Score One For Hoarding

I usually make a real effort to keep my personal spaces clutter-free. I'm not saying that I don't have a couple of things on my desk which serve no purpose other than looking interesting, but what I like to do is try and contain my collection of random items to a few specific areas and then make sure I can hide those areas behind things like closed closet doors. (I actually think having a space with no clutter is impossible and if a person has absolutely no clutter in their house they are either getting ready to move or you should run because they are a serial killer.) The problem is that letting items pile up is getting harder to avoid thanks to fact that increasingly you have to shop for things in bulk. Gone are the days when you could just go in and buy the one thing you needed - now almost everything comes in pairs. On the one hand it is great that consumers are getting a better deal on items the use a lot, but at the same time when it comes to the stuff you use infrequently we only have so many places to put the extras. I like to joke that shopping for only one item is like holding up a sign which says "I am about to use this right now", but I don't feel as though that is always a bad thing. Sometimes you just need one and no where is that more often the case than when it comes to items for your car.

Yesterday I mentioned that I had to take my truck for its yearly inspection. What I didn't mentioned is that it failed... again. This isn't a surprise as I have a really bad track record with this car and inspections. This would be the fourth time my truck has failed in the seven times I have had to get it inspected and three of those times it was for the e-brake not working, which means it has a pretty serious design flaw. I can see why Ford halted production of their Mercury line of cars, because they obviously weren't putting their best people on it. But, that was hardly the only problem as my car actually failed for three reason. (I think this means I can confidently claim that it failed spectacularly. Go big or go home.) Now, two of the problems are beyond my technical reach but one of the reasons the state of Massachusetts hates my car is that I had a bulb half-out. It was one of those multi-function lights which means it would turn on, just not get brighter when I hit the brakes. Upon hearing this I was actually glad there were other things wrong with my truck because had I failed for the brake not lighting up enough I may have decked the kid who was giving me the test. Now, I may not be able to deal with the first two problems myself, but I do know how to change a light bulb. Even better, it turned out that I didn't have to leave my house to do it.

A couple months ago I had a post about taking apart my dashboard and discovering that not only were there way more bulbs than I expected to find, half the ones behind my dials were out and had been since the day I bought my SUV. However, other than that I have to admit I have been on a really good run about lights in my car. I think in all the time I have had it I have only had to change one headlight, which is better than most. (Oddly enough I kind of felt this was coming. My mom's SUV had failed its inspection the day before because there was a license plate light out, which got me thinking about how I almost never have lights out on my truck. First rule of keeping a streak alive? Don't think about the streak.) In fact, the last time I had to change a tail light was way back when I still had my Explorer. When I had run out to by that replacement bulb the only option was buying a set of them. Since I didn't want to waste a bulb on a truck I knew I would be getting rid of anyway I only replaced the burnt-out light and kept the spare in the glove compartment. When I bought the new truck I transferred all the stuff from one glove box to the other including the light, telling myself one day it would come in handy. Wouldn't you know it, not only did the old bulb still work, it fit perfectly into the light socket on the newer truck. Finally a car issue is working out in my favor.

I have to say not having to run out and buy yet another pair of lightbulbs when I only needed one was oddly satisfying. (In all honesty, it probably granted me more relief than it should have considering how close the auto store is to my house. It is not like already having a lightbulb saved me a hike down a dangerous mountain.) Now the only remaining concern is forcing myself to remember this is a rarity which really should be taken as the exception, not the rule. I think everyone out there has convinced themselves to hang on to things they probably should throw away because "someday I might need one of those" and then when the time comes for them to use that item they can't remember where they put it. Usually that is a good thing because you are reminded of that failure the next time you try and keep something, which forces you to get rid of it instead. In my case finally keeping something for years paid off so the fear is that this could really steer me down a path of keeping crap I don't need considering my success rate still hovers around .045. I just need to be careful because is a slippery slope and you don't want to keep everything because that is how people end up on TV with houses full of old newspapers and dead cats.