Junk Drawer

I like old, vintage windows like these, because I like vintage homes. Even though they can be drafty, and sometimes rattle in the wind like a haunted house, old windows just go well with the vintage-ness of an old house or apartment. My old bedroom window was not very well insulated, and it used to get all foggy, and even icy. Now I have new, well-sealed windows, and it makes things warmer, but I kind of miss the old ones in some ways. I wonder if removing old windows takes away something from a vintage house. If these windows were original to the house, it’s like throwing a part of the house away. I suppose if it were an issue of coldness, I would have replaced the windows too. But I would have saved one, at least, to remember what they were like.

I used to think it was a bit strange to see drawers thrown away with no cabinets, or anything for the drawers to fit into. But it seems I see more and more lonely drawers hanging out in alleys with no place to go. I assume these are all older built-ins that have been discarding during remodeling. I can only guess that new cabinets and/or drawers were put in, while the old ones were removed. These particular drawers, however, didn’t appear to have any age or wear to them. They were white and bright, and lying in a pile, with a cabinet on top. Maybe somebody ordered so many drawers to have built into a room that they didn’t all fit, so there were leftovers. Maybe somebody moved in who really disliked drawers, and just took them out and tossed them. A person like that wouldn’t care for junk drawers either. It’s hard to imagine such a person. The nice thing about drawers is that they conceal things very easily, and they can be as neat and organized, or as disorganized as you want. You can designate a drawer for specific things, or nothing specific at all. Drawers are often cleaned out, like when you clean your desk, but drawers themselves are not usually thrown away. These lost drawers have no place to be. If only there were a larger drawer to store them in.

The end of summer in the city is also the end of many leases for apartments, condos, and houses. This is a transitional period, when many people move, and their stuff moves with them. Some stuff, however, gets left behind. Whatever doesn’t get Craigslisted, yard saled, or donated, often gets thrown away. Alleys are filled this time of year. One find stood out, simply because there were three pieces of furniture together. Each item appeared to represent a different room. I could just imagine what someone’s residence had looked like. I didn’t take any of these, but I had to stop and look. It was like part of their home was now part of the landscape of the alley.

Every week a new find will be featured on Junk Drawer.
The find will be some random object that doesn’t quite seem to have a place to belong.
It might actually be some item from a junk drawer, but it could also be an object of interest from a garage sale, a thrift store, down an alley, or in some box of stuff at the back of the closet.
These finds won’t all be things I’ll take home, nor will they be things that could even fit into a junk drawer. They will be various odds and ends of the type most likely to be found in some grand, virtual junk drawer—a drawer compiled of finds both large and small, from places near and far. And only one, every seven days, will be featured as the Junk Drawer Find of the Week.