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!
Grammy
I came back again this morning to read more tips and offer a couple of new ones. I was thinking glue gun and glue sticks and extra pairs of eyeglasses/sunglasses. Beeswax and paraffin. I also was thinking you can't see in the top two rows of drawers without a step stool, so the things that go in those should be very rarely needed (bones for Halloween decorations, etc.)
Then I decided to stroll down memory lane and started looking through previous posts of your own to see if I could find your own things that should go in those drawers. I found cat claw trimmers. Labels you put on things for your freezer. Salt cellars and their spoons. Those adorable tiny dishes you used to rest eggs so they wouldn't roll in your post from March 13 of this year.
Plus, I would direct you to your posts from January 3, 2019 and January 15, 2013 (updated Sept. 25, 2015) where you showed us your before and after junk drawers. Instead of struggling to keep those organized, a lot of those small things would be better suited to the small drawers of your cabinet, freeing up the existing junk drawers for those larger items (utensils, potholders, dishcloths) that you use all the time in the kitchen.
I expect to see a post from you incorporating some or all of the very fine suggestions you've received from many commenters here. You can't make us do ALL the work for you, you know.
Daphne
All of the drawers are already filled—with possibility... with potential... you don’t have to actually put ANYTHING in them, instead it’s a cabinet for inspiration and possibility. Boom. Done.
Robyn
I have a small antique cabinet that kinda looks like 3 of your drawers stacked on top of each other. It is designed to sit on a counter. It is adorable and I had to have it. Years later, I still have nothing in it. It takes up too much counter/desk to space to b useful. I am of no help but can totally relate.
Shelagh
Unless I missed someone else suggesting this....one drawer for take out menus?
Dana Studer
It is still gorgeous empty. I agree.
We have an 18 drawer cabinet in our kitchen. It has fast food sauce packets, measuring spoons, a knife sharpener, candles, tealight candles, a box of matches, nail files, baking twine, pkts of peas bc I soak them before planting, change, and #18 is a junk drawer.
Laura
Take that baby apart and put it back together so it only looks like small drawers but is actually larger drawers!
Or buy a lifetime supply of matches, make a ton of wax wraps, get 5 packages of Hersey kisses, steal take out condiment packages, gather all your old photos no one will ever put into albums, collect chicken feathers, find that container of old keys everyone has, create “cute” holiday scenes sized to fit, stock up on batteries for remotes and smoke alarms, & shove ‘em in there.
Lianne
Cabinet of Curiousities, baby! You've already got the doll heads, the mouse in a nest - now throw in some holy relics, gemstones, feathers, shells, bird skulls, human teeth, gallstones etc. etc.
Many more ideas here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabinet_of_curiosities
Janelle
If you can’t think of what to put in them, is it possible you don’t need to put anything in them?
Kaaren Carone
Gumdrops, M&M Peanuts, a different candy in every drawer and whatever drawer you open will be a good drawer!
Sarah
I suggest you make them into mystery drawers. Fill them with an assortment of treats and items of your to do list. Every morning pick a drawer and let the day play out by the contents of the drawers. Or, same idea but with funky socks. No need to spend countless seconds picking the prefect pair socks for the day. No drawer labels necessary.
Kat
I would suggest either painting a small portion of each drawer with dry erase paint so you can label them ( stuffed mouse nest, LOL!), or you can buy small dry erase labels at craft stores and glue them on. They come in some cute shapes so it doesn't have to be boring rectangles. I think the little wavy like ones would add a little charm to the drawers without taking away from the pretty wood look. :)
Melody
Well, I have an antique hardware cabinet also, except that the drawers are on all 4 sides, so the corner drawers are triangle-shaped and so even less useful! Mine is in the room I converted to a closet, so what I have in mine probably won’t help you. However, I will tell you what’s in there in case it inspires you.
Mostly I got jewelry trays that are thin plastic covered in black “velvet” so that I could cut them to size and I have earrings, pins, etc. I realize you don’t need these in the kitchen though . . .
