What your junk drawer says about you

“I know it’s a mess.”

It’s the refrain we heard from the brave women who dared to bare their soul — and junk drawer — for the benefit of Family First readers. “Don’t judge me.”

Reader, we did not.
We simply took notes.

And after this sociological exploration, if there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s that just about everyone has one, even if they don’t call it a junk drawer. Some of those drawers need to be pried open with a knife, others explode like a jack in the box, while still others are prime examples of management and organization. But no matter what they look like, it’s there, faithfully holding your dried-up pens, dead batteries, and 17 pairs of scissors.

But is it possible to live without a junk drawer? Technically yes, says Devorah Pomerantz, founder of The Organizer New York. But you may find yourself constantly on the hunt for essential items like pens, paper, and scissors.

“They have feet of their own, and they just disappear,” she says. “If you’re offended by the term junk, you can call it an essentials drawer… but I call mine a junk drawer.” (This is exactly the kind of orderly thinking that separates professional organizers from the rest of us, who are simply trying to find the phone charger.)

But what will our foray into junk drawer territory teach us? Can peeking into this most vital of drawers tell us something vital about their owners?

For answers we turn to Devorah, and Shoshana Kowalksi, an LCSW working in the field for over a decade. Shoshana notes there is no scientific basis for junk drawer psychological profiling. In her own practice, she refrains from analyzing clients and their drawers.

“In therapy, we don’t read junk drawers. We help you read yourself,” she says.

But that’s not going to stop us.

Cue the sociological experiment. What secrets does a junk drawer harbor? If a junk drawer could talk, what would it say? Armed with photos submitted by some brave and honest women, Devorah offered her expertise and Shoshana took a crack at guessing what it all means.

“Overall, these drawers are pretty good compared to what I’ve seen,” says Devorah, who took her role as seriously as a crime scene investigator.

The rest of us did not.

Disclaimer: There were no drawer-induced health emergencies resulting from this project.