Justin's bedroom was so full of flat bicycle tires, bent tennis rackets, deflated basketballs, and games with missing pieces that you could barely get in the door. His parents _ him to clean out his room. "What use is a fish tank with a hole in the bottom?" his father asked. But Justin simply smiled and repeated his motto, "Never throw anything out, you never know when it might come in handy." When Justin was away from home, he always carried his blue backpack--a smaller version of his bedroom--a place to store the many objects that he collected. It was so worn and stretched that it hardly resembled a backpack anymore. Justin had earned a reputation for figuring things out and getting people out of otherwise hopeless situations. Many of his classmates and neighbors sought him out when they needed help with a problem. On the first day of school, his friend Kenny, came looking for Justin. "Do you think you have something in your bag that could help me remember my locker combination?" he asked. "I lost the piece of paper it was written on. I have a science class in two minutes and if I'm late on the first day it'll make me look bad for the rest of the year." Kenny looked really worried. "Relax," Justin said, taking his backpack off and unzipping the top. "Remember how you borrowed my notebook in homeroom to write the combination down? Well, I know how we can recover what you wrote." He took the notebook and a soft lead pencil out of his bag. The page that Kenny had written on had left faint marks on another page in the notebook. Justin held the pencil on its side and rubbed it lightly over the marks. Slowly but surely the numbers of the locker combination appeared in white, set off by the gray pencil rubbings. "That's amazing!" Kenny said. "I owe you one." And he dashed off to open his locker. It was just another day in the life of the boy whose motto was "Never throw anything out, you never know when it might come in handy." In what way is Justin's backpack a smaller version of his bedroom?
He uses it as a place to store objects. He uses it to carry his books and sports equipment. His parents tell him to clean it all the time. He's had it for as long as he can remember.