Contemplating my own mortality - but not because of Covid [at least not directly]

As discussed in anther thread, I am working at various small jobs around the house.

Yesterday I was sorting a cupboard in my office, moving office supplies to another shelf. As I worked, I realized that I would retire before I could possibly use up the file folders on that shelf.

Today I took an hour to sort screws and nails and various other cr*p in the garage.

Here is what I learned:

1. I am turning into (turned into?) my father. I found more little plastic containers (including in the small storage drawers) that all seemed to have three drill bits, two nails, an allen key and a screw bit for an battery operated screwdriver - which didn't match the screws in the container. why?

2. In said small storage drawers (a unit like this this https://www.harborfreight.com/40-bin-organizer-with-full-length-drawer-94375.html ) I found more than once two drawers holding the same thing - like roofing nails but never enough to fill one drawer - why?

3. As I started into bigger bins where nails and screws and stuff had just been dumped for years, I realized that I will not have to buy small finishing nails for the rest of my life, or small wood screws or likely wall anchors and the list goes on.

Sigh, as I did it I could hear very clearly the conversation my children were having as they cleared out my stuff after the funeral and laughing because dad couldn't throw anything away.

I had already started to get out of the mindset of--"you can't have too much stuff" but we moved recently and that drove the point home.

I still have too much stuff, but most of it is organized better. A lot of car parts that had followed me through 3 moves and 30 years or so because "I or somebody might need them someday" got taken to the dump.

Don't get me started on miscellaneous fasteners and hardware, your post made me laugh, but the worst part is, even now with it pretty well organized I still have to run to the hardware store for that odd bit somewhere in the process.

As many old coffee cans as I have full of old nuts, bolts and screws, I can never find the one I need at any given time. So, I have to go to the hardware for a new one.

I've pitched out a bunch of stuff over the winter that really were no longer useful. But what makes me aware of the fact that the end of the journey is closer than the beginning is the fact that my mom and two cousins are the only ones older than me on her side of the family. All have their own health issues and are late 70s into their late 80s. Becoming the "patriarch" isn't something I'm necessarily ready for...

If you've had it for 5 years and haven't used it, get rid of it! :highly_amused:

But there is a problem here, I'm a victim of not listening to myself,

I.tried that once. I keep old usable parts and bolts and stuff. Decided to clean garage a while back and threw everything out I had not seen in 10 yrs. One week later had to wait as I had to order a part that I threw out.

Last night I ordered a small 12v LED light that I want to mount under my dash. I know I have some but can't find them!
I finally decided to place the order so that means the ones I have will turn up tonight

I thought I had the world's largest collection of nuts and bolts and misc. pieces of scrap metal. But - every so often, I find a use for something.

Fairly organized with fasteners, but I do have a small jar with all sorts of metric ones, from small machine screws to various sizes of nuts 'n bolts. I've adopted a name for it that came from an archaeologist keeping a small pile of unidentified pieces 'n bits from a dig in Egypt. She called it her GOK pile: "God Only Knows."

Last week I found two 6mm machine screws in my GOK jar to help one neighbor kid reattach a chain guard on his bike. Another kid needed a larger nut to use as a lock-nut, to keep his rear axle from creeping forward and having the chain come off the sprockets... GOK jar to the rescue.

The used fasteners I've kept are in "cookie tins" with metric and SAE separated. Tins have small Dixie cups in them with sizes of nuts and bolts sorted. I hate rummaging for a fastener when working on a project.