Alert! Alert! I'm a loser! At the very least I'm losing the battle of how to move forward on my antique hardware cabinet.
You may remember this slick looking antique hardware cabinet from last fall. I dragged it home from a flea market, cut it down to size so it would fit on this wall and then pledged to get the drawers filled up and handles switched out once Christmas was over and I had more time.
Aren't I hilarious? We're all hilarious actually. Future time is WAY more abundant than real time. Ditto for future money! We always think we're going to have more of it than we have right now. That almost never happens. O.K., it never happens, ever, I just didn't want to sound like a downer.
When Christmas rolled around and I had a week off after it, I had WAY better things to do than figure out my hardware cabinet. I have absolutely no recollection of what those things were but they definitely weren't figuring out what to put in my tiny drawers or what kind of handles I should have on it. I have a blurry memory of me alternating between sleeping and napping for a full week but that can't be right.
Every so often I try to shove something in one of these drawers. Very little fits. I bought a box of microwave popcorn thinking I could fill a couple of drawers with bags of microwave popcorn because that's the weird kind of thing I think would be fun to keep in there. That and doll heads.
But the bags of popcorn don't fit ... and this is the important part ... by about a quarter of an inch. EVERYTHING doesn't fit in these drawers by about a quarter of an inch. Each box measures 4 ¾" wide x 5 ¼" long by 5 ¼" high on the inside.
I KNOW there are things I should be keeping in here. I know these are the BEST drawers in the world for ... something. Like they're seriously perfect for holding 4" by 5" boxes. I thought for a time I'd keep my seeds in the drawers but that's dumb. I do all my planting in the basement so having my seeds upstairs doesn't seem very practical. And I like to be practical. I say that with all the confidence of someone who cooks her pizza in an outdoor wood burning oven that requires chopping wood and stoking for 3-4 hours.
AND I STILL NEED TO FIGURE OUT A GOOD SYSTEM FOR INDEXING THESE DRAWERS. We've established I have no ability to remember if I own avocados or not, I'm never going to be able to remember what is where in these drawers without some sort of a list or index.
One of the suggestions you gave the last time I was whining (about this) were to keep one drawer for alphabetized index cards. Someone else said to hang an antique clipboard on the side with everything itemized. I think that would look good actually.
As far as handles go I still don't have a clue, but I think I'll probably get something basically like what I have now only not so ugly. Just a round, worn brass knob that looks authentic. I just realized something and now I feel bad for you. I'm basically just thinking out loud putting zero thought into making this post entertaining for you. In keeping with that poorly executed writing style - I just lifted my head from the computer to the television and thought I saw a young girl with a massive black beard. Turns out she was just holding a doll with black hair in the vicinity of her face.
Back to this cabinet. I need help. Am I missing something? Is there something that I should be putting in those drawers that's painfully obvious that I haven't thought about?? Don't say spices because I don't want to have to open 34 drawers to take a look at all of my spices. I'm a spice browser so I like them all to be in one big drawer for easy eye access.
I realize not knowing what I own is likely to make this difficult for you, but I probably own the same things you do. Scissors, paper, elastic bands, a guinea pig merry-go-round, those sorts of things. I'd want to make the best use of the drawers possible which at this point is making any use of them.
As a last resort I do have one thing I can put away in all of those drawers - all of my hopes and dreams for this hardware cabinet. Just kidding, I still love it, it's beautiful. It's just a bit of an asshead.
Have a good weekend!
Lisa Wallace
In recent weeks I have great luck with reversing the question - if you are struggling to know what in your kitchen to put in the drawers, what it might mean is that the piece is in the wrong room. Does this piece need to be in a den/office, or in the workshop?
Karen
WORKSHOP???? omg no. ~ karen!
Judith
Throw a frame around it and call it art or....spend lots of time and money, not to mention frustration, in finding and fitting stuff in it. I'm also of the school that candlelight is a nice "clean house" device. That k mari e woman would have a mental breakdown between the two of us.
Maureen Gilbert
while your waiting for your money tree to grow to buy new hardware.
Have you considered painting the current knobs with a hammered black metal paint?
Al C
Cut off the faces of the drawers and make taller, wider drawers. 2 drawers wide by drawers tall. You'd have to saw the stiles between the drawers but leave the left and right stiles for the new, larger drawers. You'd turn 48 drawers into 12 larger drawers but the look would be the same. You could take the face off each drawer and glue it to the severed stiles and create a large faux drawer face that looks like 4 drawers but it's only 1 big drawer. The same idea would if you combined 3 drawers horizontally. You'd get 4 drawers per row.
karen tomlinson
I think you should rename it a pharmacy cabinet and fill it up with drugs.
Lots and Lots of drugs.
Brita
I know what you're going through! My husband just indulged himself with 288 bolt bins on his tool room wall. Then he spent two days trying to figure out how many of what sizes of nuts and bolts he has and needs and put them all in some sort of order.
