What's in Your Drawers?

It's amazing how much one can accomplish with a couple of days off. None of those things, of course, are the actual things on my to-do list, but I'm making progress nonetheless. For instance, I have caught up on sleep. I should have put that on the list, so I'd have something to cross off the list! However, I am in the process of working on a big chore that has been on the to-do list the longest. I bought this cabinet several years ago. In spite of the fact that I really could not afford it and really didn't have a place for it, I knew you don't come across something like this very often.


It sat in the garage for at least a year, while I tried to figure out where I was going to put it. I eventually brought it inside. The cabinet itself was in fair shape. But when I moved it, the drawers were a lot grungier than I at first thought they were, so I cleaned the best ones and the rest were in the garage until I could get back to it.

Well, at least a year or two later (who's counting), I decided this morning that I would vacuum the drawers and bring them in once and for all. Sounds like a simple, easy job, right? Then I had shop vac issues. Should I take all 17 drawers up and down the basement steps, or just bring the shop vac up to the garage. I did the latter, and the shop vac was not as heavy as I thought, so I was moving onward and feeling optimistic.

The shop vac didn't seem to be doing a very good job. Maybe the filter needed cleaning or replacing. Yep, it was pretty dirty. (I needed another shop vac to vacuum the shop vac filter!!) Now see, this is where you might find the difference between men and women. (No offense intended toward either one) A man would have looked at that filter and seen a golden opportunity for a Home Depot trip to buy a new filter and spend another three hours in Man Land. Although I can equally spend an inordinate amount of time at a hardware store, I just cleaned the filter as best as I could and went on with the chore. But it really took way longer than what I would have liked. And it still was not sucking up the grunge to my satisfaction, not to mention the new spider webs that had formed during the months the drawers had lived in the garage. I had way better luck with a wet rag, but the rag turned black (and I mean black) with every drawer. This cabinet had spent years in an outbuilding at the place where I bought it. So this "quick" chore that I originally thought would take 30 minutes tops had now turned into an hour and a half. And only half the drawers are cleaned and in the cabinet. But I'm excited to finally get this ready to use. So many trinkets and gadgets waiting to go in those drawers.

And there is a reason why the drawers are numbered, I've discovered. They are Not interchangeable. Which makes me appreciate the fact a real person spent a lot of real time making these by hand, then probably got irritated when they tried to put them all in, thus came up with the numbers.

And I don't think it was made in China (wink).

And while I have you here, another congratulations to Gaye for being published in this book:

Great, great book. It's about collaborative projects and such. When I called Gaye to congratulate her, she didn't even know she was in it. The piece they used was from a swap some of us did on a monthly basis ten years ago (the Capolan swap). One of her pieces was in the batch submitted. Way to go, Gaye--you can get published without even trying!!