Bottom Drawer
By Maggs
@maggs224 (2320)
Alicante, Spain
May 30, 2016 10:20pm CST
I am not quite sure what sparked this train of thought off but I was just thinking about my bottom drawer. Just in case you are not familiar with this concept let me tell you what a bottom drawer is.
In my case it was actually the bottom drawer of a chest of drawers that I had in my bedroom. The bottom drawer was usually the biggest drawer.
Though we called it our bottom drawer it didn't actually need to be a drawer at all. It is just what we called the space that we stored our bottom drawer stuff in.
A bottom drawer is where a young woman would store linen and other items ready for when she got married.
The bottom drawer was a form of preparation for when you had to set up your own household.
Over time mine contained tea towels, sheets and other useful items like a tin opener and spoons.
The idea was for young women to buy useful items for her future home. This way we spread the cost of setting up home over years rather than all at once.
Of course once you had a young man and were going steady you began to start filling that bottom draw in earnest.
So do young people today still have a bottom drawer and do they prepare for marriage in this way? Or has the expensive and extensive wedding present lists done away with the need for such a thing?
7 people like this
8 responses
@JudyEv (325815)
• Rockingham, Australia
31 May 16
It was also called a 'hope chest' (in the hope you'd get married one day I guess) and a 'glory box' (Heaven knows where that one came from ). I don't think too many would have them today but I wouldn't really know. I'll be interested in reading others' comments.
1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50525)
• Centralia, Missouri
31 May 16
most people live on their own before they get married, so they already have a full home's worth, so this stuff is no longer needed
@sueznewz2 (10409)
• Alicante, Spain
31 May 16
I think you might be right in that the new 'fad' for expensive and excessive gift lists, does away with that.... but I should imagine there was greater feeling of home building when you collected your own little bits and pieces....
@crazyhorseladycx (39515)
• United States
31 May 16
i reckon that'd be akin to a hope chest :) i'd a hope chest myself, got one fer my daughter. she refused to fill hers :( i'd not my sights sets'n gettin' hitched, but when i moved out'n my own, i wished 't least the bare necessities.
these days, folks 'xpect all that to be given to 'em i reckon? i'd prefer to work fer my own household goods.