I hate to throw out any thing cause I might need it.

Same thing happens to me I finally throw something out because I'm tired of moving it and then I need it almost the next week.
A least I'm not like my father who will keep old damaged bearings and spark plugs.

 

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one that does things that way...

 

I consider myself as a packrat with a bad memory.

 

Got tins and drawers full that I call my "stash". My neighbors know about it and use more of it than I do these days.

 

It's got me in trouble with the city right now!

 

At the beginning of this season I went to use my grill and the damn thing needed a new burner and the heat dispersing shield was rotted. I went to evilbay and bought new ones. Well they came in and the burner fit fine but the shield was too short. We were having a party the next day so I went down into my man cave and found an old floor support from an old project and wouldn't ya know it fit "PERFECTLY" between the tabs. Absolutely no modifications at all. I figure that piece was cut to size over 20 years ago and has been waiting for me to use it. I fired up the grill, got a kiss from the wife who said "That's why I love you" "Now cook me a burger"....So I got to grillin. This is just one of thousands of stories like this. The neighbors and friends call me "Jim Depot". I'm like the hardware stores version of NOAH as I have (At least) 2 of everything...maybe more.

By the way they did make good on another "Correct" heat shield I just haven't installed it yet. The floor support works good so why replace it.

 

I sell some car parts and other stuff but I never get rid of material. I have some old junk around over 50 years . Who knows I might need it some day. I have shipping contaners full of car parts. I have cars full of car parts I have buildings full of car parts. I have over 15 metal racks full of raw material. Never throw away anything. swap yes sell to a user yes. scrap NO.

 

For the last 33 years I've lived in the most beautifully maintained homes, courtesy of my wonderful, organised wife of that same 33 years. (33 next week actually) Our homes have always been perfectly maintained... And neat.

Not so my garage/workshop/man cave, whatever I've had to call my 'own' space, and it's been the bane of her life for most of those 33 years. I'm a hoarder, and I come from a long line of hoarders. When my grandfather passed away in the late 80's, we found spare parts for every car he'd ever owned, right back to his 1926 Pontiac, in his garage. Without telling my wife, those spare parts are now in MY garage...

Anyway, she strolled into my shed one day several years ago, and it all got too much for her. She glared at the clutter on my workbench, selected a length of white, plastic coated steel chain out of it all, picked it up, screwed up her nose and said. "What could you possibly want to keep something like this for?" And dropped it back on the bench before departing the shed.

Exactly 48 hours later she bought a magnificent hanging fern for our renovated bathroom, and needed 'something' to suspend it from the 9 foot ceiling on....

She hasn't been in my shed recently!

Cheers, Glen.

 

I feel much better now after reading these posts, I thought I might be loosing it.

 

My motto is I'd rather have it n' not need it than need it n' not have it....

The Missus says there's a fine line 'tween collecting and hoarding.

 

I have a very small garage and no storage areas so I have to keep this limited to a large bucket of fasteners and a draw full of useful brackets. I keep promising myself I'll sort all the fasteners out into storage boxes as I have to half empty the damn thing to find the nut or bolt I want.

To avoid clutter, rather than throw parts if I think something may be of use to others, I'll offer it up for free on the various forums I use.

I give all my metal scrap to one guy that comes around and in return he keeps back any classic car/motor cycle parts he finds for me. Works great.

 

I threw away a 9" center chunk with 2.75 gears that I had in my attic for 26 years. Who would ever need that.

Two weeks later I bought a 59 F100 with 3.70 gears and a C4 (no overdrive).

Now I'm looking for a 2.75 chunk that I'll have to pay money for.
I learned my lesson.

 

I have not only my own "junk" collection, but my dad's and my granddad's as well.

 

In my life it comes from growing up "without money" to buy stuff.
We had to make what we wanted or needed from pre-enjoyed stuff.
I never said we were poor... just never had money. We had a small farm for our food and also sold wood to make cash for things we couldn't grow or make.

Dad would find something and say, "That will come in handy some day. Let's put it away in a nice, safe place.... where we will never find it again."

What I do finally toss out goes to a scrapper who, like gasolinecream's scrapper does, keeps me in unique finds.

