Why Does Every Garage Have a Coffee Can Full of Screws?
The Real Answer
Garages accumulate scrap hardware because people instinctively save fasteners they remove from broken items, old projects, or disassembled furniture — screws are small, seemingly valuable, and free. The coffee can becomes the default container because it's already there, waterproof enough, and requires zero organizational effort. Most of these screws never get used because you'll never reassemble that exact thing again, and when you do need a screw, it's never the right size or length anyway.
You remove a screw from something broken six years ago and drop it in a coffee can like you're building a retirement fund for hardware. Someday you'll need this exact 1.25-inch Phillips head for a project that will never exist. You are a squirrel who thinks it's investing.
The Dunce Dynamics Institute Examines Why People Ask This
A can of loose screws is an unusually visible record of tiny decisions to save something that might be useful later. The mystery is less why one screw was kept than how years of almost-costless saving turned into a permanent hardware reserve.