Happy Friday, good companions, and welcome to the Open Mic! If you’re new here, on Fridays we get together here for some chat. (Sometimes there’s a guest artist instead.) The topic varies from week to week, but everyone is welcome to participate in the comments.
One of this week’s writing prompts asked for a list of the homely, ordinary things of life: ham sandwiches, a coat with a missing button, an empty water bottle. I had such fun compiling my list, and then going around my parents’ house finding examples to photograph for this post. It surprises me how individual the list seems — but I guess that is what happens when you really look into the small things that make up a home (or office, or car).
I’d like to know some of the ordinary items from your life. Words are fine; you don’t have to take pictures (unless you want to!). Share 5-10 homely things from your life. They can come from anywhere: your house, your place of work, someone else’s house, even your imagination.
I’ll join with some more of my list, in the comments. See you there!
(PS. If you are fascinated with the props of other people’s homes, as I am, I highly recommend Alan Bennett’s The Clothes They Stood Up In.)
satsumabug.com | Lisa Hsia 
1. Paper grocery bags filled with items for recycling
2. The bits of vegetable waste and soggy crumbs in the drain trap of the kitchen sink
3. The vacuum cleaner left plugged in, in the hallway
4. A small plate with a half-eaten piece of toast on it, that’s been sitting on the kitchen table all day
5. An airtight rectangular plastic storage container filled with medium-grain white rice
6. Old dresses hung up in dry-cleaning plastic
7. A bottle of shampoo positioned upside-down in the shower
8. The ironing board left open with clothes folded on top
9. My gold leather Morning Pages journal with a blue Pilot V5 next to it
10. A little bottle of perfume next to a pouch of earrings on my nightstand
Once I got started on this I really enjoyed listing my domestic things. I’ve got an upside-down conditioner bottle to go with your upside-dowm shampoo bottle 🙂
1. The knick knack drawer full of rubber bands, old postcards, pens, and spare keys and things
2. Cushions unpuffed and arranged for comfort rather than looks
3. The cats’ food and water bowels
4. My latest book on the bedside table
5. My broken hair dryer in the bathroom cupboard
6. Saturday’s newspaper in a pile in the living room in case we need it to wrap up mess
7. The cat carrier which we haven’t put away because William likes to sleep in it
8. Fingerprints on the fridge door
Naomi, I love it!! I had one of those drawers in my house too; it had rubber bands, twist ties, extra takeout forks, and this rubber circle that was free from some Chinese bank that I use for helping open stubborn jar lids. When we moved out I packed it away even though it’s grubby and ugly because it’s so dang useful, and I don’t know where I would find another one! 😉 (Now we’re living temporarily in my aunt’s house and I must say she seems to have a LOT of junk drawers. Maybe they multiply once you’ve lived in a place for decades.)
I saw a cat carrier on someone’s porch the other day and wondered about the story behind it. I was thinking the people left it out to get the cat used to seeing it before a vet visit (that’s what we do), but maybe their cat is like your William and just likes to sleep in it!