Boxing clever with the clutter may be the saving grace for hoarders

SO there I was, searching for a good storage container, when I came upon an old Black Magic box.

One of those Christmas specials, three layers deep with a hinged lid and a red tassel. From the old days before they mucked with the assortment. Affixed to the lid was a label in my father’s neat handwriting. “Bits”, it said helpfully. Inside were neatly segregated large matchboxes, each containing items as diverse as fuses, metal retainers designed to hold a picture in its frame, and those hooks used to herd flexes up against the skirting board.

It’s been there for years and my father would have had it for decades before he died. Nobody has ever felt the need for any of its contents. And you know what? I couldn’t bring myself to throw it out. I found another receptacle in which to keep the defunct keys I wanted to store — the keys I retain on the basis that if metal is currently so valuable, maybe I should build up a collection for sale to a scrap merchant.