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

[taimatsu]

I have a Useful Drawer, as of three years ago-ish. It's the third drawer down in my desk. It contains batteries, sellotape, electrical tape, duct tape (when I have any), string (when I have any), torches, screwdrivers, small umbrellas, battery chargers, superglue, other kinds of glue, sandpaper, a sticky lint-roller, curtain hooks, a hammer, an odour neutraliser spray, a spare deodorant spray, an adjustable spanner, two lightbulbs, a bleepy keyring, bubble solution, balloons, a big four-part container of nails, matches, two pairs of secateurs, a digital kitchen timer, some Miffy stickers, an old cat-shaped keyring, some clothespegs, a metal ruler, a set of protractors and rulers and things, a tape-measure, and (temporarily) an old mobile phone and some spare SIM card packs. The Miffy stickers should actually be in the next drawer down, which is Stationery.

Knives do not live in this drawer - I have assorted Stanley knives and craft scalpels, which live, along with all my smaller pliers and various other stuff, in the 'Tools' drawer of my jewellery-making container (a set of six wooden drawers from IKEA). My binbags are also under the sink.

I have a box in the bathroom for medical stuff, of which I have quite a bit thanks to a major oversupply of dressings for my scalds from some years ago (what can I do with loads of JELONET dressings? They will be binned if I give them to a pharmacy as I believe I ought). Soap goes in the other bathroom box. Scissors OUGHT to be in the Useful Drawer but aren't.

[venta.livejournal.com]

You useful drawer does sound remarkably similar to mine in constitution. I emptied mine out last night and found all kinds of things hanging about at the bottom. Like a puncture repair kit, and lots of unused twist-closers, and spare buttons, and some shoelaces, and...

I should have added in my original post that I also have a stationery drawer, and a tool box, and they're completely different animals. Anything too carefully categorised clearly doesn't count :)