Ten, ten, ten, ten for everything everything everything everything

[venta]

Recently, someone I was talking to (I forget who) made disparaging comments about someone having a "bloke drawer". I assumed that this was going to refer to, for example, a drawerful of porn. It didn't.

No, they went on, a bloke drawer contains things like spare batteries, and screwdrivers, and string.

I paused, baffled.

What? You mean there are people (of any gender) who don't have at least one drawer like that? Crazy!

The bottom drawer of my desk, which doesn't particularly have a name, contains all those things, plus various oddments of padlocks, elastic bands, scissors, paper clips, gaffer tape, electrical tape, screws... y'know. Useful stuff. It should contain a pair of "81s" (long-nosed pliers, surely the most useful thing ever invented) except my pair has gone missing somewhere. Perhaps they eloped with my Stanley knife, which is also AWOL.

At my parents' house, there is a drawer which fulfills this function which is known as The Everything Drawer. When my parents replaced their dining room furniture, the burning question of the moment was which of the newly-arrived drawers was going to take on the function of being The Everything Drawer. If you need a piece of string or a paper clip, it's that one over there, under the stereo, on the left.

Obviously it doesn't really contain everything - there are many useful things which will not conveniently fit into a drawer, for a start. Like power tools (in the shed), old newspapers (cupboard under the sink) or binbags (cupboard under the stairs). But any thing which is suitably useful, and suitably small, and doesn't seem to have an obvious other home goes into The Everything Drawer.

Do you have a designated location for such small and useful everyday items? Does the location have a name?

Comments

[ringbark.livejournal.com]

We have one, it's called "the second drawer down". Now, this name may not seem anything more than descriptive, because in one house, possibly the one we first lived in after we married, it was indeed the second drawer down.
However, in each place since then, it has kept the name, even though the location of the junk drawer does not fit the name any longer.
Similarly, before we were married, Viv was at my parents' house when something was mentioned, and Viv was told she could get one from the orange dresser in the morning room. She returned, unable to identify the orange dresser. It was, of course, painted white. It had been orange once, so that was its name. Just painting something white doesn't change its name, does it? I mean, I'm still Ian whether I'm wearing a hat or not.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Indeed, things in our house accrue names and don't necessarily lose them when they cease to be appropriate. See also pubs, shops, and people who change their name on marriage.

When I was at junior school, a teacher (perhaps doing a sly social survey) enquired of everyone what their household called the room in which one sits about. Various people answered living room, lounge, front room, etc. I answered "dining room", and was sharply reprimanded that that was a room where you ate, not where you sat about.

I was most aggrieved. The room in our house (containing a dining table and some easy chairs), in which we spent most time, was (and still is) known as the dining room.