Third wash this morning and the mug just gets thicker. Rust-colored ring around the inside, old pigment that never fully came off, a hairline crack in the handle I keep meaning to fix and never do. Every other mug in the house is fine. I keep reaching for the broken one.

I don't know when it turned into a rule. Maybe when I realized I'd rather lose an hour coaxing a brush clean than buy a new one. Same with the palette I never scrub down fully, just layer over. There's something under there I don't want to dig up.

Today I'm wrecking a piece that's been too tidy for three weeks. Ripping it up, gluing it down wrong on purpose. Feels better already.

Anyone else got a broken thing they won't replace? Not a sentimental object, an actual tool. One you could swap for ten bucks and won't.