Staple it together and call it bad weather

I was working on a case study for a class I’m taking last night. Finished up with a set of notes and went to staple them together.

Nada. Now I’ve got to find the staples. This is not normally an easy task as I only have to fill the thing up every year or so. This time I got lucky; I had a vague recollection of a couple of places they could have been from last year. The first place I looked…presto. Take that, alcohol!

The box originally contained 5000 staples in nice neat rows. It probably has about 4800 left. I just don’t use many staples outside of my daily grind…and I don’t buy my own for that. I thought about this a while, and it led to math.

I probably go through between 5-10 staples a month at home. If there are 4800 staples left, then at maximum usage I’ll have enough for 480 months. Most years, as far as I can tell, are still composed of 12 months. That means I’ve got enough staples for 40 years. As I’m 34 now, unless they rust, are stolen, or are rendered obsolete by high-definition Japanese stapler technology that one box should last until I’m 74 under present assumptions.

I don’t know if I’m going to live that long…not entirely sure I even want to. But if I do, I have a feeling that my paperwork output in need of stapling will be tapering off by that time.

I’m never going to have to buy, nor steal from work, desktop staples again.