A few days ago I posted about how I use my kitchen trash can (a 5-gallon bucket) as a kind of stash for materials I might end up being able to use. The trash only needs emptying every month or so; one time I went four months.
A couple of days ago I used a can of tomatoes (part of my policy of periodically using-up and then replacing my hurricane food supply), and put the can and its lid by the trash.
Today I was able to use the lid as material for shims to strengthen an old rake I found at curbside. The rake, though otherwise sturdy and made of good materials, had gone wobbly with age; the shims seem to help.
It may be hard to tell from the photos but the little pieces of metal are jammed into the gaps between metal and wood to make the rake less wobbly.
P.S. Well whaddya know, just as I finished writing this post I got a text from a neighbor asking if I had any saran wrap. Usually the answer would be no (I don’t buy any of that kind of stuff — plastic bags, wrap, etc), but in my trusty TRASH STASH, it just so happened there were two pieces of Saran Wrap (which had been brought by another neighbor when she brought over my half of a watermelon we agreed to split). I grabbed the two pieces of wrap out of the trash and gave them to the neighbor who needed them. BTW in case you are worried, he wasn’t using them for food-wrapping purposes, but rather, to wrap as a water-repelling layer on top of an Ace bandage around his leg. Ended up being just right for his purpose.