About two weeks ago, we had a plumbing emergency. No, the pipes didn’t freeze, but we had an old piece of pipe that broke when we bumped into it, when cleaning. One of those things. It was very brittle and just cracked.
It was a bit of a drag, no doubt. When we went to cut out the broken piece, it cracked further down and under the belly of the Moby and in 12 degree weather, and with a bad cold, it was a sure mess. But it’s all replaced now, and everything is fine.
However, there was one thing that I noticed right away.
Once again, we ended up making 6 trips back and forth to the hardware store!!! 6 trips! Honest.
And mainly because we were ill-prepared and only bought one piece at a time. Which in the end was so silly, because the little PVC connections are like 20 and 30 cents each. A piece of replacement pipe was 3 dollars. And it was on the 4th trip that I began to think about the household systems in our homes and how crazy this was to have to keep making trips back and forth.
So on the 5th trip, I picked up a little cheap tool box. $3. And I also got 4 each of the various connections. It cost me $8 total. And I now have everything I need to make an emergency repair of any sort. I have everything in the box now. The connections, the cutters, the contact cement and the extra pipe. And with a big paint marker we wrote PLUMBING on the top and one side.
And you know what? I think I’m going to make a few other boxes too! Like a ELECTRICAL one. And a DECORATING one to hold like a tack hammer and nails and hanging stuff. And a PAINTING PREP one with a a couple scrapers, and some putty knives and wall putty, etc.
We have two big tool boxes, but they are heavy and filled with a bunch of stuff, just hard to use. And it doesn’t help that they are buried in the back of the shed and hard to get to. I really like the idea of a few specialized boxes where all the tools that just apply to that task group resides. So that when you want to hang a new picture, you just grab the right box and poof! All the stuff you need is in there.
I’m actually thinking of making a pet one! Haha… we have all these odds and ends of pet stuff, brushes, and lotions, potions and odds and ends. That would be good too. I really like the idea of a place for everything and everything in it’s place. Been working that in many areas of my life, but it NEVER occurred to me to do it with home repair. In fact, I’m thinking kitchen stuff too… like a box for cookie cutters and decorating! Or how about a box for canning supplies! I’m on a roll!
Well, right now, I just have my plumbing box. And I like it! I wish we had it BEFORE all the trips! Just think of the time and gas we would have saved!!!
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This is a great idea. If only all our stuff for a certain purpose would fit into a little box…
Oh yeah… if everything in our life could be whittled down to boxes, wouldn’t that be cool? Just get out the box you need for the moment! haha! I’m kinda thinking that depending on the subject matter, having JUST a set amount of space just might help me to keep the amount of stuff down to a set amount… ie., I can only have so many cookie cutters and stuff for decorating, as will fit in said box, so therefore I might stop from accumulating more! Just a thought…
I like to organize things like that in clear tubs with lids so I can see what’s inside. Since we’ve downsized, I need to keep a lot of extra things in my basement so the clear tubs are really handy. I have a lot of kitchen “stuff” – canning, holiday baking, pie baking, etc. – all being stored in clear tubs and put up on shelving units when not in use.