A while ago, a builder mate of mine put together a steel-frame house. These are somewhat like a huge Meccano set, with all of the mostly-prefabricated steel frames bolted together. To screw the bolts onto the nuts, he used a cordless drill.

Well, that’s not strictly true. He used lots of cordless drills. When I called in to see him he had about half a dozen cordless drills lying on the scrap heap. When I asked him what they were doing there, he said "One has stripped gears, the rest have dead batteries."

"It’s a lot quicker, easier and cheaper for me just to buy another drill," he said.

That made me think about my own collection of cordless drills. At last count, I had in my "junk box" (and in my case it’s just that) about eight of the things. Or at least they would be cordless drills, if they still had batteries to power them. As it is, they’re just about worthless – but I haven’t the heart to throw them out!

My junk collection, for want of a better word, dates back the best part of 20 years – ever since the first electric drills, free of the shackles of a power cord, came onto the market.

Every year or two since, I have added another one. And before you think that has been a bit (a lot?) frivolous, I have to say that only a couple of those purchases have been by choice – perhaps to get a more powerful model or one with more features. In one case it was an absolute bargain during a stocktake at a hardware store that I couldn’t walk past – like about 90% off normal price!