# Even worse than hot-dogs and buns **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 15, 2003, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-worse-than-hot-dogs-and-buns/161664 "2003-03-15T21:56:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-worse-than-hot-dogs-and-buns/161664/1 "2003-03-15T21:56:47Z")
Went to the hardware store today. Bolts come in little packs of four and include the appropriate sized four nuts. Washers come in packs of six. Unfortunately, as I have learned through my many years of nut and bolt work, when you’re using washers, you either need exactly one or exactly two per bolt. Never one and a half. I needed eight washers for my four bolts, meaning I had to buy two packs of six, yielding four rogue washers that will probably never be used. Fuckers. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-worse-than-hot-dogs-and-buns/161664/2 "2003-03-15T22:34:28Z")
There’s always room for a good washer. Got a magnet around? Make art! ---
**Author:** ![herman\_and\_bill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f1d935/32.png) [@herman\_and\_bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/herman_and_bill)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-worse-than-hot-dogs-and-buns/161664/3 "2003-03-15T23:13:42Z")
go check the bins, you should be able to buy them by the piece. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-worse-than-hot-dogs-and-buns/161664/4 "2003-03-15T23:40:13Z")
The detergent that I bought recently is in a box for 60 loads. The bottle of fabric softener that I got to go with it, is in a jug for 63 loads. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-worse-than-hot-dogs-and-buns/161664/5 "2003-03-15T23:58:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by herman\_and\_bill \* > \*\*go check the bins, you should be able to buy them by the piece. \*\* Nah, it seems to me the days of being able to buy a single washer or screw or nails by the handful are behind us. I haven’t been to a hardware store with actual bins in years. Everything comes in little packages now. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Lizard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@Lizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lizard)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-worse-than-hot-dogs-and-buns/161664/6 "2003-03-15T23:59:45Z")
And here I thought this thread would be about gay sex. . . . . ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2003, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-worse-than-hot-dogs-and-buns/161664/7 "2003-03-16T00:22:15Z")
Buy two six-packs of washers, and three four packs of nuts/bolts. Repeat as needed. ---
**Author:** ![lurkernomore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@lurkernomore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lurkernomore)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2003, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-worse-than-hot-dogs-and-buns/161664/8 "2003-03-16T00:53:38Z")
that’s why they sell that little cabinet with all the tiny clear drawers. (Or baby food jars) You put it on the workbench and keep the extras. First couple of years I owned the house, i bought a lot of hardware. Now, I rarely have to buy any - I just go downstairs and check the jars. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2003, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-worse-than-hot-dogs-and-buns/161664/9 "2003-03-16T02:43:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Buy two six-packs of washers, and three four packs of nuts/bolts. > > Repeat as needed. But then I would have more washers _and_ more bolts than I needed! It ain’t fair. > [@](#): > > that’s why they sell that little cabinet with all the tiny clear drawers. (Or baby food jars) You put it on the workbench and keep the extras. Yeah, I should definately get one of those. I live in a little apartment though, not a house, so I can’t afford to continually accrue hardware at the alarming rate of some people I know. ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2003, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-worse-than-hot-dogs-and-buns/161664/10 "2003-03-16T07:43:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by friedo \* > \*\*Nah, it seems to me the days of being able to buy a single washer or screw or nails by the handful are behind us. I haven’t been to a hardware store with actual bins in years. Everything comes in little packages now. > ☹ \*\* [ul]The trouble is that you haven’t been to **TUPELO HARDWARE** \*[/ul] - Where his mother bought Elvis his first guitar. ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2003, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-worse-than-hot-dogs-and-buns/161664/11 "2003-03-16T08:40:15Z")
Sell the extras on eBay. If they’re really that hard to find individually, you’ll make a bundle! ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2003, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-worse-than-hot-dogs-and-buns/161664/12 "2003-03-17T02:23:46Z")
String the extra washers on safety pins, and give them to your honey as earrings. ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2003, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-worse-than-hot-dogs-and-buns/161664/13 "2003-03-17T02:53:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by friedo \* Yeah, I should definately get one of those. I live in a little apartment though, not a house, so I can’t afford to continually accrue hardware at the alarming rate of some people I know. \*\* Good lord, man! We don’t regularly track and kill beasts for sustenance any more, making fire has been simplified, and many other testosterone rich activities are frowned upon. Hardware accumulation is one of the remaining bastions of manhood! Think of the basements, the pegboard, the power tools, and the coffee cans filled with fasteners that have provided the training grounds for those who have built the foundation of this great country! I submit that an assortment of nuts, bolts, screws and washers is a duty to oneself as well as their neighbor! OK-maybe I did go a tad overboard with that treatise, but I have to justify all the stuff I’ve got downstairs, alright? :rolleyes: