Cutting It Out

Cutting It Out
Originally uploaded by 365 Things

What: Flimsy plastic storage tray, part of a boxed set of X-Acto knives.
Origin: A weird family belief in storing things in the containers they came in.
How long kept: Probably 15-20 years.
Why kept: Hmmm. Let me think. Aargh probably encapsulates it best of all.
Usage: Yes, annoyingly so. See confession.
Destination: NYC landfill. Sorry, earth and neighbors.

Confession: My dad, I believe, gave me this great set of X-Acto knives quite some time ago. I heart them, and use them regularly. They came in a wooden box. One side of the box has various blades held in place by magnet strips. The other had 3 knife handles, stored in this molded plastic. 

The wooden box itself is more than a just a storage box, it's a safety device.   It will be retained. 
But every time I tried to peel the knives out of the plastic, I'm pretty sure that I swore. As you can see (lower right corner) even though the plastic was cracked, the fit was tight.   I risked cutting myself to get the knives out.   Silly.

This morning, I swore for the last time. (About this, at least.)

My dad and I talked about the storage of storage boxes when I visited home recently. Our people keep the boxes that things came in. We Might Need Them; They Might be Useful.

I broke this habit, mostly, a few years ago. In an NYC apartment, you don't have the space to store empty boxes...or even use the boxes that most things came in to store them. I have a steamer, for example, which I completely adore. It's compact enough to store in a tote bag on a hanger. The box was enormous, and would have taken up a significant slice of real estate in my closet.

Most storage boxes, I'm finding, contain more air than you think they do. Even when they look full.

I am not paying rent on air any more. (Except for the airy spaciousness I'm gaining in my apartment, and I'm kind of serious here, as I get rid of stuff I don't need.)

But I digress.

The fact that I kept the little knives stored in this plastic tray for 15+ years is kind of a corollary habit to the desire to retain storage boxes

Storage Boxes are Evil.