Small candles and air freshener refills from B&BW
Sheet face masks - these fit really well
Shampoos, etc from hotels
Hair clips, hair ties
Kinesio tape
Pencils, pens
Rubber band ball
Bandannas
Extra beauty supplies like second bottle of moisturizer, deodorant, etc
Heather
I recently discovered the joy of having empty drawers, and empty shelves and wide open spaces in walk-in closets. If that's not for you, Karen, then how about printing your favourite readers' responses and tucking them into your antique cabinet drawers for posterity? After all, they are love letters, of a sort, and nothing beats paper for that sort of thing. :)
Karen
Hmmm. I'm not sure I quite need positive reinforcement drawers yet. :) I do like empty spaces but I also like to have well organized "things" in my tiny house! ~ karen
Cindy G
I didn’t read every comment, so if these have been mentioned... Just thinking about my own kitchen...
Dishcloths
Coffee
Tea
Cocoa
Random small kitchen gadgets (although you’re not a kitchen gadget person... so scratch that)
Emergency candles with matches
Spare batteries
Extra mouse traps
Pint (or half pint) jars of dry goods that you have smaller quantities of
Bees wraps
Your linen flour cloth thing
Measuring cups & spoons
Mason jar lids & rings
Vitamins
And that’s all I can think of right now...
I have a cabinet with similar draws and they perfectly fit CDs... because I can’t get rid of them.
Karen
I do have my beeswax wraps in one of the drawers!! One of the larger ones because I have so many wraps and a lot of them are quite big. I have SOOOOO many CDS. I used to be a music television station host and would get sent CDs DAILY. I too don't have it in me to get rid of them yet I rarely if ever listen to them. Albums I listen to. CDs? Not so much. ~ karen!
Marguerite Roberts
I have a similar cabinet, much smaller than yours. I am too idle to take a photo of it and send it, but it is a splendid cabinet made of very weathered wood, and charming in every way. I don't store anything in it at all. I don't have small things. I always buy big things. Nothing that I have (and I do have many things) will ever fit into the drawers. I have put a couple of nice tiles on the top and I have plants on top. I really enjoy having this entirely useless cabinet. I just like the way it looks....useful or not. I enjoy seeing it every day.
Jo-Ann
Regarding the knobs - if they're too shiny/new looking for you, why not try ageing them? I've seen Many how-to's on the web about doing just this. Various recipes exist for taking off that fakey looking layer on the surface of the brass and getting the Actual brass (assuming that is what they are) to have that more appropriately aged patina that I think might please you more. As to what to store in the drawers? You're on your own. I'm just too irked by the fact that it's yours and not mine...I have Loads of random stuff from all categories that would fit perfectly...and not all the extra rooms you have where said stuff already happily resides. Grumble grumble.
Karen
Jealousy will get you nowhere. ;) The issue with the knobs isn't so much the colour as the fact that they're cheap and aren't even all the same size. Also some are plastic. They're just a mishmash of crud. ~ karen!
Laura Bee
Oh the things I would fill it with!
Stubby screwdrivers, Allan keys, a tape measure, short pencils, boxes of Jello, loose tea, packets of taco seasoning, onion soup mix for chip dip, chocolate, cat treats, cat nip, rocks, beach glass and so much more. I like the idea of a small clipboard or a notepad on a string for a easy find list.
I would totally build a little scene in one (or two). A miniature room or a landscape with plastic animals.
Karen
There will definitely be a few drawers reserved for people of our "special" personality type. ~ karen!
Michelle Kelley
Here's some blasphemy: have your guy that cut your cabinet make some of the little drawers into false fronts so that you actually have some large size drawers (did that visual come across?). It will still look the same from the outside, but some (not all!) would be consolidated into a more usable size. You can use little drawers for junk drawer fodder (batteries, rubber bands, twine, napkin rings, etc.) and then the bigger drawers could hold stuff like linens, utensils, specialty ingredients that aren't used often...)
Kate Hollingsworth
It could be a glorified medicine cabinet. Tampons, cotton buds, bandaids, foot cream ... all those classy things ;) xx
Karen
It *would* be fun to have someone fetch me something in the cabinet and have a drawer full of tampons pop open. ~ karen!
Vikki
Ooooo---a guinea pig merry-go-round.....Want!!!
Sorry--I got distracted.