It’s in The Drawer

Every house has one.  It’s usually just referred to as The Drawer.  

Sometimes it’s called The Bottom Drawer, or The Kitchen Drawer because it is always the drawer at the bottom and it’s always in the kitchen.  

But eventually it’s just shortened to The Drawer.

It’s where everything else goes.  The things that aren’t cutlery, they don’t fit in with the larger utensils, they’re not linen.  They’re just, well, everything else.

The Drawer always starts off life very neat.  You move into a new kitchen, and it collects just a few odds and ends that haven’t found a home anywhere else yet, so (just for now) they can sit in there.

Then you have a tidy-up before someone visits, you end up with a handful of things that actually all have a place, but you don’t have the time to put them all away.  So (just for now) into The Drawer goes a couple of pegs, a battery, worming tablets for the cat, a notepad, and a real estate magnet that came in the post and might be handy one day.

Cellotape is always found in The Drawer.  But only when you don’t need it.  If you do need it, it’s nowhere to be seen.

There are bound to be a few drawing pins in there, the ones that go right under your nail when you shove your hand under everything else to try to find the measuring tape or the superglue or a spare envelope.

There are headphones with the spongy earpieces missing, tangled up with at least one charger.  Usually you don’t even know what the charger is for.  But you keep it. 

A few sets of keys are kept in The Drawer.  Cousins to the charger, you’re not sure what they’re for either.  But you can’t throw them out. 

There are pens in The Drawer that haven’t worked for years.  Some have leaked ink onto the laminate.

All user manuals, guarantees, warrantees, receipts and instructions for all the house’s small appliances are in The Drawer.  Along with that funny little metal tool that came with the dryer.  Or was it the washing machine?

There might be a deck of cards in there.  A small screwdriver.  Coasters, foreign coins, elastic bands, a chopstick.  

All of this so that whenever you’re asked if you know where the <insert commonly used object> is, you can say…

“It’s in The Drawer.”