The Great Junk Drawer Cleanout

The Great Junk Drawer Cleanout

1The drawer by the back door would not close. Mom pushed it with her hip, but it bounced right back open. "That's it," she said. "Zara, Theo, today we clean out the junk drawer."

2Zara pulled the drawer all the way out and tipped it onto the dining table. Keys, cords, coupons, and pens slid across the wood. Theo grabbed a flashlight and clicked the button. Nothing happened. "This thing is useless," he groaned. "Not useless," said Mom. "It just needs new batteries."

3They made three piles: Keep, Fix, and Recycle. Zara found a bag of rechargeable batteries and popped two into the flashlight. It glowed right away. The flashlight went into the Keep pile, along with a roll of tape and a plastic ruler that was unbreakable. It bent and bent but never snapped.

4Next, Theo held up a ring of five keys. "What do these unlock?" he asked. The keys were unlabeled, so nobody knew. Mom tried each one in the shed door and the mailbox. Two keys opened the shed. The other three stayed a mystery, so Theo dropped them into a jar marked Unknown.

5At the very bottom, Zara found a knot of old phone chargers. It took ten minutes to untangle them. One cord was frayed, with thin wires poking out. "That one is unsafe," Mom said, and it went into the Recycle pile. Then Theo found the toaster's instruction booklet, which had been misplaced since spring. Mom laughed and put it in the Keep pile. Theo also found a cabinet knob that needed to be reattached and a refillable pen that had run out of ink. Those went into the Fix pile.

6When they were done, the drawer slid shut with a soft click. Small boxes held everything in neat rows. "This is unbelievable," Theo said. "I can actually find things now." Mom smiled. "Then let's make a rule," she said. "No more tossing things in here carelessly." Zara and Theo agreed, and they all shook on it.