Keep a thing seven years and it’s bound to come in handy.

This Russian proverb expresses a pragmatic, slightly humorous faith in the future usefulness of what one saves. “Seven years” functions as a folkloric measure of a long but imaginable span—long enough for circumstances to change, needs to recur, or scarcity to make an old object valuable again. The saying can be read as an endorsement of thrift and careful stewardship in a world where replacement is costly or uncertain. At the same time, it gently rationalizes hoarding: if you keep something long enough, you can always claim it was “bound” to be useful eventually. Its enduring appeal lies in balancing prudence with self-aware wit about human attachment to possessions.