How Much Duck Sauce Do I Really Need?

As someone who grew up during the depression, which of course I didn't except for the recent one, I have a hard time  just throwing things away.

I was reminded of this tendency toward hoarding of useless things the other day when searching for a particular type of electrical plug, and I started rummaging through my stash of old electrical and computer things. It is not a huge cache, just about fifty pounds worth, but when I was finished with my unsuccessful hunt, I really questioned why I still had the connection chord for my Atari computer, before I put it away again.

I can't convince myself to  just throw all of that stuff in a landfill, so I use my closets and storage spaces to augment the local dump.

I know we all suffer from the "squirrel hiding nuts for the winter problem." It's in our DNA. There's a don't throw this away because you may need it gene within us, which has been there ever since Eve handed Adam the core, and he decided to keep it.

Today's example of my problem came as I was cleaning up the remnants from last nights, take out chinese dinner, and I went to throw the paper bag it all came in away.

On the bottom were about a half million little packs of unused duck sauce and soy sauce and enough paper napkins to use at a cheap wedding party of a thousand.

I actually got it all within  few feet of the trash can before I wavered, and then slowly turned around and put it back on the counter.

I got the napkins put away, but my wife keeps changing things in the kitchen, and I can't seem to find the duck sauce drawer.