I'm not a hoarder, Part 2

If you've seen pictures of my basement, you might be wondering, "Why does he have so much crap? Is he a hoarder?"

No! As I've posted about before, it's not crap. All of the materials I keep in my basement serve a purpose, eventually...

For example, the thick semi-rigid packaging foam pictured above came in handy when I was installing my sump pump. While removing the sump cover, I lost to the sump's watery depths a rubber grommet in the cover through which the pump's power cord was fed. Never fear. I cut a piece of the foam slightly larger than the cutout in the cover for the grommet and used it to plug the hole:

Recently, this piece of leftover 1" diameter PVC conduit also came in handy:

I had purchased a Yard Butler garden hose reel and discovered that the crank handle remained fixed (instead of rotating freely). This made cranking the reel rather difficult, especially when I was wearing rubber gloves:

So I sawed off a piece of the PVC conduit and installed it as a sleeve around the crank handle. I grip the conduit sleeve and it rotates freely around the handle, which makes cranking the reel much easier:

When I was growing up, one thing that we learned in school about ancient hunter and gatherer societies was how they used every part of an animal that they captured. I suppose I share some of that ethos of extreme resourcefulness and efficiency.