I've been in my current digs (avec girlfriend and her cat) for about four years now. In the same town for that plus about six months. When you're in an apartment or townhouse that has no garage, no shed, no covered parking spots, and only a paltry patio, it's difficult to rationalize purchasing too many tools or having too many projects. Every time I think of buying something that is larger than a T-shirt or a book or a DVD, I have the same questions for myself:
- How are you going to pay for it?
I'm not poor by any means, but I'm not well off enough to buy my own house or a place that has the aforementioned garage/shed/covered parking
- How much will you use it?
I have that tendency that some others share where I start a lot of projects or think I'll get excited about a various hobby, only to fizzle out soon afterwards. That didn't stop me from buying an electric guitar and amp, nor did it stop me from buying a few paint supplies and building my own easel to try out some Bob Ross-style painting, but the results of those make the next time around a little less likely to result in a purchase.
This is the biggie. At this point, all our closets are pretty much busting at the seams. Two bicycles stored in the master bedroom closet? Check. Or, well, until I took one out, rode it a few times, and have now left it in the kitchen because it's filthy and I don't want to clean it or put it back in the closet. New tool chest loaded with tools in the other bedroom (office) closet? Check. And a damn good thing it is, too, because I kept buying tools and was just piling them on each other...as a result, this was a great purchase, but that doesn't make the closet feel any more full. Bowling ball bag, car wash bucket, old birdhouse, box of paints/adhesives/aerosols, and two coolers in the downstairs coat closet? Check.You get the idea. It's a damn mess. Girlfriend doesn't complaint much, but if I bring it up she will share my anxiety about it. The cat doesn't complain at all--what a trouper. But that doesn't mean there aren't still ideas running through my head. Occasionally one of them is even decent!
