Wanna see the crap on top of my dresser?

What's strewn across the top of someone's dresser is an intimate statement about the person's inner workings. The smooth surface of a bureau, trumped only by the contents of our nightstands (a little too intimate even for me to divulge), is the tableau over which our most personal belongings find their resting places. It is close to where we sleep, nearby when we are snuggled under our blankets, when we are more ourselves than at any other time in our busy lives.

Or maybe that's just me trying to sound all Real Simpley.

This is my come-as-you-are dressertop. I nudged one little thing over to the side, so you could see it better, but otherwise performed no art direction trickery (as I was wont to do in my old job as an inflight magazine's graphic designer).

So. On the upper right corner is a photo of my great grandmother, Lillian, whom I never met. She died a few days after giving birth to her second child, of, and I quote, "blood poisoning". She's very pretty and looks so exactly like my mom that it gives me the shivers.

Over to the left is a Debbie Boone cassette I've had since I was in third grade. Yes, really. Why it's on my dresser thirty years after my big crush is an enigma, even to me. But, there it is.

See that little red, white and blue button? Yeah. On top of the pretty silver box (with absolutely nothing inside). That says Nixon Now! Nope, I am not a republican. Nor have I ever been a Nixon fan. I bought that button at an art fair's antiques booth when I was in high school. I thought it was retro rebellious. Over the years, I haven't been able to throw it away. Clearly it's sitting there, just waiting to be released into the wilds of a Seattle landfill. Someday, perhaps.

Then you'll note my cable collection. And my exquisite necklace caddy (some cheapo rack from Ikea) that I need to hang on the wall.

There it is. Thrilling, no?

What's on top of YOUR dresser?

Thanks, Apathy Lounge, for the inspiration.

Comments

[AndreAnna]

I've been thinking about doing this as well - maybe I'll finally get my arse together now!

I love that you have that picture - it's really cool.

[Kristy]

I don't even have a dresser! We have a big double closet with shelving in one side that sort of functions as a dresser for both dh and I. All of my jewelry, if you can even call it such, is on a certain shelf of the floor-to-ceiling built-in book shelves in our room (it used to be a den before we decided to live with four kids in our tiny house). There's a kind of brass, engraved ash tray type thingie that the stuff is theoretically "in," but it's mostly spilled around the edges of the tray. My bedside table is covered with half-read issues of The New Yorker, novels, and a rotating collection of recently abandoned small toys.

[Sher]

Wow - you can actually see the top of your dresser.

[JCK]

I'm impressed that you can find things on your dresser. Mine is obscured with a TV and so things are stuffed in a drawer.

Hey, the Nixon button is probably valuable. Someone will want it. Perhaps the Nixon library in California?

[bananas]

I am just loving that you coined the word "real simpley"!!!

[Burgh Baby's Mom]

The top of my dresser has diapers and wipes on it and that is all. Anything else that I put on there is promptly stolen by the midget thief in my house, so I have stopped trying. In other words, your dresser is SO much more interesting!

[Betsy Bird]

That Debbie Boone cassette makes me feel better. I don't have one, or anything hanging around my dresser that I've had that long, but I haven't gotten my dresser really straight in about 10 years, and now I realizing I was just working to beat your record.

[kendra]

Well, you are so honest. Thanks. To be honest myself, I bought a huge round wicker basket with a lid, and all of that "stuff" goes into it. SO, there is a vase with shells, a bombay chest with jewelry and the basket with my creams, and whatever else on my dresser. Maybe a Nixon pin in the basket if I search deep enough. It is a huge basket.

[mamatulip]

I love both the picture of your grandmother, and the frame.

I also love the fact that there's so much crap on your dresser. I can't even begin to start listing all the stuff on my dresser. There is so. much. shit. on top of it. I can't see the wood underneath, that's how much crap there is.

[Wendy]

DUST! THICK DUST!

[Flea]

Half my dresser's covered in unmatched socks.