Hello dollies…thanks for joining me for this month’s Where Bloggers Live 11.2021: One Woman’s Junque. This month’s edition has us digging around in our drawers…junk drawers, that is. Welcome back to those of you who stop by regularly for a few minutes here with me. And for those who are new, the Where Bloggers Live series is kind of like HGTV’s “Celebrities at Home,” but…with bloggers!
These posts have been some of my most popular. And they are fun to write!! Last month’s episode had us sharing some of our favorite music. If you missed my post, you can check it out, here. At the time, I was having a world of technology problems that had me singing the blues.
WHERE BLOGGERS LIVE 11.2021: One Woman’s Junque…
is another woman’s treasure. When I started preparing for this post, I thought I only had one junk or junque drawer to share. But au contraire mon amis. Turns out I have four!! Not sure how that happened. We had one little one and I guess we outgrew it.
Rather than getting rid of all the junque, I just moved it all into a larger drawer. Then that spilled over to the drawer beside it. So then there were two.
Somehow PC’s man junque migrated back into the original little drawer. And now there were three.
Had to have some place to put the unused fridge magnets, shish-kabob skewers, corkscrews. Naturally, they couldn’t go in the drawer with PC’s headphones and flashlights and never used scientific calculator. So a fourth junk drawer was born. Thankfully, we are out of drawers so I think we will hold steady at four.
Have I piqued your interest? Would you like a peek at the assortment of junque in my junk drawers? Step this way…
All the Right Junque in All the Right Places
To quote Meghan Trainor’s hit song “All About That Bass,” I’d like to think I have all the right junque in all right places!! See what you think.
Official Junk Drawer
This would be our official junk drawer. The one that if PC were looking for a pen and I told him to look in the junk drawer, he would know which drawer I meant.
See anything familiar that might also be found in your junk drawer? Anyone else still have a checkbook? We rarely write checks. Probably fewer than a dozen a year but sometimes paying by check is necessary.
How about all those writing implements? We aim to please…pencils, pens and markers – permanent and water-based. Wonder how many of them don’t write. When I need a pen, I will grab one from this drawer. If it doesn’t work, I will return it to the drawer and try a second one. I keep on doing that til I find one that works. No wonder so many of them don’t!! I just keep putting them back in the drawer whether they write or not.
I keep crayons in this drawer for the grands. But have more crayons, markers, colored pencils and paints in my loft for serious art projects.
Kitty Collars
Perhaps the must unusual junque in this junk drawer are Purrsimmony and Purrsnickitty’s collars. We should probably try putting them on the kitties again. But in the past, they have gotten them caught on things and almost hanged themselves. Of course, the collars and Home Again and rabies tags aren’t going to do the ‘girls’ a bit of good in the drawer if they get lost!!
Assistant Junk Drawer
The assistant junk drawer resides beside the official junk drawer and is available for spill-overage from the official junk drawer.
It houses batteries, my 2 glue guns, assorted portable music paraphernalia (which I just learned to spell) like my iPod, and magnetized notepads that I will put on the fridge when its current pad runs out of paper.
Apparently, this is where my eye glasses and cases have been hanging out. Removed them and put them in the car so I can see to drive.
Most unusual thing in this drawer. It’s a toss up.
I had no idea what that black tube thing was with it’s nice case and hand strap. Turns out it’s a ‘telescope’ – that according to PC. I tried to use it and it made everything appear much smaller and farther away. So maybe it’s the opposite of a telescope. Anyone know what that’s called? And what it is used for?
How ’bout that green thing? Know what that is? It is a mask holder-on-er. You fasten the elastic ear straps on your mask onto this instead and it saves your ears from developing blisters and calluses from where the straps rub you raw. Will this virus ever, ever go away?
And then there’s that handy dandy brush/mirror combo. It folds. Need to put it in my purse.
Former Official Junk Drawer
Apparently, I misspoke. PC thinks the drawer below is the junk drawer. Unless he is looking for a pen, pencil or marker. When I asked him to point to the junk drawer, he pointed to this one.
It is full of manly man stuff like duck tape…or is it duct tape. I’m not a man, so I don’t know these things. Blistex…male lip gloss. Home security alarm sensors that don’t work. Two heavy duty flashlights for which we have no batteries. And a rubber banded wad of phone cords. That black rectangle holds a phone and then you wrap the band around your upper arm so you can listen to music when you work out. Isn’t that what headphones are for?
