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.
Basic sketch — the funniest questions get upgraded to a full cartoon.
Why People Ask This
This is that moment when someone opens a garage cabinet and sees a coffee can (or Folgers container, or soup can — always a can) overflowing with loose screws and bolts, and suddenly realizes they have no idea how many screws have accumulated or why. It's a universal phenomenon that hints at some deeper human compulsion to save small, potentially useful things on the vague promise of 'future projects.' Most people have never actually used a saved screw for its intended purpose.