13 Things We All Stashed in Junk Drawers During the ’70s
Every ’70s home had a chaotic drawer brimming with eclectic keepsakes, a treasure trove of everyday life. Overflowing with quirky odds and ends, these stashes were more than clutter.
They were vibrant snapshots of the groovy era, capturing its spirit better than any history book. Let’s dig into the nostalgic bits and bobs that defined our catchall drawers in the age of disco.
1. Disco-Era Mood Rings
Color-changing mood rings ruled supreme in every respectable junk drawer. These psychedelic accessories claimed to reveal your inner emotions through mystical color shifts, though they mostly just responded to body temperature.
Mine always showed blue when I was nervous about asking Cindy Thompson to dance at the school social. The cheap ones would stain your finger green within days, but we wore that discoloration like a badge of honor in 1975!
2. Rabbit Ear TV Antenna Tinfoil
Shiny aluminum foil scraps became household heroes when wrapped around rabbit ear antennas. These magical metallic additions somehow transformed snowy television screens into almost-watchable broadcasts with just the right crinkle and positioning.
Family arguments erupted over who would stand as the human antenna during important shows. The sacred art of antenna adjustment required patience, precision, and occasionally balancing on one foot while touching the ceiling.
3. Avocado Green Twist Ties
Remember those twisty wire strips covered in paper? The ’70s kitchen drawer wasn’t complete without a tangled nest of these bread-bag closures in harvest gold and avocado green hues.
Growing up, my mom treated these like precious commodities. “Don’t throw that away!” she’d screech whenever I tried discarding one. By 1979, our family had accumulated enough twist ties to circle our ranch-style house twice – not that we ever needed that many!
4. 8-Track Tape Repair Kits
When your Bee Gees 8-track suddenly went silent mid-disco groove, these tiny saviors jumped into action. The kits contained mysterious adhesive strips, miniature screwdrivers, and splicing tape that promised to resurrect your favorite tunes.
Success rates varied wildly. Sometimes you’d fix the tape perfectly; other times you’d end up with “Stayin’ Alive” playing at half-speed or backwards. Still, we treasured these repair kits like they contained the secrets of the universe.
5. Fondue Fork Collection
Colorful plastic-tipped fondue forks lurked in drawers long after the actual fondue pot disappeared into garage sale oblivion. Each family member had their assigned color for dipping bread into bubbling cheese or strawberries into chocolate.
Nobody could bear to throw these away despite using them exactly twice. The pointed metal implements eventually found new life as impromptu back-scratchers, makeshift toy weapons, or emergency kebab skewers during summer barbecues.
6. Macramé String Remnants
Jute, hemp, and cotton cords from abandoned plant hanger projects accumulated faster than pet rocks. These stringy leftovers tangled around everything else in the drawer, creating an impenetrable fiber web that caught unsuspecting fingers.
My aunt Sheila was the macramé queen of Cincinnati. When she visited in ’76, she taught me to tie basic knots. I still have the half-finished owl wall hanging somewhere, but the extra cords lived in our junk drawer until well into the Reagan administration!
7. Pull Tabs from Tab-Top Cans
Before pop-tops stayed attached to cans, we collected those detachable metal tabs like precious artifacts. Urban legends claimed they could be exchanged for time on kidney dialysis machines, prompting nationwide hoarding.
Kids fashioned them into improvised jewelry or bike spoke decorations. Adults simply tossed them in drawers, creating miniature aluminum graveyards. The satisfying “pssht-clink” sound when removing one remains permanently etched in every ’70s kid’s memory bank.
8. Pet Rock Accessories
Tiny felt beds, miniature sunglasses, and construction paper outfits for pet rocks eventually found their way into junk drawer purgatory. These geological companions needed surprisingly extensive wardrobes according to creator Gary Dahl’s official pet rock manual.
The rocks themselves often got displayed prominently, but their custom-made accessories ended up forgotten in drawer corners. Occasionally you’d open the drawer and find a tiny rock-sized sombrero, triggering memories of the strangest fad that somehow made perfect sense in 1975.
9. Polaroid Flash Cubes
Before built-in flashes, these cubes lit up four photos per unit, then joined the drawer clutter.
Dad’s overzealous Christmas ’74 snaps left us seeing blue spots, and those spent cubes, with their sharp contacts, startled rummaging hands for years.
10. CB Radio License and Codes
“Breaker one-nine” became the national catchphrase after “Convoy” topped charts and Smokey and the Bandit hit theaters. Even if you didn’t own an actual CB radio, you probably had the official FCC license application or handwritten code sheets stashed away.
Dad’s handle was “Silver Fox” despite his completely dark hair. He’d practice CB lingo at dinner, much to Mom’s annoyance. “That’s a big 10-4, good buddy” became his response to everything from “Pass the potatoes” to “Your fly is down.”
11. Wood-Grain Contact Paper Scraps
Faux-wood adhesive paper transformed everything from refrigerators to toilet tank lids into “natural wood” masterpieces. The leftover strips inevitably ended up wadded in junk drawers, sticky sides collecting lint, coins, and mysterious crumbs.
No surface was safe from Mom’s contact paper obsession. Our metal mailbox, kitchen canisters, and even the bathroom scale received the wood-grain treatment.
12. Matchbooks from Themed Restaurants
Colorful cardboard matchbooks from Polynesian-themed eateries, fondue restaurants, and steakhouses with salad bars accumulated in every ’70s drawer. These free souvenirs commemorated special family dinners long after the last match was struck.
The most coveted specimens came from Trader Vic’s or restaurants with waterfalls inside. Even though nobody in our family smoked, we’d still grab a matchbook before leaving. The collection grew so large that striking an actual match from these books became a forbidden treasure hunt.
13. Pocket Calculators with Empty Batteries
Revolutionary pocket calculators with red LED displays and battery life measured in minutes found eternal rest in junk drawers nationwide. These technological marvels cost a small fortune when new but quickly became drawer inhabitants once batteries passed away.
Nobody ever remembered to buy the right replacement batteries. The calculator would resurface during spring cleaning, prompt a moment of “I should fix this” contemplation, then return to its drawer habitat for another year.