Folks who were raised during the Great Depression sometimes have habits that infuriate their Baby Boomer children. Habits like saving gobs of plastic bags in a drawer or plastic sour cream containers.

Or keeping random old mucky screws in jars.

The fact is, I understand these habits. We save plastic grocery store bags and reuse them when we go to the farmer’s market. Plastic containers are great for paint touch-ups and small staining jobs, particularly when you need to mix stains to get the right color. And when you refinish antiques, you often run into pieces that have missing screws and nails.

The problem is that when you buy a new screw or a new nail, it sticks out like a sore thumb when you’re looking at an old piece. I’ve tried buying fancy finish screws like “antiqued brass” and sometimes that’s great, but they don’t come in enough sizes. You never know what size you might need and frequently it’s not convenient to bring a large piece of furniture to the hardware store with you. I’ve also tried spray painting screws, but I don’t always have exactly the right color and it seems kind of silly to buy an entire new can of spray paint to paint a single screw.

Hence, the jar of screws.

I noticed when I was prepping my husband’s old dresser for paint that these screws are probably at least 30 years old and have nice large heads, always a plus when working with stripped screw holes. So I found a jam jar in a stash of jars I keep lying around and now I’ve started my own random old screw jar.

I’m sure my parents would be horrified. But I think my great grandfather would probably understand perfectly.