July 7, 2007

Junk Drawer






It is reasonable to assume that contents of my junk drawer may not pique the interest of many. Even this highly edited selection of junk may generate apathy. I'm not a fool. I do not flatter myself that others are truly anticipating my cleverly arranged junk; but I thoroughly enjoy my junk, & hope to convince someone else of its merits. Don't most packrats* like their own junk? Don't most packrats keep things because of perceived value - - or hypothetical value? I have featured dubious collections before, & while it's true that I was not bombarded with comments on my box collection, grouped together they made a pretty picture. The sight of those little boxes stacked one on top of another made me smile. (On an interesting side note, four of my boxes are very small; all approximately 1.5" square. These tiny boxes offer the extra appeal of all things mini. Most packrats are intuitively drawn toward 'mini'.) There was one comment on my box collection. A friend remarked in a bemused way; 'I never thought about how one accrues items like that...I never thought to call that sort of thing a collection.' I smiled and handed her a small gift packaged in one of my boxes (one of my lesser-favorites; in the wrong hands it would no doubt be regarded as garbage). Often it's better to say nothing.


*packrat
noun
1. A collector of miscellaneous useless objects
2. Any of several bushy-tailed rodents of the genus Neotoma of western North America; hoards food and other objects.


There will always be more to say on the positive effects of sorting, grouping, ordering, itemizing, classifying, cataloguing.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

A friend was here and wanted some tape and I told her to look in a drawer and pointed to a junk drawer in the side board. She found the tape but continued to root around in the drawer with great interest.
Funny how small objects in drawers can be so intriguing. Especially other peoples.

Fun is always in style. said...

my grandmother had the best junk drawer & (costume) jewelry box. I remember trying to restrain myself from asking to paw through all of her stuff.