“Mixed-Up Drawer”

~ Elizabeth

mixedup drawer

When I was growing up we had a place in our kitchen aptly called the “mixed-up drawer.” Anything that we couldn’t put in a predictable place ended up here. Ours wasn’t as chaotic as the one shown above. Instead it had items such as swimmer’s nose plugs, random jigsaw puzzle pieces, kids’ scissors(“quit using my sewing scissors to cut paper!!”) and cereal box tops being saved by one kid or another. When anyone couldn’t find something we were told to look in the mixed-up drawer. Failing to find it there we were given the useless advice that the lost object was “where you last put it.”

When I began blogging I read much advice about focusing a blog. It needed to be very clear when someone first encountered your writing or your photography that your blog was about something. You should be able to neatly articulate this focus in your “about” page. When I was asked to be a guest on another’s blog, I was asked to explain my blog in a few words. Tags were supposed to make it easier for new readers to find me.

I didn’t follow this advice. Nonetheless I seem to have a steady group of readers who have come along for the ride. I am grateful for every one of you, old and new, who drop in to read and often to comment. I think about many different things, some of which become a sequence of themed posts, many of which don’t. It turns out that my blog has become my own “mixed-up drawer”–a very important container for my reflections on life, past and present.

35 thoughts on ““Mixed-Up Drawer””

  1. The Irish/Australian comic Jimeon has a song about that drawer – I remember two lines from a comedy festival about 10 years ago, as it’s so true to life…

    It’s the third drawer down
    And it’s full of sh*t

    I cleaned mine out last week, there’s very little left!

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  2. I still have one of those drawers. In truth, there are two. And I don’t actually know what is in either of them.
    My blog started out as a form of ‘journal’, and then I got carried away. I wrote this about my style of blogging, a while back.

    Shotgun Blogging


    Best wishes, Pete.

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  9. When I was a kid, undershorts and bloomers were also called “drawers,” which were usually kept in a chest of drawers….which seems a bit odd, considering that “drawers” weren’t worn around the chest.

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  10. We called it the junk drawer and I still have one. Well, sort of. It’s quite an organized drawer of odds and ends so it deserves a better name.

    When I started my blog I called it ‘cats and trails and garden tales’ which still reflects what you’ll find there most of the time – my cats – my travels – my garden. But I also share whatever inspires me even if doesn’t fit neatly into one of those categories. No one is compelled to read everything. They can pick and choose as they like. Seems fair.

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  11. Its interesting that in most Western countries each home has a “junk” drawer mainly found in the kitchen!
    Life is full of “mixed up things” it’s what makes it all the more interesting! 😀
    Blessings,
    Jennifer

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  13. We have a whole room called “The Junk Room.” I’m afraid that’s what happens when you get so much crap it no longer fits inside a drawer.😎

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  15. ‘The Magicians Hat’ would sum-up your blog better. Every time I dip my hands in it, I pull out something l like! 😉

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  16. I have an ‘everything drawer’ in my kitchen. In fact, I seem to now have one in every room (there aren’t many rooms though. I can still never find anything. When my son was living in my London suburb flat (and before him, my other son, and before that my daughter back from NZ) I dropped anything that I found after a temporary disappearance into my very large everything drawer (designed for cooking pots I think). Likewise anything I didn’t want to lose. Now we have the flat back I’m finding things I’d forgotten I ever had – it’s like Christmas!

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    1. I am afraid our attic is like that. Our problem is it is too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter to climb up there. And in the lovely spring and fall weather who wants to waste time going up into the attic to sort tons of stuff.

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