I still keep it in a cardboard box full of other electronics related stuff, which includes my shitty soldering iron (which is shitty enough to have made me thought that I was bad at soldering, until I once put my hands on a Weller) and other pieces of out of dysfunctional electronics that I have hoarded, thinking that I might do something with them, someday.

I gave this as a reply to your comment because it is in the same spirit.

The iron and the wire are the most used components out of that box.