on the wall. Those go into this drawer.

Entropy wins.... always. You must free yourself and accept this. You cannot defeat entropy.

Every house has one. My mother with legit OCD had one... though she claimed it was a 'Miscellaneous' drawer and not a junk drawer. (To be fair, it was a well organized junk drawer at any rate.)

But yeah, your wife is right.

Yes, and as others have mentioned, the scale sits on the counter since it's delicate.

Of course I have that drawer. Why do you need a solution? What's the problem?

We have a space for that in our cutlery drawer, as well as a basket of miscellanea in a shelf where it doesn't matter if they get dusty.

Wife's right. This is an example of the pareto principle. 80% of your shit fits in 20% of the categories needed to properly organize your shit. 80% of the needed categories account for only 20% of your shit. 20% of your shit (and 80% of the needed categories) are in that drawer.

We have that drawer. Two of them in fact.

Yes, I'm pretty sure everyone has a drawer like that. One thing I'm missing (unless I'm just not looking hard enough) is scissors.

Shit not only does ever house have this drawer, every restaurant I've ever worked in has a utensil pan like this.

I don't get why it bothers you, well, maybe it's not a serious disagreement idk.

Wow. Yours looks really clean. We have two of these drawers and they're maxed out double as full.

If you don’t have this drawer you simply don’t have drawers.

We do not have that drawer. My kitchen is tiny and only has 2 drawers. As a result, our entire apartment is a mess

Every house has that drawer.

Pretty hard to avoid the drawer. Maybe find a new home for that scale (maybe sideways in a deep drawer?), throw a few rarely used tools into a ziploc bag, and introduce a caddy or two to corral the small stuff.

Dear OP, the only odd thing about your drawer is that your garlic press in in there (unless this is your backup garlic press of course). In our household, we have it in the main cutlery drawer.

BTW, we have several such drawers spread out over our home: one in the kitchen, one in the living room, one in the home office and several in the garage.

We have two of them.

Yep, we all do. Although you might be going a little far in putting the food scale in there.

its the miscellaneous drawer, its normal, we have a whole misc cabinet.

To an extent, we always had a junk drawer. Over the years it got smaller and more organized. Utinsels have an actual drawer for them all. So no pizza cutter in our junk drawer anymore. Almost everything in your picture has a spot for us.

Here's our junk drawer now.

What is the green thing with the white blades?

You could build our repurpose something like a silverware organiser, but fitted to the items in there.

But the true travesty: the scale should be easily accessible and in constant use tsk tsk

(We don't have such a drawer btw)

Looks perfectly fine. Ours is the second drawer though. Top one is for cuttlery

We have 2 drawers like that. What's the problem with it if you don't have a better place to put that shit?

Ahh. The good ole junk drawer.

I've had one in every home I've lived, even when I was the minor.

Wife says the same.

A messy drawer? There should be at least two: one for the kitchen and one for general.

We don't have one like that. Though most of our kitchen is well organized in drawers.

Not in the kitchen but I have a (very large) one for electronics and batteries and it's the worst. Tools and screws. Office supplies.

This kitchen one you could neat up a bit if it really annoys you. Put the scales in a cupboard upright against the side. Maybe get a nicer scale, that one looks naff. Trash the salad shears. What a terrible idea. Put the pizza / dough metal thingie on a wall mounted magnet for knives and stuff. Maybe put some of the other metal stuff there idk. Everything else is pretty small so you can put in dividers for that. The grater and ladle go in the same compartment.

Unless of course you think your wife should tidy up this drawer in which case you can just absolutely fuck off. Into the ocean. Die and get eaten by scavengers.

Edit: oh, that's a meat tenderiser, not a ladle. Everything else stands.

That one drawer won't look messy, if every drawer looks like this. *taps forehead *

I lack the space for a drawer like this, instead this exists as a plastic tub in the kitchen cabinet under the sink.

Yeah, everyone has such a drawer. But what is that green thing at the top? Something for baking?

The problem is not the organization or lack thereof, the problem is that someone in your household buys too many niche specialized single-purpose kitchen tools. Wtf is that thing with the green handle?

I try to donate any kitchen tool that I haven't used in a year or two.

This is true. It is the "occasional use kitchen drawer"

I also have this drawer

I do not have this drawer.

I have two of this drawer.

We have 3 of them: misc kitchen utensils and tools, misc containers, and misc stuff that does not even belong in the kitchen, but ends up there because that's the only drawers in the house that don't have clothes in them.

If you want to organize it some, you can build or buy dividers and split it up.