That black semi-circular thing at the top of the photo? Headphones case.
Most unusual thing in this drawer. Another toss up.
Fishing lures but we don’t fish. And where did the one that’s missing from the package go?
Then there’s that black USB deal. Guess what that is? It is a Zepp. And what is a Zepp, you might ask? Not sure how to explain it…some kind of device that was supposed to help PC play baseball better. Bet it works real well buried in the junk drawer.
Junk Drawer That Really Isn’t
Thank goodness we don’t have any more empty drawers in the kitchen. With the drawer below filled, they are now all spoken for. This is the junk drawer that really isn’t. Or the junk drawer wannabe. You have your cork screws, manual can/bottle opener, a nut cracker, a very old box of matches, my rubber band collection. Underneath that blue cloud-shaped thing are your run of the mill shish ka-bob skewers and some copal incense that I burn only on dia de los muertos.
Just had a thought. Could the proximity of the incense to the skewers make our shish ka-bobs taste like incense?
Most unusual item in this drawer. Again we have two. Two devices for opening jars. I only think to use them when: A) knocking the edge of the lid of the jar on the counter doesn’t work or B) when PC isn’t home. Wonder if they smell and taste like incense?
Soooo, is that junk drawer overload? Do you think I could somehow combine everything into one drawer? But what would I put in the other 3 drawers?
YOUR TURN
How many junk drawers do you have? Are they (all) in your kitchen? What kinds of junque have you in your drawers? Want to invite you to stop by to checkout the junk drawers of my Where Bloggers Live friends. The librarian in me thinks we should create a Venn diagram to show the items that are unique and common to our drawers.
Daenel at Living Outside the Stacks
Bettye at Fashion Schlub
Em at Dust and Doghair
Leslie at Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After
Iris at Iris’ Original Ramblings
Jodie at Jodie’s Touch of Style
As always, thank you for spending a few minutes of your day here with me. One more edition of Where Bloggers Live and then 2021 will be a wrap. But we have an exciting year of posts planned for 2022, thanks to our fearless leader, Bettye.
We have had a very busy day. Spent the afternoon with Cia who was out of school for Veteran’s Day. Then picked up Cami and took the two of them to the park before taking them both home for dinner. We have both collapsed tonight!!
Have a great weekend, my friends!!
Hugs and kisses,
Deb
Why are your junk drawers so much tidier than mine?! Oh goodness, I would be ashamed to share pictures of mine – maybe I need to put an afternoon aside and get to grips with them. Or maybe I could have a cup of coffee and a biscuit and think about tidying them …
Nancy
What I love about shorter days , is that you can take a peek at other peoples homes! Inside that is. So I love these series! You are so organised! Enjoy your weekend!
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Thank you so much for the kind compliment. I think I am organized because of my years being a librarian. Or vice versa!!
Juhli
Those are not what I envision when I think of a junk drawer lol. So organized and categorized. Nice use of space.
Karen Kasberg
Oh the dreaded junk drawers! You’ve done a great job of organizing, which I need to do. I currently have 2 junk drawers; one with paper, pens/pencils etc., the other with anything but paper pens/pencils lol. I try to keep them organized, but when little hands get in there things are no longer organized. Once or twice a year I will go through and edit out what we really don’t need/use.
Thanks for the inspiration!
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Aren’t junk drawers interesting? Love that you have 2. I feel better about having 4!!
Iris Smale
Okay, your junk drawers are WAAAAY to organized. I have at least one junk drawer in every room – and they all look pretty much the same when opened – total confusion.
Iris
Leslie Roberts Clingan
The librarian in me makes me want to organize. I spent all night Sunday organize a silly Pinterest board.
Bettye L Rainwater
Oh my! These are the neatest junk drawers I’ve ever seen, Leslie! I hardly think they can be called “junk” drawers…they’re just DRAWERS. Neatly organized accouterments of life storage drawers.
Two thumbs up to you!
Bettye
https://fashionschlub.com
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Thank you, sweet friend.
Lisa Elliott
As I grabbed a sticky note from one junk drawer this morning, I thought to myself — I have to clean these out soon!!!! We, too, have 3 junk drawers but I didn’t realize it until just this moment! hahaha!
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Well done on having 3 junk drawers. I don’t feel so badly about my 4!!
jodie filogomo
I laughed that you name them. The official one and assistant one, etc!! Who knew that they reproduced??
