Fastner hording

In My Humble Opinion
1

Hi, my name is Rhythmdvl and I’m addicted to fasteners.

  • … hi Rhythmdvl …*

If I have a document bound with paperclips, nine times out of ten I will salvage the paperclips and jamb them into what little space there is in my dispenser. If it has a binder clip … hoo-boy am I going to make sure that finds its way into my desk. But that’s not really what this thread is about; those are the gateways.

It’s the myriad screws, bolts, washers, and whatnot that have grown from a small collection to a massive array of fastening goodness. If I’m putting together a bit of knock-down furniture and they package a few extra screws—or I’m taking something apart and I’m left with a handful of screws, cotter pins, or some other fastener—they go on an ever-growing shelf in the workshop.

Help me.

Please help me.

This addiction is horribly reinforced (heh), just as a gambler’s addiction. Every once in a while I’ll return from the basement in a pique of triumph, having found just the odd-sized screw or bolt that I needed—furthering my belief that I need to save every single molly, toggle bolt, screw, nut, and bolt that crosses my path.

Am I alone?

Is there any way of breaking this habit? Has anyone?

What I’d really like—what’s worth spending a couple hundred bucks on—is a big set of bins chock-a-block with more-or-less standard fasteners for drywall, metal, and wood. I seek tiny kits like that, things that seem to be targeted at people’s first apartments. I guess I want something that has twenty or thirty sizes for each category, not four or five. I know I’ll still run to the store for specific applications, but a nice, neater set of bins would go quite far in curbing my inability to let a screw pass me by or a bolt bolt out the door.

Or maybe I’ll just continue collecting the things. One more can’t hurt, and hey, maybe it will come in handy someday.

Oh, and please don’t ask me about keeping scrap wood. That’s actually important and not a problem at all. Nope.

2

You can’t have too many binder clips.

3

I used to toss fasteners into a five gallon bucket. Need a screw? – Dump it all out and search.

Then I decided that was insane, and bought a teensy-drawer-organizer rack and spent hours sorting out the different types of fasteners. At that time, I decided to throw out anything with grease or rust on it, reasoning I wouldn’t really want to use those.

Years later I decided I almost never needed any of them, and so out they went. I now only keep a few washers, and a few odd screws. I don’t miss them. If I really need a fastener, I walk down to the local Ace hardware and buy exactly as many as I need.

They just aren’t worth keeping, unless you’re a mad scientist or a street rodder.

4

You can never have too many screws/nuts/bolts. The more obscure, the better. You never know when you’ll need that exact one.

5

Indeed you can’t.

What’s more insane? Saving a bucket of nuts and bolts in the basement or spending $3 for a pack of 30 when you only need one? Then you just eventually throw the other 29 away. And so on.

A similar thing applies to paper clips. In theory, there is little need to manufacture more paper clips, because they’re designed to be reusable. But everyone throws them away, instead of removing them, and the vast majority end up in landfills. I bet they also screw up paper recycling machines, so some poor slob has to go through your paper removing all the paper clips you were too lazy to remove.

Shame on you!!! :mad:

6

My name is Algher, and when I dispose of things I take them apart in case I can reuse the nuts, screws and bolts someday. I have bins, buckets and other collections of metal.

Every now and then I even use a piece or three.

7

I used to do that, until my lovely SO made me stop. At least I still get to keep the left-overs when I assemble stuff.

8

Do you pick up odd nuts and bolts you see on the street? I’ve got a whole box of them, which sounds like it ought to be useful, but in fact, it always turns out I need four of something, but only have three, or I have to use one brass screw and one steel, or two wingnuts and a locknut.

9

I pick up all sorts of odd stuff on my runs.

10

I don’t do either one. I haven’t the patience or time anymore to dig through a bucket in the rare occasion I need a bolt. Pack of 30? :confused: I never buy any more than I need. If I need 4 of something, I buy 4. If I need 1, I buy 1. :slight_smile:

I do reuse paper clips and binder clips. Haven’t bought any of those in years.

I also recycle ALL metals. Shame on me??? :dubious:

11

That 3 inch long piece of 2x4 could come in handy some day, maybe as a sanding block or something. I wouldn’t want to have to cut one of my 10 inch long pieces just to get a piece 3 inches long, right? That’s a waste.

4 rubbermaid tubs filled with random sized scraps of wood, that’s not a waste.

12

I started parting everything out when I was a kid and up to recently. Everything is sorted into professional like drawers. I have every size from micro watch sizes and 2-56 screws, nuts and washers up to over an inch. I also have metric sizes complete through the range. I have taps and dies to match everything. It’s a hardware store. At this point I see it as a lifetime supply. Now I have to force myself to just keep new stuff in a junk box or throw it out.

This plan has served me and my work over a lifetime. I had hopes of passing everything on to my kid. However, at 14 she morphed from a tomboy to an alien almost over night. I’m not married to my junk. When it has fully served my purpose, I can walk away satisfied.

13

I always seem to need small drywall anchors. The ones that you drill a pilot hole for, and then tap in with a hammer, providing a receptacle for a small screw. I found some guy selling a bunch of them on ebay, so I bought them.

I think I over-did it, though. I bought 1,400 of them, and now I go around the house looking for places to hang things…

14

While I mean this as an amusing observation, I’m sure it will seem obnoxious…anyway, a two-word thread title where both words are misspelled caused some serious short-circuiting in my brain. I stared at that thing for a good minute…“Fastner hording?? Perhaps a celebrity I haven’t heard about? Some new phrase the kids are using? What??” Frankly, around this place, I’m shocked to see that I’m the first to mention it.

15

If I didn’t have the fasteners, I’d have no justification for all the glass peanut butter jars I saved. As it is, I’ve got four or five jars, one with wood screws, one with narrow-thread screws that might even have associated nuts, one with nails, one with screws that come with other bits of hardware, one with pieces of wire too short to be useful, one with fasteners that all came from the same source, so they fit together.

16

I have a titanium ball valve ball … no - not a dainty little one, this one is for a 4 inch valve … you could kill an ox by whacking it in the head with it. I have no idea where the hell it came from, it appeared on top of the freezer one sunny day.

Help me - what if it breeds with something :eek:

17

I was kidding. I’m still glad that someone else reuses them, though.

18

I’m in, brothers!

19

What, no love for twist ties? They’re such versatile little things–how can anyone just throw them away? :smiley:

As for binder clips–of course I hoard them. What else would I use to keep the castle walls together until I finish duct taping them?

20

I inherited three lead ingots from my grandfather five years ago. I have no use for them, and cannot predict any use for them, but I cannot let them go.