Question About Harry's Gift To Mr. Weasley

[Carol]

Potioncat:
> I recall having a drawer full of wire, fuses, nuts, bolts, picture 
hangers and assorted stuff. We called it the junk drawer. It was full
of stuff you might need sometime. Generally, when you need it you
can't  find it so you go buy more. I can imagine that either Petunia
grabbed a  handful of stuff from the drawer to send to Harry as his
gift, or he took it himself with the idea of giving it to Mr. Weasley.
>
Carol responds:

I *still* have a junk drawer, with a screwdriver, needlenose pliers,
scissors, twist ties, picture hangers, old film cans full of pennies
or quarters, plastic forks and spoons still in cellophane, batteries
of various sizes, stray pieces of wire, screws, nails, and anything
else smallish and utilitarian that I might someday need. (No fuse
wire, though. My appartment has circuit breakers.)

As for Harry's taking stuff from the junk drawer to give to Mr.
Dursley, I suppose that's possible, but I think it's more likely that
he exchanged a bit of gold for Muggle money in Diagon Alley when he
bought his books and later popped into a hardware store on one of his
walks away from the Dursley house. He couldn't have spent all his time
in the play park, especially if the weather happened to be bad. It's
just one of those little details that JKR didn't really think about,
so we can account for it in whatever way seems plausible to us. (At
least it's not an inconsistency like some other details.)

Carol, wondering how Potioncat lives without her junk drawer ;-)