8 Items You'll Only Find In A Southern Junk Drawer
Trash or treasure—you be the judge.
A glimpse into a Southerner’s junk drawer is peek into their very soul. It’s a secret horde with contents that communicate volumes about the folks who use it most. While junk drawers are often found in our kitchens, a quick poll of Southern Living staffers revealed that most of us have junk drawers all over the house! While we’d be scandalized to be labeled as hoarders, we’ll let you be the judge. Here are some of items most commonly stashed in our Southern junk drawers.
Related: 9 Easy Steps To A Permanently Tidy Home
Pens & Pencils
This just makes sense, right? Whether you’re jotting down a grocery list, amending a recipe in a cookbook, or penning a heartfelt birthday message, writing utensils must be on hand at all times. Sure, you could have a pencil holder on the counter, but who’s got the space for that? To be clear, of the 7 pens in the drawer, only 2 of them work.
Related: 225 Happy Birthday Wishes For Friends, Family, And Everyone In Between
Loose Batteries
It’s never a whole pack of batteries, is it? Nope, there’s always one sad AAA battery rolling around in the junk drawer. Even though most gadgets require pairs of batteries, it’s always just the one—and never the one you need. It’s like that sad sock in your top drawer, lonely and always looking for a mate.
Rubber Bands
I hoard rubber bands like I grew up in the Great Depression. It doesn’t matter what kind or color—rubber bands of all sizes are welcome in my junk drawer. But the most-coveted rubber bands are the ones from broccoli and asparagus bunches at the grocery store. Extra thick, they’re less prone to snapping, so they’re great for everything from corralling extension cords to keeping cats out of cabinets.
User Manuals
To this day, I have never read a user manual to anything, from my food processor to my InstantPot. Impatient and stubborn, I bumble through until I figure it out. Not my husband—he keeps every manual for every machine we’ve ever purchased. And do you know where they live? In my already jam-packed junk drawer! They’re about to get evicted with no notice. If you threw away the 8-track player in 1982, I’m pretty sure the manual can go, too!
Random Nails
We’re talking nails as in hammer-and-nails, not fingernails. That’s for the bathroom junk drawer. Funny enough, every Southern Living staff member reported that they had a random assortment of loose nails rolling around in their junk drawers. As our ringleader Nellah Bailey McGough says, “Well, you never know when you’re gonna need to hang a picture!”
"Well, you never know when you’re gonna need to hang a picture!"
Nellah Bailey McGough
Hot Glue Sticks
In line with the nails, hot glue sticks are another item our junk drawers have in common. One of our staffers even keeps her glue gun in there! Come to think of it, this actually makes sense. Whether you need to whip up a school project the night before it’s due (that you just found out about) or you need to fix that thing that fell off your (Easter/Fourth of July/Halloween) wreath, having hot glue at the ready is a Southerner’s first line of defense.
Birthday Candles
Once upon a time I bought a brand-new pack of birthday candles. Ever since then, I’ve been reusing them, losing them, finding them, or adopting new ones from visiting birthday cakes (after licking off the icing, of course). I apologize in advance if you decide to hold your birthday at my house; your flaming Franken-cake will look extremely unhinged, like I relied on Templeton from Charlotte’s Web to scrounge the candles from all the houses in the neighborhood. But it’s the thought that counts, right?
Related: 100 Best Birthday Cake Recipes Made For Celebrations
What’s in YOUR junk drawer? Drop us a comment and tell us the zaniest (and the most useful) things you have hiding just out of sight.
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