So a decade or so back when we lived in Casinoport, our closets had those inexpensive wire shelving organization system in them. As so often happens, one of the brackets in my office shelving broke, probably under the weight of the boxes of books I stored on those lightweight shelves. So I went to the hardware store to buy a couple of the brackets to replace the broken ones.
Except they don’t sell them individually. They sell them in bags of 20, and I needed 1.
So I’ve had nineteen of these for over ten years tucked away.
A couple years ago, while playing in the back yard, one or both of my boys grabbed the cable running from the DirecTV dish to an unused outlet and pulled it free from the staples that originally held them to the bottom of the edge of my deck. So I thought about buying some metal brackets to screw into the deck to hold the cable more securely. I mean, hey, some day we might want to put a television in the dining room. Someday.
Instead of buying brackets, I remembered the white plastic brackets and so I knew I could use them for this job. When I got around to it. Someday.
Once in a while, I got to thinking about doing that particular repair, but I couldn’t remember where I’d put the clasps out in my workshop area in the garage. They weren’t amongst the other fasteners or in the cabinet that makes up the bulk of my storage. So I often got distracted by other incomplete projects or clutter in my workshop before I find them.
But earlier this week, I opened the other drawer, and there they were. Now, a word about my “workshop”: It consists of a high table with a tool box (and a lot of clutter) on it; a couple of topless cabinets I acquired from somewhere covered with clutter, some tools, and an organizer for loose fasteners; a desk that was the tool area in the small space between the furnace and the wall of the utility room in Casinoport which, of course we took with us when we left because I accumulate things; and various shelving units of tools, paints, raw materials, and, quite frankly, junk that I’ll probably clear out very gradually over the next twenty years. I store most of my stuff in the cabinets because they’re closest to the workshop and, frankly, because the floor space in front of the desk is generally stacked with junk.
But on inspiration or when looking for something else or perhaps just because I felt like I was Indiana Jones in an ancient temple, I opened the seldom opened drawer and there they were, right on top.
So I affected the repair years later without having to spend a buck on brackets.
The hero of the story: My packrat habit!
Which is why it is definitely too early to throw that thing out!
And if anyone needs a white c-clamp, I have sixteen left.
