I was at work until today, and the temperature was in the 70s (F, which is above 21 C to all you Celcioids). Now, I'm home and it's autumn again. I thought I was going to have to change my ancient mercury switch thermostat. After I bought a new battery operated one and read the instructions, I took the cover of the old one to check the wires.

I decided to chance turning it on. It hadn't been shutting off at all unless I screwed around with it for a long time, and even then, I didn't know what I'd done to shut it off. I had the cover off and turned the setting up, which tipped the mercury switch and turned the furnace on. Then I screwed around with a little doohickey in the middle that said "long" and some decimals. The mercury switch tipped back and the furnace shut off. I'm guessing the doohickey adjust something in the bi-metallic norglostat that makes it more or less sensitive. I'm guessing I probably screwed something up originally and accidentally just un-screwed it up, or screwed it down or just unembuggered it.

So although I have gained clutter in the form of a brand new battery operated thermostat, I have diminished clutter in the form of mercury having to be properly disposed of, the other bits of the thermostat and future batteries I will not have to use and dispose of, not to mention what might have happened if I'd gotten around to using the drill. There are cuss words I haven't used, walls I haven't destroyed because of wires that haven't accidentally fallen in, bandages I haven't used, trips to the emergency room I've prevented, along with the car accident and subsequent traffic pile-up that didn't happen because I wasn't trying to drive with a screwdriver sticking out of my hand. In short, I might have prevented the apocalypse.

No need for thanks. Glad to do it.

(It strikes me that decluttering something in my life means I get to clutter the thread big time, but I suppose it's worth it.)