How do we accumulate so much stuff?

[imjin138]

There is a Military show in Waukesha in about a week and half. I planned on taking a few items for sale or trade. As I was going thruogh my stuff I realized why my wife gets so annoyed.

I spent 13 years on active duty and bought cups, steins, and other items and have patches, pins, and plaques an odd helmet or two. As I am gathering the stuff up I try to recall where and when got it and as of right now I have my kitchen table full of the stuff plus my work bench down stairs and I have cleaned up the basement.


Now I think she has been suggesting I go through my books and thin those out.

PS I have lots of baseball style caps and cowboy hats too.

[GF]

The stuff just kinda' piles up after you live a long time.

Wait 'til you buy stuff you already have because you forgot you had one in the first place.

And then do it again.

GF

[cass]

We've accumulated stuff for over forty years - useless stuff. Wife wanted to clean out our storage building because it wouldn't hold any more. Simple solution was to just buy another storage building. We've got three now, and they are filling fast. The kids just can't stand it that we have a little room for storage. When we die, they'll be tasked with cleaning it up!

[Wyatt Burp]

Originally Posted by cass

We've accumulated stuff for over forty years - useless stuff. Wife wanted to clean out our storage building because it wouldn't hold any more. Simple solution was to just buy another storage building. We've got three now, and they are filling fast. The kids just can't stand it that we have a little room for storage. When we die, they'll be tasked with cleaning it up!

When my dad was on his deathbed in late '08 he laughed and said to me, 'You're gonna have fun clearing out this place!" Boy was he right. Talk about child abuse! (just kidding). We just sold the place Thursday and just finished filling the 3rd 40 yard dumpster to the max. We're talking 16 tons of accumulated stuff on a 1/2 acre and a 2500 square foot house in the Sierra foothills. Not the biggest area but so much junk!
After the first full dumpster we came home and immediatly cleaned out our shed and had it picked up. Oh. All the guns didn't go in the dumpster. I kept those!

[Faulkner]

Yeah, but . . . when I throw something out that I've not used in 20 years I find I need it the following week.

[Rule3]

The wise old saying:

Your stuff is proportional to your available space.

I thought I would be able to get a car in my two car garage when I bought a 10 x 12 outdoor shed to put all my outdoor lawn equipment in (Florida houses have no attics or basements and closets hold two shirts and a pair of pants)

Well my garage looked good for a month or so, could squeeze one small car in. Well both cars are out in the driveway again.

[Iggy]

When my wife's Granddad died, we had to sell the place and all of the stuff on it. 80 acre farmstead and 70 years of their haunting farm sales, garage sales, and flea markets.

We held a "dealers" auction. Stuff went for a dime on the dollar in many instances, but it all had to sell. Antique dealers bought boxes of stuff for 50 cents a box.

We had two auctioneers going in two separate locations on the farm. Sale lasted 12 hours and we still hauled a pickup load of leftovers to the dump.

My wife and I came home and started cleaning things out.. Then my folks died and it took us 4 years to get rid of all of their "stuff"

Wife and I came home and cleaned out some more stuff.

We are really trying to weed things out so that my son won't have to go through what we did, but it still ain't gonna be purty...

[Bib]

"It's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it!"

[ArcticFox]

...here's a good one, George Carlin talks about "Stuff" YouTube - George Carlin Talks About "Stuff"

[Bullet Bob]

This thread is the truth! I know I have a lanyard ring for a 1917 Heritage, and a "winter" trigger guard for a model 41, but I've been looking for 3 weeks now without success. Organizing as I go has made me realize how much money my son is going to lose when I depart, and he throws out all my junk, like old grips, scopes, etc.

It has provided the impetus for me to try and get rid of some it, I'm selling a medium format film camera as we speak.

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

We had a message string "Are you a Pack Rat?" here some time ago. The philosophy of the Pack Rat was best summed up a high school friend-"Oops, might need that some day!"
I read that Rudy Vallee was a dedicated collector of theater memorabilia, he willed his collection to the UCLA (?) Theater department, they found all sorts of rare and choice items, first night programs, autographs, etc.
In the mid 1990s I acquired TWO complete sets of the McDonald's Flinstones mugs. Gave them to a neighborhood kid, boy did his eyes light up.
Interestingly enough I know 2 men in my church married to Russian "mail order"-actually Internet-brides. They are not that acquisitve and are somewhat puzzled by the American fascination with "stuff".
And as a dedicated thrift/rummage/yard/garage/estate sale hound and a curbside commando I have benefited from others" desire to "deacquisition"-I found my recliner left out on a curb one night. Don't care for its color scheme but it is mechanically sound and the price was right.

[bigolddave]

We are having our annual garage sale in two weeks. We have just started going through my wife's cookbooks (4K+) and so far have found ten duplicates! One was of all things a very nice Slovak cookbook, which was unexpected. No duplicates of "Chinese Home Cooking" yet, however.

One way to get your offspring to pray for long life for you is to show them the junk they will have to deal with.

[Jellybean]

My wife complains that I have stuff in packages that I'll never use, which may be true, but she never says a word when she needs something in the middle of the night, on a holiday, and I walk into my 'man sty' and pull whatever it is out.

I also have a closet full of weapons and other mall ninja stuff that I'd thought about trying to photograph and putting on here, but that would just confirm everyones suspicions about me.

But what is really funny is that I just bought a Black and Decker Professional jar opener for $2.99, and a Kodak Christmas collectable picture frame, with the certificate of authenticity, for 49 cents at a Goodwill store today. Neither has ever even been used! I've been looking for these thing my whole life.