I loves me junk piles...

 

I don't throw anything away or haul it off.and my shops and out buildings are full,so instead of going thru the stuff im going to buy or build more out buildings. that should make more room for all my stuff!!!

 

I have a hard time throwing away things too. I got it from my dad and grandpa. I am lucky enouph to have alot of space for alot of it. But a few months after dad passed away I did do a big sort in the shop and made spots for alot of things to get put away and did haul about 6 utility trailers of garbage to the dump. I was amazed at how it made the garage easier to work in. there are still coffee cans of weird hardware and 5 gallon buckets of scrap pieces. They come in handy all the time. My step son is amazed all the time when I pull out something and am able to use it for fabricating some part. He thought it was cool when we used some beat up model A splash aprons for patch some pannels on his '68 chevy truck project. We always joked about the truck not wanting to run because of the ford tin that was welded into it. (I thought not painting the SBC orange would cause more problems than the ford patch pannels! HA HA!)

 

I'm the same way, I might need it someday. I guess I got it from my Dad, I was 21 before I knew lumber came without the nails already in it.

 

I conduct estate sales for a living. I have cleaned out several estates where the person must have tried to keep everything. Garages, sheds, houses are packed. Really neat stuff in them all. Guess it depends on how you were raised and how you see the future. Fortunately I am the same way. My daughter asked me what is she to do with everything when I die. I told her to put it out on the curb.

 

I guess it could have something to do with growing up in a family that was always financially strapped when I was a kid.

My barn is full,my old shop is full and my new shop is bulging at the seems,,I have more junk than you can shake a stick at!

But it's good junk says the pack rat in me,,I have started dragging some of the stuff out and selling it,,out of sight out of mind. HRP

 

I'm bad about hanging on to scrap. When I find myself working in the driveway I know it time to clean the shop out.

 

I just used a bolt that was in a pile of othe bolts for 5-6 years under my workbench on Friday. Broke a bolt on a project and remembered they were there and about the right size. Combination of hoarding and being a slob.

 

There are 2 kinds of junk.
There is just plain old junk, that which you can throw away.
Then there is JUNQUE, this is the stuff you keep.

 

You can never have too many GM tilt steering columns. I have two, waiting for the next project.

 

I'm the same way, saving stuff. The good thing of it is I never have to stop in the middle of doing something to run to the store, I have it here. Nothing worse than getting up a head of steam on a project and have to stop because of a bolt, washer or scrap of metal.

 

My problem is that I hunt for it for several hours, give up and go buy a similar one and get it installed only to find the one I was hunting for. I did that this weekend and am out 30 bucks for a turbo 400 yoke that I bought (had to buy a driveshaft to get it) and found the one I had a half hour after I had the driveshaft installed in my truck.
As soon as I get back from vacation I am going to go hell bent for election on my little boat tail roadster and a ton of those saved for the past 30+ years pieces will get used up in the process. A friend donated a major piece the other day to help clean up his pile of stuff.

 

Wellll,,,,when I was a kid,,,1950'ish, one of my best friends was Jack Heim, of the Heim joint family, we would visit the plant that was near school, and gather a few "samples" now and then. Fast forward to 2007,,,I used a couple of those "samples" to modify the shift linkage on a MotoGuzzi.

I have used a pot found at a hobo camp as a drain pan for years,,it is now an air cleaner on my truck,,,then there was a,,,,,,,,,

 

i like to hold onto stuff incase i need it , got it from my father

i remember one time he had a bulb go out in the car ..a dual filement one , he saved that bulb lol with one filement still good

 

I need to spend a few hours sorting nuts and bolts,,I have 3,,yeah 3 craftsman tool boxes full of them and I will do a quick scan when I need something and will usually end up at the hardware store buying a box when I only need two or three nuts and bolts. HRP

 

You sound like my Sons,Apparently I have shitloads,"Better off looking at it than looking for it" I reckon.

 

I think a lot of us older guys can relate to that.

Heck I've still got racks of factory pack lacquer from back in the early 70's. I will occasionally pull out a can and give it a good shake and stir and spray some something totally unrelated to cars.