As we pack up and anticipate a new home in a new town, we find the flotsam and jetsam of twenty years of incomplete projects and unrealized plans. There are things we haven’t used in years; collected parts, pieces, and one-use tools stashed away in jars and cigar boxes. And although it’s said that if you can manage without something for a year, you don’t need it. I follow my Dad’s maxim, “It’s better to have and not need than to need and not have.”

There is a feeling of triumph after you root around in storage spaces and mine your toolbox, to gleefully present—just the thing you need. It’s a tiny victory and vindication, but a win, even a small one, is a win.