Be prepared, that's the Boy Scouts marching song, Be Prepared.

[venta]

I have just finished attending to some items of correspondence. (Doesn't that have a lovely, respectable, Victorian ring to it ? Actually, I was parcelling up a birthday present for my godmother and writing a get-well card to the uncle who accidentally threw himself severely downstairs earlier in the week. But not to worry.)

Being a post-y sort of person, I have spare blank cards, and wrapping paper, and parcel tape and things like that on hand for these moments. What I currently seem to lack is scissors, which is weird because I know I own at least three pairs. And you should always know where your scissors are.

Having parcelled my parcel, I addressed it with a marker pen. A permanent marker, which meant I could write across the tape without worrying about the ink smudging off. And I paused to think: aren't marker pens great ? Everyone should have one, just in case they want to write on things with shiny surfaces. You perhaps don't need them often, but when you do they're incredibly handy.

So, this post is dedicated to the small things which aren't in everyday use, but which every household should have, tucked away in a drawer in case of need. At my parents' house there is a drawer known as The Everything Drawer, which is full of many such items. Unconsciously, I seem to have nominated one of my desk drawers here to be The Everything Drawer.

A marker pen. A ball of string. A pair of long-nosed pliers. Some blu-tac. A spare battery for that Thingy which takes an odd-sized battery. Elastic bands and saftey pins and paperclips. A box of matches. A silver-cleaning cloth.

Incidentally, I don't have pens on that list. That's because I assume a house has pens like I assume it will have windows. Yet a few times in recent years I've been in someone else's house and it's been a real scramble to find anything to write with. Who are these freaky people who don't regard pens and paper as household necessities ?

Let's hear it for useful everyday objects.

Comments

[ringbark.livejournal.com]

Who are these freaky people who don't regard pens and paper as household necessities ?
Unfortunately, I bet we are the freaky minority. Your house has lots of books in it, too, doesn't it? Weirdo!
You missed impregnated spectacle-cleaning cloth and the thing for opening troublesome jars.
Do you have an ultra-violet light? That's one thingy for which I sometimes feel a lack here.

[ar-gemlad.livejournal.com]

the thing for opening troublesome jars

I don't want to keep my husband in a drawer!

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

I'm a pencil-using person. A couple of years ago I discovered Tesco economy pencils (12 for 20p or something silly) and hit on the strategy of pre-saturating my flat with them, so that all the places that a pencil can hide are already full of pencil. I still need to repeat the exercise from time to time as the pencil demons carry a few off, but on the whole I can usually find a writing implement when I want one.

[cardinalsin.livejournal.com]

I think the pencil saturation strategy must be the finest example of taking on the laws of nature on their own terms and winning that I have ever seen.

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

On the issue of the natural habits and half-life of pencils, I think a study such as this is indicated, just as soon as I can get round to writing a funding proposal.

[cardinalsin.livejournal.com]

That rocks. Surely the suggested followup involving tracking devices must now be carried out?

[venta.livejournal.com]

That study is utterly delightful. Thanks for bringing it to my attention :)

[ao-lai.livejournal.com]

CD Pens For The Win!

Seriously, they're the only writing implement I've yet found that can be used to easily and successfully sign the back of a credit card without smudging, plastic destruction, writing that's too faint to read or writing that wipes straight off even when dry. I've found that useful...

[lathany.livejournal.com]

A spare battery for that Thingy which takes an odd-sized battery

We have those (eg. lithium for my camera), although they're changed sufficiently rarely that I have to check the new ones still have decent charge.

Plus screwdriver(s) - usually on my penknife equivalent. (This is a pencard and the screwdriver bit is at the end of the nail file. I've never used that nail file for nails, but it comes out every time one of the kids' toys need new batteries)

Also, with TheHattedOne in the house, isn't a corkscrew an every day object?

[venta.livejournal.com]

Also, with TheHattedOne in the house, isn't a corkscrew an every day object?

It's exactly that. As such, it doesn't come under my definition of things you need only rarely :)

[shrydar.livejournal.com]

In Gateshead we kept such objects in an IKEAism called "The Useless Cupboard" in hommage to the amount of rummaging required to find what you were looking for.

After all, everyone also needs some portable scales for weighing luggage (the people and the fishing and hunting shop were most put out at the proposed usage), spare feet for their trekking poles, shoe polish, a bottle of stuff for re-weatherproofing gortex, multiple wattages of light bulbs, fuses, a stanley knife and a couple of spare padlocks.

[wimble.livejournal.com]

I got sufficiently irritated at not finding pens and pencils that I finally got a set of small wicker baskets. The remote controls went into one, and all the pens, as I found them went into another. Having a pen basket does keep the random wandering of pens under control too, since they've now got a clearly demarked home to go back to.

Now it's just a question of hunting through all the pens, and finding one that actually works. And then finding paper (since most of the paper in the house is actually A4 printer paper, and therefore nowhere near the pens).

[pm215]

Now it's just a question of hunting through all the pens, and finding one that actually works

I can't help suspecting that your problem here is using biros. I gave up on them ages ago because of precisely this annoying trait. I recommend the uniball micro because it has a fine line and it always just works. Also it has "Mitsubishi Pencil Company Limited" printed on the side, which is a nice blend of old-fashioned phrasing and modern high-tech Japanese.

I do still keep a biro or two for signing credit cards (because the instructions always insist on biro).

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

My vote goes to the Pentel Superb. Not only do they never fail until they're actually empty, but the ink's got pretty nice properties too and they require very little pressure to write with (useful for doing stupid things like writing with one hand on a piece of paper held in the other).

[venta.livejournal.com]

Now it's just a question of hunting through all the pens, and finding one that actually works.

Recently I developed an ingenious solution to this problem: next time you pull out a pen and it doesn't work throw it out instead of putting it back in the basket. Your basket of pens will slowly evolve into a leaner, meaner, more efficient basket of pens.

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

Pens have little legs.

Every single one of the pens I used to have vanished, such that I actually had to spend money to replace them. Terrifying concept.

Though given that the number of vanished pens exactly equals the number of 'Can I borrow a pen so I can write up this character sheet in the car?' requests I have received, I suspect that my pens' little legs are vulpine ;)

[leathellin.livejournal.com]

A labelling machine. You'd ba amazed how many things suddenly need labels once you've got one.
It is actually very useful to label plugs and scart leads (at least in our house it is).

[eostar.livejournal.com]

Fuses for household plugs live in a "Winnie the Pooh" tin in our Everything Drawer. And a box of t-lights. I suspect keeping t-lights handy is partly a hangover from growing up during power-workers strikes in the 70's ... And the fact that the cat is black, and in grave danger of getting trodden on in a power cut.

As for pens ... I can see seven from where I'm sitting now ...

[(Anonymous)]

Be Prepared, that's the Boy Scouts' solemn creed.

However, no-one has mentioned a pair of long-nosed pliers of the type known to generations to telephone engineers as "eighty-ones" because at some time in prehistory they were No 81 on the GPO tool list. They are great for fishing things out of other things, opening corned beef tins when the key is awol, holding small bits while you do other things to the said small bits etc etc etc. They also work as pliers. No kitchen drawer should be without them (and, as the wife of an ex-BT engineer, we have his n hers pairs).
On houses without vital things, my brother came across an English lit lecturer in an FE college who claimed not to have a BOOK in her house A house without books? Aaaaaargh.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Hey, I listed long-nosed pliers in my original list above! Wouldn't be without 'em.

[venta.livejournal.com]

And my calendar (of Latin Wit and Wisdom) was clearly playing along. The entry for the day I wrote the above was:

pretiosum quod utile

... what is useful is valuable