I have a jar opener attached under the counter (https://amzn.to/3quugqN) because even those accessories don’t always help, haha!!!
Love that you pulled out the most unusual object too Leslie!!!
OXOX
Jodie
http://www.jtouchofstyle.com
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Need to check out that jar opener. There are stubborn jars these days that even PC struggles with. Thanks for the link.
Lisa
Your post inspired me! I’m not a blogging celebrity but thought I would share my link here for the reorganization of three of my junk drawers. https://lisa-musingsofamiddle-agedmom.blogspot.com/2021/11/where-bloggers-live-junk-drawers.html
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Ha!! I am not celebrity either!! Heading over to check out your junk drawers now.
Marsha Banks
Hold on, Leslie! What were you doing in my kitchen? Actually, your junque (love the spelling!) drawers are a bit neater than mine. Nigel has his own and I don’t touch it (because I’d just want to upend it over the trash can). It also contains a couple of scientific calculators and goodness only knows what! Unlike PC, Nigel can never find anything in a junque drawer (because he knows I’ll come get it for him)! Loved, loved, loved this post!!!
https://marshainthemiddle.com
Leslie Roberts Clingan
LOL our guys and their scientific calculators. Just happy not to find a slide rule in PC’s junk drawer. Thank you so much for coming by and leaving such fun comments.
Joanne
I have that same multi grooved jar opener and so far every single time I have attempted to use it (which admittedly isn’t all that often) it is a jar that is larger than the largest hole and I can’t use it anyway! I went through our drawers last year and got rid of our junk drawer– though now we have a hard time finding some of the things that we used to store there that I put “in a better place” and can’t remember where that is…
Leslie Roberts Clingan
LOL you make me laugh. I never seem able to totally do away with our junk drawer. And now we have 4. Yikes.
Daenel T.
Your junk drawers are so incredibly organized. I mean, it’s wrong to call them “junk drawers”.
Our junk drawers have spilled over as well but I can’t get it open easily, so I just ignore it. LOL
Carrie @ Curly Crafty Mom
We have motion activated food bowls for each of our cats, because one is diabetic and one has kidney disease… so, they each have their own special food. So, their collars activate their food bowl to open. I do worry about them getting their collar stuck on something!! I need to do a deep clean of all of my kitchen drawers so bad! So cluttered!
Carrie
curlycraftymom.com
em
“man junque”. I am SO stealing this phrase. Hilarious!
I am both terribly impressed and horribly disappointed in your drawers, Leslie.
Impressed, because those are the most organized junk drawers I have EVER seen!
Disappointed, because those are the most organized junk drawers I have EVER seen!
I am really going to have to learn to throw out more things. I admit that I’m getting better at it, and at least trying to give everything an actual “spot.” The trouble is, I guess, that we have more things than spots, haha. And… I am likely a leopard that will never change mine.
I just think that I will always have a use for most things I come across…and nearly EVERY time I finally do throw something out (after years of holding onto it “just in case”), that’s when I would have needed it! It’s a crazy phenomenon for me.
Well, thank you for the inspiration… I have a bathroom vanity that needs the Leslie treatment!
Leslie Roberts Clingan
You are the cutest thing. Have fun with man junque!! I probably rub some people the wrong way with that…but it was almost perfectly innocent.
I need to get in my closet and get rid of stuff. We were going to do it today. But the NFL called and we had to cheer our fantasy football teams on.
Veronica Lee
WOW! Your junk drawers are immaculately organized!
My non-junk drawers look nothing like yours!
Natasha
When I first started this post, I thought I didn’t have any junk drawers but, now that you’ve described yours, we have five. Yours are very highly organized and I really think only one actually counts as a “junk drawer.” Also, why are you so funny?!?!?! I laughed out loud about five times reading this!!! 🙂
Leslie Roberts Clingan
You don’t know how much I needed to hear those kind words from you today. Have been really struggling this week with worries over my mama. Thank you for the cheerful, sweet message. I probably have a couple more junque drawers, truth be known, but didn’t want to brag!!
Laura Bambrick
Well that is interesting! I have to say they all look pretty organized! Some of my drawers are full of papers that my kids won’t let me toss so they get very full after a while.
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Ha!! Lucia wants Lauren to keep all of her school work and drawings too. They are drowning in paper.