[4864]

I am a pack rat for sure. My older brother is too and we got it from our Father. The past two summers I have done some major cleaning out of my garage. This past fall my Girlfriend moved in with me. A two bedroom apartment was great for just me! We have both done a lot of Spring cleaning. We put together about 12 bags and boxes for the fall rummage sale with my local Black powder Club. Early this year I took about 10 boxes full of stuff to the January gun show. I foolishly got just one table. Sold a ton of stuff and made $2,000. I did sell three guns but most of the of it was holsters, grips, gun boxes and Military Surplus and went quick. Last month I hit the garage again. Found more stuff for the September gun show and lots to list here and maybe ebay.
Bad thing is I and the Girlfriend love second hand stores and rummage sales. We have to go together in order to control each other!

[Frank237]

Last year I started cleaning up the basement loading room, gun, ammo, components area...as we were going to install a new heating system,with AC, run duct work, etc.

A few days into the cleanup I open one of 40 Tupperware boxes and find all of my Gun show stuff; tablecover, sale tags, info books, tape, etc. On the bottom of the box is a VERY nice M-14-2 K-38 with a tag on it of $225. I had NOT had a table at a Show for probably TEN YEARS!! thankfully it was in a pistol rug, had been rubbed with RIG and wrapped in a silicoone clooth. Plus the basement is not at all damp.

THAT gun got me thinking how totally out of hand my STUFF had gotten. VBeen on a quest ever since to thin things out...it feels good to have some SPACE.

I think it's Genetic...my Dad was a pack rat too.

FN in MT

[rburg]

Stuff is my specialty. I have tons of it. We moved out of the old house in January so it could be torn down (great location) and the new one built. I tossed out way too much junk. In fact, I need to go to Home Despot to "rebuy" some of it. I was foolish and listened to my sons. They were selfish and were only thinking of themselves. I'm sure their reasoning was "Dad'll die pretty soon and we'll be stuck with all this ****."

I can never move again. They won't help me, and I'm too old, feeble, weak, and lazy to do it all myself. Ummm, I left off fat and irritable. During the move (into an apartment and 2 huge storage units), we tried to box everything. We even tried to label the boxes. It didn't work well because of too much stuff and a lot of it they didn't even know or understand what it was. One box I found yesterday had a label on it "Grips". Yep. To the unwashed masses, its just junk. But not a sole here would have pitched it or doubted the contents.

And out in the garage...I have a box (plenty of them, really). This one in particular was made by me back in the mid 1970s under the assumption I would be moving every few years. its constructed out of 1/2" plywood and its 2' x 1 1/2' by 4'. Big box, nice rope handles. Its moved with us since then. And the contents haven't changed since its original packing. And that stuff came straight from several cardboard boxes. It includes 40 year old wedding presents, and other stuff. Good stuff inside, but nothing we'll ever use. Anyone think their wife would allow them to toss out wedding presents?

But one thing I really like about my/our stuff. Every box you open turns up really nice stuff you've forgotten about. Like meeting an old friend, except you like the stuff and it doesn't come with baggage. I'm not throwing it away, either.

My wife keeps hinting at having a yard sale. Its OK with me, as long as the stuff she disposes of is her ****, not my good stuff. But our efforts are now toward organizing. So I can find the stuff I want instead of heading out to the hardware or gun store.

[Trooperdan]

Frank, SOLD on the M14-2!

[4864]

Originally Posted by rburg

Stuff is my specialty. I have tons of it. We moved out of the old house in January so it could be torn down (great location) and the new one built. I tossed out way too much junk. In fact, I need to go to Home Despot to "rebuy" some of it. I was foolish and listened to my sons. They were selfish and were only thinking of themselves. I'm sure their reasoning was "Dad'll die pretty soon and we'll be stuck with all this ****."

I can never move again. They won't help me, and I'm too old, feeble, weak, and lazy to do it all myself. Ummm, I left off fat and irritable. During the move (into an apartment and 2 huge storage units), we tried to box everything. We even tried to label the boxes. It didn't work well because of too much stuff and a lot of it they didn't even know or understand what it was. One box I found yesterday had a label on it "Grips". Yep. To the unwashed masses, its just junk. But not a sole here would have pitched it or doubted the contents.

And out in the garage...I have a box (plenty of them, really). This one in particular was made by me back in the mid 1970s under the assumption I would be moving every few years. its constructed out of 1/2" plywood and its 2' x 1 1/2' by 4'. Big box, nice rope handles. Its moved with us since then. And the contents haven't changed since its original packing. And that stuff came straight from several cardboard boxes. It includes 40 year old wedding presents, and other stuff. Good stuff inside, but nothing we'll ever use. Anyone think their wife would allow them to toss out wedding presents?

But one thing I really like about my/our stuff. Every box you open turns up really nice stuff you've forgotten about. Like meeting an old friend, except you like the stuff and it doesn't come with baggage. I'm not throwing it away, either.

My wife keeps hinting at having a yard sale. Its OK with me, as long as the stuff she disposes of is her ****, not my good stuff. But our efforts are now toward organizing. So I can find the stuff I want instead of heading out to the hardware or gun store.

Well put! I agree with you on keeping that good stuff. I have tossed plan old broken junk, but still have a lot of good stuff in the garage I am not going to sell. The Girl Friend doesn't like it but she is that same way in a smaller setting.