Karen
oooo I'd like one of those too, lol! ~ karen
Patricia Zellen
My, my! How many excuses! Everything that would work you don't want to do. You like to browse your spices, but unless they are lined up one deep you can't see them at one go. And they maybe stored that way. Label the top of your spices , and you'll see what you have. Or if this really isn't working go back to your awesome craftsman and have him take the boxes off some of the boxes and combine to make bigger drawers with the small drawer fronts mounted on them so cabinet looks the same.
Karen
Mmm. It's more about knowing what will work for me than pouting, stamping my foot and saying I don't wanna, lol ~ karen!
NPW
I'd place the small kitchen items that kind of "interfere" with my pantry organization. I have a pantry closet which is mostly has quart and pint jars to keep things organized and accessible but the small items are a pain... bottles of extract, extra large bags of spices and seasoning, tea bags. Being able to pull the entire drawer out and take it to your work area seems like a big plus.
I've lived in my house for 20 years and half my kitchen cabinets are empty and I'm still trying to get rid of stuff that never gets used (fun fact, you can sell Le Creuset items for MORE than you paid for them, oddly enough). More headaches come from too much stuff in drawers than too little.
Good luck!
Suz
Golly, the possibilities! In my house (and i can pick up this wknd! Lol) my empty supplies for my essential oils, ink bottles and pen parts (though it would not hold the stencils), jewellery parts. Fat quarters. Staplers and other office supplies. Some stock items could go into specific sized containers, then into drawers. And we would do lunch box items like granola bars and pre packed cookies etc. In fact, lunch baggies and the cutlery for school. Perhaps measuring cups and spoons and the little stainless steel bowls from lee valley for food prep. And all the things without a home like the knife stone and the small salt and pepper set for the deck.
BTW I have the perfect wall.
Lol!
Crystal
Your cat’s toenail trimmings.
Karen
Finally a sensible answer. ~ karen!
Linda
Since it seems the stuff that fits in the drawers doesn't fit in the room, how bout changing the room? Could the cabinet work in your office? Lots of officey doo-dads have been mentioned. I would add gift wrapping supplies: spools of ribbons, gift tags, tapes etc.
Karen
Nooooooo. Nothing fits in my upstairs where my office is. Old house, narrow winding staircase. Also I really did buy the cabinet specifically for the kitchen. I'll figure it out. One day. Maybe. ~ karen!
NinaMargo
Each drawer deserves a poem, or a meditation, or a stone, a dried flower, an antique toy, something you want to have in your life. Let each drawer give you a joyful surprise that will bring a tear to your eyes, a smile to your face or a belly laugh. Add something with the perfume you wore in fifth grade, or a picture of that friend you’ve been meaning to call. Put in a picture of you and Pink Tool Belt at the antique show, you and your Mom in the kitchen. Don’t label the drawers. Change things up, so you constantly have more wonderful discoveries each day.
Catherine
Maybe what's needed is some further surgery to the upper cabinet part to combine a couple of drawers to make the resulting box size more usable. Or, combine 3 boxes to hold candle tapers. Or combine 2 or 3 drawers vertically to hold tall items. Just a thought.
In any case, the appearance of the drawer fronts wouldn't change, so you don't lose the cabinet's wonderful charm but you'd get a piece that's much better suited to its location.
SH
Combining drawers sounds possible. And if you can join two, then maybe join a square of four? Like in the first photo, the third and fourth drawers to the right of the duck (thicker vertical divider?). Plus the two above them. The external dividers would stay as is, for support. But the drawers and the dividers between them combine for one. Maybe that would work for the upper level drawers, supporting less weight. idk
Kerstin Staudal
I love love love this cabinet!!!!
You could store all your seeds in there and more. When I collect my seeds from my garden I store them in those plastic pill containers you get from the pharmazie when picking up your meds. Those little container do fit in the small drawers. Tea candles by the bulk. Crafting supplies....christmas ornaments....pet stuff.....
Christine
Leave them empty.
Georgia Girl
Face it. You don’t need that many LITTLE drawers. Combine some to make larger ones for napkins and placemats.
Try taking out the top row drawers and use the little cubbies for displaying stuff like the small white bowls sitting on the top.
And
Karen
Well, they're only 5 or so inches deep so even placemats wouldn't fit. Widening the drawers would only help a tiny amount because they're so shallow. Although it doesn't matter because I've since decided to fill every drawer with potato chips. ~ karen!
Jane Doe
Another vote for the meds. But I make my own herbal meds; decant everything into spice bottles ... so I might not be normal.
Sally
Surely it’s obvious - eggs!!
I agree with the comments about it being better to keep the drawers empty rather than accumulating more nonsense. The suggestions of butchering the drawers into larger configurations should be roundly ignored as the blasphemies that they are...
Mary W
Admit and accept it as art (gorgeous art) and forget about it's use. You don't use Margaret!