What a mess! You look into the drawers of your desk or craft area, and what do you find? It’s a mess, but it’s a creative mess. At this time of the year, when we’re inside more often than out, how can you use your junk to spawn creativity in your home?
Look in your workshop, or in the place where you put bits and pieces like nails and string. Don’t have a place like this? Make one, even if it’s just one little drawer. Your grandparents probably found this to be the most useful drawer in the house. We were blessed to inherit a lot of ancient coffee containers full of bits and pieces when we got out home, and I’ve been using these nails, screws, nuts and bolts ever since. Last year I fixed the missing piece on our expensive fold-out laundry rack using items from this drawer. Think of this as your repair-it drawer.
Then there’s the drawer near your desk. Come on, you have one too. It’s the drawer full of old pens and scraps of paper. I use this drawer to store items I want to have on hand, and I also store reams of paper that’s been used on one side. When I want to scribble a note, I always have some handy.
How about the craft junk drawer? I happen to have a few of these. Walk into the area where I keep craft supplies, and it looks neatly sorted into baskets. Hah! Take a peek in the desk drawers, and you will see cones from years gone by, baby shoes that could be made into something, and scraps of ribbon and fabric. The strange thing is, often these items do come in handy. This year’s Valentines cards were crafted from bits of scrapbooking paper and ribbon from this very drawer. It’s a great source of creativity for projects or for a rainy day.
Now, there’s also something to be said for diving into the junk drawer every so often to do a good cull. Remove pens that aren’t working, but keep some of that hodgepodge around. As long as you limit your junk drawer to a few drawers, it’s in no danger of taking over your house. It’s safely hidden away, providing hours of entertainment and fix-it fixings for your family.
Image Credit: Evelyn Giggles / C.C. by 2.0