AKRON, Ohio — Delegates representing an estimated 140 million junk drawers concluded a three-decade negotiation Tuesday, signing a quiet accord in which every household’s drawer pledges to contain exactly 40 rubber bands, one dead key, and zero scissors.

The agreement, known informally as the Stuck Halfway Accords, was reached in a kitchen in Akron after the drawer beneath the microwave agreed to stop sticking at the one angle that prevents access to the back.

“This is a historic day for clutter,” said Dr. Marguerite Pellwether-Ostrander, senior fellow in Domestic Containment Studies at the Institute for Adjacent Storage Policy, a division of a community college’s continuing education annex. “For generations, drawers operated under a loose, informal understanding that the item you need would be in there somewhere. That understanding has now been formally withdrawn.”

Under the terms of the accord, each drawer will maintain a standing reserve of takeout menus from restaurants that closed in 2016, a tape measure that will not retract, and a single battery of unknown charge. The battery’s charge will remain unknown in perpetuity. Birthday candles are permitted only if previously used.

Article Three, the most closely watched provision, bans scissors outright. Delegates said the clause was non-negotiable after a 40-year pattern in which scissors were found in every room except the one containing the gift.

“We are not saying the scissors don’t exist,” said Pellwether-Ostrander. “We are saying they will be in a coat pocket, a car, or the other drawer. That is a guarantee.”

The accord also includes a mutual-aid provision under which drawers will share surplus soy sauce packets, twist ties, and keys to padlocks no one remembers buying. In a concession to the pact’s smaller signatories, the 40-rubber-band quota will be met even if 38 of them have fused into a single block.

Not all drawers participated. The drawer in the hall table, which holds nothing but one glove and a spare button, declined to sign, citing what a spokesperson called “a fundamentally different mission.” A coalition of desk drawers, meanwhile, said they were “not part of this conversation” and would continue to hold a stapler, no staples, and a staple remover for the staples that are not there.

“The key opens nothing. That is the point of the key.”

Homeowners reacted to the news with little surprise. Humans are expected to continue opening the drawer, moving things around for 90 seconds, closing it, opening it again, and saying, “I know I had one.” Experts said this routine is explicitly protected under the accord’s Rummaging Clause.

Pellwether-Ostrander cautioned that the agreement is nonbinding and could unravel if a single drawer defects by holding a working flashlight. She said that outcome is considered unlikely.

“No drawer wants to be the one that has what you need,” she said. “Think of the pressure.”

At press time, the accord was reportedly still in effect, and a fresh pack of takeout chopsticks had been admitted to the drawer on probationary status.