junk drawer challenge 2008!

if you're anything like me, you have one of these:

yeah, that WAS my junk drawer.  it's ridiculous.  it was getting to the point where you couldn't even close it.  instead of the "junk drawer" i think it should really be called the "don't know what to do with it or too lazy to put it where it really goes drawer".  so i decided to document exactly how ridiculous it really was.

this is all the stuff laid out on the kitchen counter:

so what is all this stuff?

   here we have a dozen or so rubber bands and used twisty ties, a stamp pad from a hand/foot print kit we got when micah was born, 4 used birthday candles, and a pack of spare buttons from some pants.

  a bunch of batteries and a bunch of cord-type things. instruction booklets and a bunch of writing utensils... although upon closer examination, the red one in the middle is actually a tinker toy! a bunch of the little packages of 'hardware' that comes with stuff - notice the one that says 'important', a pack of pea seeds from last summer, and 2 wedding favors of wildflower seeds from a wedding we went to a year and a half ago.    some of the little wrenches you get in 'do-it-yourself' furniture kits and a pile of random keychains.        the hook off the top of our fire pit, some chain for hanging baskets, some hooks, and a random piece of hardware that i don't recognize.  2 tubes of nail hole filler (because one wouldn't be enough), the end of a roll of plastic tape used for painting, and a highlighter in some sort of calibrated plastic tube - yes, that's how it was in the drawer. an assortment of 'household fasteners' in and out of a package, a drill bit, 2 screwdrivers and a wrench. a valentine's day card, a work order from comcast dated august 07, 3 sonics tickets from a year ago, the card from a cub scout award patch, my rhogam id card from my shot in the butt while pregnant w/ micah, some documents having to do w/ our car loan, a box of checks, and an old used up checkbook.                                    random crap: a belt for our old vacuum, 2 balls of hemp twine, a refill for a plug-in air freshener and a glow in the dark keychain thing. office supplies: a ruler, a staple remover, some binder clips, paper clips in and out of the box, a safety pin and 2 thumbtacks. some masking tape, some SCOTCH tape, a glue stick, a roll of film, and our old cell phones, plus, a bungee cord, a penny, part of a child safety lock, a space link, stickers from the little tapes we put in our video camera and a kid mirror for the car w/out the attachment part.                                                 some mangled sheets of mr. yuk stickers, and some patch kits for air mattresses and pool toys, plus an air pump and 2 needles. a bunch of little christmas light extras that come in EVERY package you buy, my big wallet that i don't use currently, and the case for dave's manicure set stuffed with crayons (what else would you expect).                                  and last, but not least, GARBAGE!!! empty battery packages, empty birthday candle package, something else i don't recognize, and a dirty, not sticky pack of post it's w/ like 2 sheets left.

so.... i tossed a ton of stuff, put away some more stuff, bagged up some other stuff, filed some stuff, and tossed even more stuff.  and NOW, it looks like this!                                           and just to prove that i really did it, here's my kitchen counter now:                     SO, do you have a drawer that looks like this? if so, i challenge you to tackle it!  and take pictures to prove it.  seriously, it can't be any more ridiculous than mine.  it didn't take that long and taking pictures of all the random crap was pretty fun.