Let's be honest - everyone has a junk drawer at home, at the office, or in your car (looking at you, little gappy space in the center console.)
Junk drawer connoisseurs know there are certain must-haves in order to be considered high-quality junk, so let's talk about it.
Reddit user Rascal-Fiats asked:
"What is something every 'junk drawer' must have in order to be considered a proper 'junk drawer'?"
My junk drawer is filled with mail and a handful of sort-of-burned-but-still-very-usable birthday candles. My family lives generationally - the back half of the year has a birthday literally every week!
The junk-drawer candles are household heros.
This Pinnacle Of Truth
to do chores GIFGiphy"The thing that prevents you from closing the drawer."
- Setthescene
"Or gets stuck so you can only open the drawer part way."
- bagpipercat
" 'We keep a funnel and a potato masher in this drawer because we think it's fun to sometimes not be able to open this drawer.' "
- knock-off-pale
"In my parents case it’s the sharpening stone we thought disappeared in 1998."
- Camp_Express
Too Important
"A screw that looks too important to throw out but you have no idea where it came from."
- ArminTanz
"Throwing that in the junk drawer is amateur hour. I have a box with a bunch of little drawers filled with those random 'too important' screws."
"Every so often I need a weird sized screw and find the perfect one, and my hoarding is vindicated."
"I also keep every Allen key that ever came with anything I had to build myself for the same reasons."
- DMala
"Mom finally got rid of the screws. Said she got tired of looking at them."
"Couple weeks later, found out it went to one of our kitchen chairs. To this day, I still haven't let her forget."
- Cool-Experience7357
"I had this screw. Finally threw it out."
"A week later found a hole on the microwave that was missing its screw. And it was the exact one I threw away."
- AxeellYoung
The Graveyard
"Assortment of single batteries."
- KyleClarkeFilms
"Dead batteries."
"You must try each one and put back when you realize they are dead."
- spytez
"Extra points if no two are the same brand."
- dpdxguy
"Must include at least one battery type you no longer use, like photo battery or round cells for your high school pocket calculator."
- Blausternchen
Keys And Karma
Keys New Home GIF by Jackée HarryGiphy"Keys for unknown locks."
- Back2Bach
"And locks without keys or missing combinations."
- Vtfla
"When we broke up, my ex gave me back a box of my stuff. What she didn't realize is she also threw in the ring of keys for different padlocked boxes in her studio (she frequently had people over and wanted to protect her supplies)."
"I was going to return them, but then I was informed that she had been sleeping with our mutual friend (she told me she "needed time to herself"), so I kept them and then liked the post she made about having to buy bolt cutters and replace like 10 different padlocks."
"Still have the keys. F*ck you, Diana."
- [Reddit]
Instructions Unclear
"Instructions for a product that either doesn’t need instructions (like a fan) or that you don’t even own anymore."
- Alive-Singer-3432
"Along with small plastic spare parts for the product that definitely aren't gathered into any identifying or organized sense."
- RissaMeh
"I have instruction for a chair in my drawer. Just a chair."
"It came premade, didn’t have to build it. No features, just a wooden chair."
"Why did it have instructions?"
- Chared_Assassin
"I still have instructions for Atari 2600 games. I haven't owned an Atari for 30 years or more."
- tearsonurcheek
A Matter Of Need
"Random chargers."
"What's that to? No one knows but we save it just in case we might need it again."
- Black_Tears524
"I guarantee if you throw it away, someone's gonna know in the next 3 days."
- Uppgreyedd
"I 'cleaned' my junk drawer."
"Four hours later I was digging through the garbage can looking for that dirty white apple cord to a first-gen iPad. I forgot a relative gave it to my kid."
"My kid definitely did not forget."
- somewhenimpossible
"When we recently moved, I found a mystery charger that we couldn't identify."
"Every electronic that needed a charger had one so we decided to toss it."
"Fast forward 2 months and my friend asks if I still have the charger for his 3ds that I had borrowed. Oops."
- Maybe_Not_The_Pope
On Chicken Wings And Cheating
"Rubber bands that are sticky or crusty/cracked from being so old."
- Nondenomnoms
"Stray rubber bands."
"I dated a girl who suspected I was cheating on her because she kept finding stray rubber bands around my apartment and thought some other woman must have used them to tie her hair and left it there."
"The problem was, I couldn't explain them either."
"Every time she would bring these things up I would have this sheepish look on my face while telling her I couldn't explain why these things kept ending up in my apartment."
"It wasn't until after we broke up and I ordered chicken one day that I went to open the box and realized the thing was held closed by a rubber band."
"Every time I would order fried chicken I would take the rubber band off and end up leaving it somewhere for her to find."
- yellow_fig_tree
"On one hand, you may have been entering 'too much fried chicken' territory."
"On the other, who ties their hair with rubber bands? Sh*t would HURT."
- ChrdeMcDnnis
This Christmas
Fresh Prince Of Bel Air Dance GIFGiphy"That random Christmas decoration that was found way too late to be packed with the rest."
- [Reddit]
"5 years ago...."
- Trinerella
"And you know this year you’ll remember to put it out for Xmas and then it can be packed away when you take everything down again, but you never see it until 3 days after you put everything away."
- bk1285
"I ended up hanging mine on the fridge because I found out it had a magnet. That was at least six years ago, even moved it onto the new fridge."
- gggggfskkk
"You are committed to the “I’ll put it away next year” lie."
- Camp_Express
Plus Or Minus?
"Flat head screwdriver."
- SuperDan523
"And I always need a Phillips head!"
- Proof-Operation-9783
"I call them plus screwdrivers, and minus screwdrivers."
"My father-in-law is a carpenter, and it drives him nuts."
- Fat_Bearded_Tax_Man
"It's always whatever screw driver you don't need at the moment."
- OdeeSS
"Long live the junk drawer screwdriver!"
"When I got married and we moved in together, one of the things I bought the weekend after (when we made our trip to get the stuff we realized we needed but didn't cross our minds before we moved in) was a junk drawer screwdriver."
"I hated leaving my toolbox in the 'main house', but I also didn't want to keep having to go into the separate, non-heated part of the house where I keep my tools."
"I very intentionally went to Sears, when they were having their shutdown sale, to get a clear handled non-combination Craftsman screwdriver. Craftsman for sentimental reasons more than anything else, as that's what my dad and both grandfathers always had."
"Sometimes you need a skinny one, and the combos are always so much fatter, so they're basically useless for things like tightening doorknob screws."
"Also the shaft -plus-handle design is about as simple and strong as a screwdriver can be made these days, but if it were to get damaged or lost or anything, it only cost me five bucks, and I've definitely got my money's worth."
"For some reason I find myself reaching for that driver more than my fancy combo drivers with much more comfortable handles."
- Alphapanc02
Now you know all my dirty junk drawer secrets, and what Reddit has to say about theirs - so it's your turn at the mic.
What junk you got floating around your junk drawer?
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Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.
