Rummaging through the Unfolded Mess, the Staples of a Busy Home

So, James and I bought our first house four years ago and I immediately jumped into decorating it. The only room that has had a complete makeover though is the small laundry room off of my kitchen.

I thought that with new appliances, I should go ahead and paint it, build and stain my own shelves, and add some decorative pieces, because THAT would surely make me want to keep up with the laundry. Bless my heart. That lasted all of two weeks. Y'all I even bought cute matching hooks for the wall that I could hang stuff on to air dry. Truth is, the most those hooks have ever had hanging on them was a Superman cape my little nephew played with ONE time. Like many of us, I still walk into the laundry room to push start on the dryer for the 10th time to remove the wrinkles.....Again. And while I'm in there I guess I'll add more soap to the washer and rewash the clothes that have soured for the 2nd time this week. When I do finally remove the laundry from the dryer, it is carried to the bedroom and dumped into the chair.

While shopping for furniture for our new house, I happened upon this big slate blue chair with silver nail head trim on the arms. "She was so beautiful!" "What are you going to do with it Shauna?" James asked in that tone. Y'all KNOW that tone. "I'm going to put it in the corner of our bedroom to read." So, there we were purchasing the very first piece of furniture for our home. The chair did make it to the corner of our bedroom, but what it has never seen is me reading in it. In fact, the chair is hardly ever even seen!

Why, because it's the laundry chair. Many of us have that place in our home; the "I'll do it later" place. We carry that laundry in there with so much hope and enthusiasm, however, the moment we dump it, NOPE! "Heck No!" "I just lugged you in here with just my arms, and now you look like Mount Kilimanjaro." "Well, you aren't Kiliman me today!" Suppose you have a family, and you actually decide to fold it all, yet not put it away, but leave it on the chair. You will discover that you are the only one in the house that will lift each folded piece of clothing carefully to look for that particular item. Otherwise, plan on your labored work looking like the inside of a department store bag.

Recently however, the laundry chair is cleared off to create video reels for this blog by tossing the pile onto the bed, fluffing the two decorative pillows that I almost forgot I even had and then replacing the mound when I'm finished. Then again, sometimes I do manage to hang up the laundry to share a moment with my chair.

Lets discuss the other magical little space or spaces in my case that hold everything one could potentially ever need in a day. Imagine a place where items from, Target, Petsmart, Office Max, and The Home Depot all reside in harmony. Yes, I am describing and speaking of the infamous junk drawer.

If you've never seen Disney's Mary Poppins, well, there is a scene where she is pulling everything out of her enchanted bag, including a lamp when she then has that Aha, I found it moment. That's how I feel when I open my junk drawer. The bright light extends out of the drawer, and you hear the AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA of angels singing, and then you look down at the chaos in there and the song quickly changes to an AAAAAAAAAAAOOOHHhhhh DEAR GOD.

You need a screwdriver to tighten that screw on the cabinet door that has once again come loose for the 5th time this week? Look no further, the junk drawer will have it! Does your dog walking across your wood floor sound like Fred Astaire on Broadway? Dog nail clippers, the junk drawer. Did you forget to purchase candles for the birthday cake? The junk drawer. Looking for Post It notes to write on? Dude, most of us use our phones, but it's there, in the junk drawer. Or maybe, you are like my mother-in-law, and you just need a pen or pencil to jot something down on a random bill envelope laying around on the counter, the junk drawer. Heaven forbid the batteries go bad in your child's Xbox controller, but guess where, the junk drawer! Need to measure something? The junk drawer. Power goes out, the junk drawer. It can ALL be found in the junk drawer.

Now you are going to get that itch, but whatever you do, do NOT organize or straighten up the junk drawer. Because remember those folded clothes and what a family does to them? Do you really want your eye to twitch the rest of the day? No, no you don't. That tedious effort and pride you felt after making the angels sing on key again with your outstanding organizational skills, will quickly be deflated when you return to the junk drawer. Why? Because you will find it looking like the inside of a department store bag.