Dale the Builder has rented the big barn behind me as his warehouse/storage/office/dump for 30+ years.

For reasons involving the Landlord, he's moving out. His workers are sorting through 30+ years of crap and the dumpster is getting a real workout. By agreement with him and his workers, anything they think I might be interested in will set next to the dumpster and I'll go through it daily, grab what I want, toss the rest.

So far I've scored:

Homelite Leaf Blower, running after a bit of tweaking and fresh fuel, lines and filter.

Makita Bench Top Table Saw. Replaced the cord, have brushes on order and need to polish up the commutator. Also got the folding stand that goes with it, nice and rugged, will make a great portable work table.

Jet 10" table saw. Good mechanically, neglected with a lot of surface rust. Cleaning it up and will give it to my Grandson once it's refurbished.

The usual assortment of hardware, and chunks of steel and aluminum big enough to put in my stash.

Eventually, I'm going to run out of space and have to weed out my own collection of crap...

Well there is a reason why this book is a bestseller right now, yes it's an actual real book:



And dumpster services that do "estate cleanouts" are booming right now too

Curse. Get rid of that shit.

quote:

Originally posted by 400m:
Curse. Get rid of that shit.

NEVER!

That's what kids and grandkids are for...

Never.....One mans junk is another mans treasures..................... drill sgt.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
Well there is a reason why this book is a bestseller right now, yes it's an actual real book:

Yep. I’m in the beginning process of doing it and doing it way earlier than needed. Want everything streamlined so I’m ready to move when I can pull it off financially. Fuck doing it right before a move. Plus mentally, I think it’s a great thing. Less shit, less obstacles.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:

quote:

Originally posted by 400m:
Curse. Get rid of that shit.

NEVER!

That's what kids and grandkids are for...

Having been that grandkid and looking down the barrel of being that kid in the next 10 years, I can't say I agree. But I am that way myself and don't have any kids. I'll hopefully be able to liquidate my stash before the ride ends or my sister is gonna hate me.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
Well there is a reason why this book is a bestseller right now, yes it's an actual real book:



And dumpster services that do "estate cleanouts" are booming right now too

I can't express how much I don't want any of these "family heirlooms" crap

Blessing or a Curse...Yes!

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:

quote:

Originally posted by 400m:
Curse. Get rid of that shit.

NEVER!

That's what kids and grandkids are for...

Hint: your kids and grandkids have too much of their own shit and don't want your shit too...

But, some day one of those things might be needed again, and then you'll be sorry you got rid of it all!

We filled a dumpster to capacity in cleaning out Dads house. I don’t regret it.

Sure, there were many things that were just daily bits. Clothes, what have you. Some are family things that are/were touchstones to memory, even if they were his memories and not ours. Some of it was crap, but we had a few laughs when we found it. A few things were Moms, gone 5 years prior.

Remember an item, tell a story, toss it in the dumpster. It was another funeral, of sorts, and rather appropriate.

Plus I found his shotgun stock patterns from the 50s!

quote:

Originally posted by Prefontaine:
Yep. I’m in the beginning process of doing it and doing it way earlier than needed. Want everything streamlined so I’m ready to move when I can pull it off financially. Fuck doing it right before a move. Plus mentally, I think it’s a great thing.

Same here. Most kids don't want he fine china you got from your grandmother or the silver set. And whatever you've got, most of it ain't worth spit anymore. I have two paper grocery bags full of all kinds of cables and cords headed to the county electronics recycling.

Its a curse for sure! I just moved 6 months ago and moved from a 2200 sqaure foot house to a 1400 sqaure foot house.. I wanted to get a roll off dumpster but my wife thought it was too expensive so we ended up making 8 trips to the dump with a 8x10 trailer. New garage has so much stuff that I cant walk around at all

Prior to 2016 I was a terrible pack rat . We had a two car garage that you couldn't fit a car in.
Then we had a flood of Biblical proportions. We lost nearly everything. It sure changes your perspective on things . Now , my wife parks her car in the garage and I'm committed to never accumulating that much crap ever again .

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
Well there is a reason why this book is a bestseller right now, yes it's an actual real book:



And dumpster services that do "estate cleanouts" are booming right now too

Brilliant idea, I can buy this and add it to the unending book piles, in storage, the garage, the living room the back seat of my truck, put it on a list to read and when I get to it on the list if I can still find it I'll probably read it maybe,and if I put it down halfway through and never see it again, at least I tried, right?

quote:

Is Packrat-itis a blessing or a curse?

YES

Starts out a blessing but ends up a curse.

The small stuff especially is a curse for me. If I had a buck for every time I couldn't find something I'd saved when I actually could use it, well...

Wife and I are in the process of decluttering. Like others have noted, makes life better for us and unburdens the kids when we go. She's good at it, me, not so much.

But the experience my brother and I had going through my Dad's house after he died is informative. Found all sorts of stuff we couldn't explain. Box of 50 crab crackers (those things you break open shell fish with). A mall electric outboard motor (Dad never had a boat).

quote:

If I had a buck for every time I couldn't find something I'd saved when I actually could use it, well...

I'm halfway stuck between past and present. It' finally sinking in that all that hardware I have in the garage for potential future use will not be where I can find it when needed because there is so much crap. When I need it, I can get it in less than a day from Amazon or HD.
Keeping stuff is not free--you pay for a self-storage unit, it ends up costing more than everything inside is worth. If in your garage, it steals space until you can't to the woodworking you hoped to do after retirement.

I'm trying to donate stuff, which for some reason feels better than having it hauled to the dump.
There was a Habitat Restore place in SD, but it closed down. Father Joe's Villages here has taken two truckload of furniture and household stuff.
I've given about 15-20 boxes of books to the Friends of the Poway Library. Last time I went they had a new sign up: no more than three boxes of donated books a day.

Today 1-800-Got-Junk came, and for $650 took 2/3 of a truckload of junk from our side yard.

Allied Moving agent came yesterday; says I have >5000 pounds of "stuff" in the garage. Tools, ammo, family papers. On the family papers: we tried going through them. We would never leave San Diego if we persisted in that. So we don't look, just move it to storage. When the music stops, our kids can call the estate sale people.

The stuff we treasure for sentimental reasons means nothing to them.