Hoarder-in-training

Saturday was so cold and miserable, Stephen and I decided to hang around the house and just veg. I've been doing so much veg-ing (vegging? - how do you spell that) I should look like a carrot. No, turnip. Much more emblematic.

Spending one more day as a vegetable isn't SO bad, but this persistent vegetative state I've been in has produced some, well, "compost" that needs to be addressed. Piles of stuff that grow - and occasionally move - but never get smaller or disappear.

But I did find something constructive to do in the warmth and comfort of the house. One of those sneaky piles of compost inhabits a drawer in my kitchen. Perhaps you have one? We call it the "Junk Drawer", that rabbit hole of semi-useful crap that you are loathe to pitch because you'll hate yourself for needing it and not having it - someday - if you do. Not sure where to put something? Toss it in the junk drawer.

Years ago I bought a "drawer organizer", which for normal people might serve that purpose. Not hoarders-in-training. I wish I'd taken a photo of ours in its pre-cleaned state.

Here follows a partial list of what I found:
a fistful of various sized rubber bands, two tubes of shoe adhesive, three glue sticks, two tubes of super glue, three bottles of White Out (seriously, does anyone use this stuff anymore? I don't.), four multi-sided emery- boards, two Diamond Deb nail files, two nail clippers, two cigarette lighters, a tea light, three tapers, USED birthday candles, an open package of sparklers, a box of matches, two screwdrivers (both common), a zillion tacks, brads, assorted picture hanging paraphenalia, a sharpening stone, oodles of batteries in 6 different sizes, various boxes of colored leads for various mechanical pencils, erasers for said pencils, 8 permanent and not-so-permanent markers in various colors, two pairs of scissors, an assortment of magnets, cup hooks in THREE sizes, two micro-cassettes, three hose gaskets, a package of single-edge razor blades, four small boxes of staples...

I'm getting tired...

And this list begs for mention of a partridge, but I shan't make one.

After semi-organizing, throwing the obvious trash away and grouping like items on the table, I flipped the organizer over the table to empty the filth in the corners of the tray sections. And what came with the dust? Remember those nail clippers? Want to take a guess where folks in our family have been doing their nail care? Ew.

I scrubbed, sorted, pitched, regrouped and reassigned the remaining "junk" and this is how it came out. I'm pleased.

I kept the sparklers :).

I've decided that there are other piles in the house that could use the same treatment. There's a large one on the basement floor. A before and after might be kind of motivating. Hmmm...be right back!

Ok, here's my next sacrificial pile:

Might take more than a couple of hours because there's definitely more than one pile, but I'll post a photo of the finished project, hopefully by the end of the week.

I think I can I think I can I think I can...