Who knew that one little dresser drawer could contain so much? A while back, I was searching for a sorting-out job that would be quick, but still give me a sense of accomplishment. I picked this small drawer.
One dresser drawer – good grief! – see how it exploded all over the place?
I hadn’t looked in this drawer in years. See it? It’s the little one in the middle… “This won’t take long,” I thought. Hah. By the way, this isn’t even all of it. I took the photo above after hauling a stack of papers to the recycle bin.
This dresser once belonged to my grandmother, so I have some emotional attachment to it. It was in my bedroom when I was growing up. In this house, it’s in a guest bedroom that Bob used to use as a closet.
“The truth is out there.”
All this Dragon Con swag tells me that the drawer did get some use since we moved here.
The Swan Vestas made me smile. I used to collect match boxes (another kind of container) and was thrilled to find some like these in the UK back when I traveled a lot on airline passes. They’re what Sherlock Holmes used, remember? I don’t know if these were mine or Bob’s. The hair clip just above looks like something my grandmother would have used. Could it have come with the dresser?
On the bright side, I did find some useful items: scissors, thread, pencils, stamps, plastic film cannisters made into salt-and-pepper shakers (well maybe not that useful). And this:
Vintage Travel Scrabble game.
My neighbor back in the 80s had one of these. We used to travel together, and I loved playing scrabble with her. I didn’t know Bob had one. It had never been opened. I almost tore into it as soon as I saw it, then thought, “But wait — would I really use it?” These days people play online. Surprise: I saw there were some vintage sets like this for sale on Amazon, listed mine for $25.00, and two days later someone bought it.
My one small drawer contained a lot of stuff and I spent way too much time looking at it. Most of it got recycled or donated, but somewhere out there someone is (happily, I hope) playing scrabble, and I have four more drawers in this dresser to save for rainy day entertainment.
Have you exploded a drawer lately?
More on the Weekly Photo Challenge: Containers
Hoarder Comes Clean 
I love the Scrabble game! I’m not surprised someone bought it, it looks practical as well as collectible. Drawers are like bottomless pits, aren’t they? I’d love to sort through ours (we only have a couple) but I know they are full of all the bits and pieces we don’t know where else to put or what to do with!
I found some full size board games in the last round of basement boxes (vintage Monopoly even — also unopened) and managed to keep those in the give-away stack. But that little travel scrabble was a big temptation. Funny though, when I sell something that fast I can’t help a fleeting thought of “maybe I priced it too low”. (when the important thing is that I found it a home)
Oooh, I would find it hard to give up board games. (Saying that, when I moved from UK to Australia I gave up half my board games…)
It’s funny, when you sell something cheaply you think you’ve overpriced it, when when you list something a bit too high and no-one shows any interest, you end up starting to want to pay people to take it off your hands! I think, as long as you price something at an amount you’re happy with, that’s the main thing. And like you say, you found the game a home! : )
I should blog the very-vintage game box I found, just to see if anyone can help identify it. I’m going to keep it until I can figure out what it is. It looks like a combination of board games in a briefcase-like case. And, you are so right on the pricing “game”.
Hahaha. The most harmless things always give you the most grief 😀 That is a lot of stuff to fit into one drawer. It’s like you discovered a treasure chest, Sandy. So many pens on the floor, I bet some of them still can be used. The other day I decided to clean out a drawer in my closet – not only was it stuffed with old clothes, it was stuffed with old make-up too. I had a great afternoon painting my face that day. In the end, I threw most of the stuff out 🙂
Yes, I never throw out a pen that works. Ah, but old make-up. I’ll bet there are shelves in my bathroom that date to the Pleistocene (well, slight exaggeration).
Kudos to you for moving toward your goal of cleaning it out and living in your spaces! And good job making a little money, too 🙂
Thanks for the encouragement… I know I overdo it sometimes on being a matchmaker for my stuff and finding it new homes.
As you know, my scrabble set featured in a previous post (http://sustainabilitysoapbox.com/2013/10/29/words-2/). The wooden tiles are really smooth and are part of the pleasure of playing the game. I can’t imagine playing online – but it sounds like you made the right decision for you. Money in your pocket feels good too – instead of clutter in a cupboard (or drawer)!
Yes, playing real scrabble is like reading a real book isn’t it? The tiles and the pages are part of it. When I found an incomplete scrabble set in the recent spate of basement boxes I thought about saving it for collage use. Right now it’s in the donation stack but I could still change my mind.
Is that like donating a jigsaw with a few pieces missing? Or are you hoping that someone else will be able to miraculously reunite the set with its missing pieces?
Oh, good point. I didn’t explain that very well did I? I’m going to give it to an artist friend if she’s interested in using them, and if not, I have another art-donation project in mind. (or on the subject of reuniting, maybe that extra ouija-planchette I found could help me find the missing pieces — cue spooky music here — or, just thought: are there scrabble-sharks who might want to keep some up their sleeves?)
I would have thought that scrabble sharks eat the missing pieces not put them up their sleeves
OK I just learned that it is card-sharps and pool-sharks (but personally, I think that pool-sharks could be misinterpreted and one could end up with something besides billiards). I do so want to put an image here but can’t figure out how… trying…
Maybe for wordsmiths it could be scrabble-rabble?
Experiment unsuccessful so here’s a link: http://www.wga.hu/html/l/la_tour/georges/1/06cheat.html
I like to think that scrabble is such a noble game that no-one is likely to cheat. This may explain why no great artworks depict scrabble cheats (whatever they be called)? http://cardshark.us/fr_art_text_1.html
CARDSHARK Online – Art History of Cheating
Thanks for the great link on cardshark/cardsharp art! I only remember seeing the Caravaggio, the De La Tour, and Balthus, maybe the Botero. I’ll bet you’re right on scrabble though, it’s too genteel to attract cheats.
(Oh dear, a vision of “Dogs Playing Poker” just flashed before my eyes)
Hello, I nominated you as a Very Inspiring Blogger in my post at http://declutterbuguk.wordpress.com/2014/07/23/very-inspiring-blogger-award-2014/ 🙂
What a pleasure — thanks so much!
I was recently in a home décor store near Memphis – they had an entire shelf of Scrabble letters and holders with a ‘per-letter’ price. The display showed wall hangings using Scrabble letters as descriptors such as “DREAM”,”LOVE”.
I love that! Thanks for telling me — Sandy
I used to love junk drawers. Now I’m downsizing so much I think I might be losing some memories.
I’m with you on that one. I have downsized a LOT more in the last couple of months. At this point when I think of something I might like to look for, I have to stop and consider whether it’s still around somewhere, or went in the garage sale, or went in a big batch of donations. I try to photograph everything meaningful before I let it go, but sometimes the little handy things get away from me.