Don't Throw Anything Away...

Now, trying to be tidy (difficult for me), I try to consistently get rid of anything that I don't need - it might not be thrown away, it might be given away eg to a charity shop. When it comes to bike spares though, I've learnt through experience to keep just about everything no matter how small because it is likely to come in useful later on.

This becomes apparent particularly when I buy a new accessory; typically it doesn't fit the bike as it comes and needs something or other to fit it properly. This might be spacers, screws or zipties. These will have come from something else I've bought previously, where I've found that they weren't necessary.

One of the most useful things to keep are the little bits of rubber that come with accessories which I use as spacers to stop things slipping on the handlebars eg lights. They can be used to stop things slipping or metal on metal grating.

Anything small can be kept in the "biscuit tin" whilst larger items can be kept in the improvised spares cupboard:

Plenty of space for new bits 'n pieces and I've bought another "biscuit tin" for when there isn't

Not exactly super tidy but at least it's all in the same place...

Funnily enough, whilst I knew it was a good idea to keep spares, I would have drawn the line at the cardboard boxes in which I'd received my new bikes which I recently disposed of. Lo and behold, I found myself regretting it when I came to work on them; could have done with the cardboard to lay on...

Also, probably more importantly, best to keep any instructions that come with anything you've bought. Many, including myself have through experience, had to follow the rule that, if all else fails, read the instructions...

A lot of manufacturers' instruction manuals are downloadable on the internet, but in case they aren't, best to keep the ones that came with whatever you bought; they don't take up much space (usually). It's good to use them as a reference point as well as use other media.

My instruction collection: thought I'd play about with contrast, brightness etc on the Windows picture controls: not sure it was a good idea...