Cleaning out the collection - Gee after 7 years should I throw that away...??

[Hartley]

The Monster Has Returned.... My casket is going to be a 40 foot shipping container it seems..

I have a 20 foot Pace Cargo trailer that we loaded back in 1999 when we moved out of a house and into a bus.
I built work benches, installed a full size washer & dryer and lots of storage. It's so heavy that my van can't pull it
over 35 mph....

I have discovered that problem of never throwing anything away if there is the remotest chance of needing it some day..... Is an
illness..... Gotta change that....

I spent days previously getting the good stuff out that I needed back a while ago and have decided to finish the job.
WOW... I really am a very sick packrat.. I just dumped a box that weighed 75 pounds into the junk trailer that must
have 3,000 computer cables and who knows what else in it. I don't want to look.

My wife comes out to look and then the war starts.... She is now going through every box and bag and asking me questions of whether to keep something. My feeling is that it has been lost for 6+ years you obviously didn't need it before now so why keep it.... Geeeezzz... So off to the house she goes with two arm loads... Gaaadzzz... The house is NEXT!!!!

Does anyone else have these problems of too much "good" junk and no place or justifiable reason (reality) to store it?

[Christyhicks]

OMG, are you kidding?   What's really bad is both Larry and I have the same disease. . packratitis! 

My kids laugh and all they say is, "Well, we'll have one HECK of an auction when you two pass on!"   

If we don't have it, it's not worth having!  Or, we're wondering where we can get it. . . .hmmmm, where DID you get all those cables. . .might come in handy. . ." hey, Larry. ... Guess what Dave has. . .  "  Christy

[Dallas]

DDR,

You aren't the only one that has packratitus!
When you say the pictures of my slide tray on an earlier post, you only saw the stuff that I didn't crop out of the pictures.
I don't have a shop any more so everything gets stuck on the picknick table or stacked behind it or stuffed in the bus somewhere.

All of my bays are full and I still need more room.
I was thinking that maybe when we have the rally in October, I will just put up a sign on any of the stuff laying out that says:
Pay What You Want, But Get It Out Of HERE!

I think I need a bigger bus and maybe another trailer.

I can't throw it away, I might need it sometime in the future!

Dallas

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

I don't have a chance to be a pack-Rat!

If I leave something laying around the house for 1 day, it's GONE......in the trash!

My wife has NEATFREAKITUS. Luckely it's not contagious.....LOL.  I can wear my favorite clothes every day of the week if I want.

Cause their washed, folded, and put away every night....Geezze!  Oh Well, I guss I'm Just Lucky to have a clean wife!

Nick-

[Christyhicks]

hahahaha, I always tease Larry that I don't recognize him if he doesn't have a Khaki shirt and blue shorts or jeans on! 

He always insists that this way he doesn't have to try to decide what to wear, he just walks into the closet and says, "Hmmmm, think I'll wear a . ... . .KHAKI shirt today! . .. .and what to go with it?   Hmmmmmm, think I'll wear BLUE SHORTS! "

I mean, 7 DAYS A WEEK! I say, "Well, honey, it IS the weekend!"  He responds with, "Yeah, but I'm going to be working outside, on something, at the shop. . . don't want to confuse you and make you think you're with someone else!"  

And then, believe it or not , he has 15, count em', FIFTEEN white polo shirts hanging in his closet, to go with  , yes, you guessed it, blue shorts or jeans.  

Christy

[Bosshosssport96]

You brothers are going about it in the wrong way,yes I'm a packrack to,but yet I don't have anything here,still have it all tho.I found another pack rat and gave it all to him,with the understanding if I ever needed a part,I could have it.Of course if he should ever need a part it his to keep,were both very happy,he has all of my junk,and I have a better looking garage....*smiling*.....Frank

[Devin & Amy]

Hi all,

We went by the house in October after living in the bus for about 7 months. i had the bus weighed before we went home and it weighed 32,500 lbs.

We have been fulltiming with four kids for three years, so we had accumulated a lot of stuff. When we moved out of the travel trailer into the bus I was so happy to have extra room.I could now carry ALL my tools, except maybe the planer and tablesaw, with us on the road.

So the wife and I cleaned up. I mean really got rid of anything and everything that was not essential. We ended up with a complete bay empty, and part of another.

When we went back on the road after 3 weeks off, I reweighed.
29,200 lbs.

PHEW!

Devin

[edvanland]

Getting ready to retire and go full timming.  I have lived in my place for twenty eight years.  Just think 2500 sq foot house, 3000 square foot garage, 1500 square foot shop, plus the out buildings.  So much stuff and it is really sad I have sold(gave away) stuff at garage sales, given things away, some things nobody wants, hauled some very good stuff to the dump, and still have more than I know what to do with.  You collect a lot of things in 40 years of marriage.  We were both pack rats.  She passed away two years ago so I am going to live our dream of going full time.  Me, my dog, and two cats. 
On the raod sood in a 1973 MCI 7.
ED

[Hartley]

DDR,

You aren't the only one that has packratitus!
When you say the pictures of my slide tray on an earlier post, you only saw the stuff that I didn't crop out of the pictures.
I don't have a shop any more so everything gets stuck on the picknick table or stacked behind it or stuffed in the bus somewhere.

All of my bays are full and I still need more room.
I was thinking that maybe when we have the rally in October, I will just put up a sign on any of the stuff laying out that says:
Pay What You Want, But Get It Out Of HERE!

I think I need a bigger bus and maybe another trailer.

I can't throw it away, I might need it sometime in the future!

Dallas

But, Sir.... DUH...

