Junk drawers are arguably universal — a quick web search and you'll find individuals from the United States to Australia sharing photos of these ubiquitous utilitarian microcosms, reveling in the realization that it's a collective indulgence. A junk drawer is, in some ways, a cultural time capsule. Found mostly in kitchens, these vessels of varying dimension serve as intimate odes to our daily lives. Some objects seem to find themselves there no matter where you live or who you are — batteries, car keys, scotch tape, and phone chargers; while others are a direct reflection of your values and interests — golf balls, undeveloped 35mm film, paintbrushes, a sonogram (true story).

Perhaps there’s something about having a junk drawer that feeds our innate desire to collect and stockpile. By dedicating a small space to satisfy the urge, we are free to walk the fine line of 'sensible materialism' if there is such a thing. A junk drawer affords the opportunity to indulge in the gratuitous act of hoarding via socially acceptable form.

I am fascinated by junk drawers — their cultural universality, historical endurance, myriad forms, and what they silently suggest about the human condition.

At the outset, my conceptual model of a junk drawer was hazy. In the simplest of terms, I understood it to be a middle ground for small random things, most designed for a specific use case, tangled together in varying degrees of disorganization.

I envisioned objects plotted on a matrix of functionality vs. frequency of interaction, with some items veering so far off the grid they were on the cusp of being discarded. There is comfort in knowing things are within arms’ reach, whether we need them or not — a psychological truth that I believe extends to human-to-human interactions as well as human-to-object.

I sought to test whether my assumptions were true, to better understand exactly what people put in their so-called junk ‘drawers’, and the myriad vessels that could be labels as such — perhaps a cabinet or a shoebox?

This catalyzed an ongoing photography study to document these spaces and visually synthesize the answers to my questions.

PROCESS

I started by contacting friends, family, neighbors, and peers at Carnegie Mellon University, asking if they had a junk drawer and if I could photograph it. However, we were in the midst of the pandemic and I quickly realized people were not comfortable with my entering their spaces to do this work, so I decided to put the creative power in their hands and had participants take the pictures themselves. I realized there was a deeper story that could be told through the way they captured their own space, and that was perhaps more interesting. Similar to the work of Nikki S. Lee in which she would give her camera to her subject, or passerby, to capture the moment.

INITIAL FINDINGS

My first significant finding was that “junk drawer” didn’t resonate with everyone. The negative connotation of the word “junk” was jarring for some, and this cohort took offense to classifying their objects in this way. While it seems to be universally true that most individuals have a space in their home or studio that meets the parameters of a “junk drawer,” the vernacular they use to identify it ranges. I needed to adjust my call to action to cater to that range more widely.

Oswego, New York, USA

“Our first [child] has a shrine in a baby box and baby #2 gets the junk drawer.”
China
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

“If you need any more let me know, I have plenty!”
Stowe, Massachusetts, USA
Collingswood, New Jersey, USA

“This is as messy as it gets. I’m pretty organized!”
Wake Forest, North Carolina, USA
Yonkers, New York, USA

“I wish I had taken these last week, I recently did a huge clean out of all my cabinets and drawers!”
Yonkers, New York, USA

“I wish I had taken these last week, I recently did a huge clean out of all my cabinets and drawers!”
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

“I’m actually in the middle of heavy cleaning…”
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

“I’m actually in the middle of heavy cleaning…”
Collingswood, New Jersey, USA

“Highly intelligent people are never organized in the conventional sense. But nothing I have is junk it’s all usable.”
Collingswood, New Jersey, USA

“Highly intelligent people are never organized in the conventional sense. But nothing I have is junk it’s all usable.”
Collingswood, New Jersey, USA

“Highly intelligent people are never organized in the conventional sense. But nothing I have is junk it’s all usable.”
Taipei, Taiwan

“I think the mask is a souvenir from a haunted house. The second photo is from a friend’s house. I can’t understand how she sleeps in this.”
Taipei, Taiwan

“I think the mask is a souvenir from a haunted house. The second photo is from a friend’s house. I can’t understand how she sleeps in this.”
Mansfield, Ohio, USA

“Two of these are my junk drawers at work. I realize they just confirm my OCD issues!”
Mansfield, Ohio, USA

“Two of these are my junk drawers at work. I realize they just confirm my OCD issues!”
Mansfield, Ohio, USA

“Two of these are my junk drawers at work. I realize they just confirm my OCD issues!”
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

“I have a very messy drawer in studio…”
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

“I have a very messy drawer in studio…”
Wyckoff, New Jersey, USA
Wyckoff, New Jersey, USA
Wyckoff, New Jersey, USA
Cape Elizabeth, Maine, USA

“I have a junk drawer in every room…”
Cape Elizabeth, Maine, USA

“I have a junk drawer in every room…”
Cape Elizabeth, Maine, USA

“I have a junk drawer in every room…”