In the Category of:  " WHAT WAS I THINKING ?? "

I have a 9'6" X 40 foot steel container behind the house, A 10 X 8 shed, a 2-car garage and more. The problem is that no matter what I do there is a growing pile of stuff behind the container, The shed is filling with lumber and other stuff, The garage I started to clean out but ended up just moving the good stuff into higher piles. I still have a trailer full of stuff that I loaded and hauled to one of the bus rallies in 2001, I still havent unloaded it yet but the pile keeps growing there also.

Granted I am down to one bus, But it is basically as full as I dare while still trying to make it usable.

I have identified the problem and it all comes down to all the little fiddelly things. They seem to replicate when I am not looking, The problem there was that I haven't been looking...

I started heaving old power tools a while ago, I didn't realize how many cordless drills and screwdrivers that I have abandoned when they stopped working. I found at least 6 on one bench. I figure there are probably 6 more hiding in the pile. The computer stuff is all going going until gone. Tape drives, Tapes, ZIP disks, CD disks from day-one, floppy disks, DOS disks, 2 notebook computers.

Boxes and buckets of old bolts removed during strip out of buses.. Geeez what was I thinking?

I have found half a hardware store in there already, No wonder that 4,000 lb trailer weighs 12,000 lbs. It's all up front in the nose!!!

This pains me no-end, I know that I MUST get rid of all the junk, My brain is straining against what must happen......

Hooked on Junk....

My problem is that my wife will outlive me by many years, I know that already, I just wouldn't feel right leaving such a huge mess
of stuff that she would only have to dispose of later. It's a double jeopardy deal. She has a bigger case of PackRatItis than I do and I can win awards all alone....

She packed an entire 2 bedroom house into an RTS in a week, Six years later it took 3 weeks to unpack stuff that had been forgotten or hidden away so well that I was not even aware of where it was inside.

I must be brain damaged... I remember the days that I could pack everything that I owned into a Pinto 3-door and move overnight...

What the heck happened?

[Ncbob]

Dave, if there is anything I can't stand it is to see a man in pain.  We're going to winter in Bushnell this winter so I'll contact you and come by and see if I can help you out. 

I'm going to go through my pile of 'goodies' before we go to Dallas' in October and see if, perhaps I can trade some of what I can't use for some more of what I can't use. 

My wife doesn't call me a 'packrat'..she calles me a 'string-saver'.  One never knows when a piece of string will get you out of a predicament.

Bob

[Dallas]

Anothe "What Was I Thinking?"
I was just piddling around going through some boxes after reading and responding to this post.
I found 2 full boxes (apple boxes) of mother boards that were obsolete in 1997. 2 boxes of 4X-10X CDrom drives, 10 floppy drives, a shoebox full 486 processors another full of 100mhz to 233mhz P1 processors, piles of 30 pin memory.... and the list goes on and on and on.
This all came from our computer shop 2 years ago.
I found a pile of black tractor insulating foam that I had a plan for at one time and now I don't remember what.Pieces of Luan that are too big to throw away, but too small to use for anything. a couple or 3 coffee cans full of bent nails, bolts, screws, washers and unidentifiable pieces that came from 2 different buses.
I also found 14 cordless drill batteries that I no longer have the drills to.
11 circular saw blades to have new caebide teeth put in so I can use them again?
a box of broken hacksaw and jig saw blades that might come in handy for something?
3 partial rolls of 14gage THHN (red insulation) with a total of probably less than 20' remaining total.
And that's just from one side of one bay!

I gotta get rid of this stuff!

Dallas

[niles500]

2 irrefutable rules:

1) If you haven't used something for a year - You never will

2) The day after you dispose of any item in #1 - You will need it

[Hartley]

Gads... Dallas I didn't mean to start an epidemic....

I dug deep enough to drag the front workbench out...

I found a Drill Press, TableTop belt sander and tabletop Band saw in there... I remember the drill press but forgot
about the other stuff....

And hey, I found my computer room from 1998 in the big box in the corner... I opened it, Mary jumped and started grabbing
stuff out of the box.... I slapped at her hands and dragged it out and lobbed it up on the junk trailer....

I told her that I don't want to know whats in that box.. It's been out of sight for 6 years plus and I just didn't want
to know. I think there were about 10 motherboards in the bottom and manuals, hardware, adapters and lots of books
and probably software..... NAH..... It's outta here !!!!

Like the case of brand new SCSI array adapters made by ATTO and sold with the 20 boxes of Microdyne SCSI software still sealed
that went onto the trailer. 15 SCSI hot swap drives, 10 IDE drives, loads and loads of electronic components.....
Where did I get all this stuff?? Arrrrghh!!!

I am trying to figure out why I kept the control panel cover off a wheelchair lift from a 1983 RTS.... Useless...

I expect to find a case of Ferrenghi StemBolts and case of GAAACCKKK in there yet.....
I tossed Mr.Spocks Guide to the Enterprise earlier today..

It was in poor shape after being buried in the lint-trap trailer
for so long. So went the old HOOMDORM jumping robotic spider and the silver mechanical dog that just made noise...
all had suffered from being stumbled over and squished over the years...

The only help that I need now is MENTAL help...... What was I thinking?? Arrrrrgggghhhh.....

[NewbeeMC9]

Lucky me, my little out-building caught fire , finally figured out what to do with all that stuff.

[Denny]

Like a lot of others who  commented, I am a "pack rat".  I have two sheds at my house and every 3 to 4 years I get to the point that I just open the door and shove something in.  I know it is crazy but I save old parts when I replace something on the bus.  The thought is that if I have to change it again I can use parts off of the old one.  I theory this is good but what happens is that if I am home I just buy a new part and still keep the old one.  I am due to clean the sheds out and hope to use the 2 year rule.  If I haven't used it in 2 years out it goes.  But, that is very hard for a true "pack rat".

Denny
4104
Huntington Beach