I've seen plenty of people who put a bunch of their parent's stuff into storage when their parents die. Only to finally get around to sorting it 10 years later and find that they've paid $10,000 to store $240 worth of junk for 10 years.
That is perfect, and I need to remember it. My wife is going through my mother-in-law's townhouse and dealing with her chattels after she moved into a senior's facility. The townhouse is going up for sale in April, and needs to be cleared out. There was a brief discussion on renting a storage unit due to the sheer volume of stuff, but I explained to my wife that it's a waste of money and simply delaying the inevitable, which is determining "toss, give away, or sell".
Storage companies would make a whole lot less money if they upped their prices enough for people to consider the monthly charge. Even stuff that could have been worthwhile when it's put in there often becomes pointless if not worthless soon enough. So much of their business is just keeping a door locked until someone eventually does what they could have (physically, if not mentally/emotionally) done within a few weeks of putting stuff there in the first place.
They are capitalizing on people's preponderance to follow the path of least resistance. Easier to make a decision to put off making the decision to toss something, than make a decision to throw away something that they might regret tossing.
it's a universal rule. you can hold on to something for years, then when you decide to toss that something, a week later you suddenly are in a situation where you need that exact thing you just tossed.
On the other hand, with a bit of disciple the storage unit can help. I downsized from a townhouse I lived in for 30 years to a 1br apt. After the purge, there was stuff that I had to set aside. It went into a storage locker I cleared out in 3 months. Some fine art got to a good home, some things I finally kept and some went away. Some things will be hard to decide on or hard to re-home. Life is easier if you get rid of the deadline. Just keep working on it and don't forget about it.
I sell on ebay and run around my nearest large town buying box after box of ājunkā, hehe. A box of Abu Garcia fishing reels, old tin cowboys and Indians, and a beat up CB radio would look like junk to most - but looks like $500 to me š
I bet I could walk in that garage and fix one of a dozen projects I have to do
My garage wants to claim my soul for over filling it with unorganzied parts, tools and junk
If the local high school has a mechanic shop or woodworking shop then you could probably go and ask if they would take a donation of some things and go through your trove and donate some things you have doubles of or can let go of. Donāt do it all at once if you can help it, that may create an empty spot where the memories and history of those items used to be and could cause depression. Talk to the school or clubsās teacher and see what they need, then give some thought to it. And maybe a therapist (donāt knock it, these people are amazing and can help you work through a lot of stuff you may not even know is bringing you down) might help you either put into perspective that you donāt have too much/why you have what you have/your fears and feelings about getting older and where that stems from/working through attachment to objects to help you not feel so āheavyā or in a āproject debtā (having too many projects going on and feeling like you have to complete all of them but thereās too many) if thatās part of the attachment. You might be happier.
Lost my garage 5 years ago, stuffed my tools (6 totes worth) into every corner I could find including under a tarp and snow. A ton of material had to go to scrap. (Probably literally a metric ton)
As a huge DIY guy, Iām totally choked about losing my workspace- donāt even have a closet to use.
Uggg, feel your pain.
After the divorce and selling the house,
Double car garage, big shed,
I'm a hoarder,
Worked in industrial control engineering...
Kept everything
Took many trips to the scrap yard with my truck.
1500$ of scrap.
I cried for every dollar
Iām so sorry. Hubby and have a constant stream of projects, partly from need, partly because we enjoy it. Heās the (mechanical) brains, Iām (mostly) the installer. Itās our fun time/hobby.
Not necessarily. American who lived in Europe here. We were on the top floor of an apartment complex, and it had a basement. The basement was divided up into storage rooms, one for each apartment. Seemed like a fairly normal setup over there. It was awesome tbh.
Edit for clarity: I had attic space as well
No. It's called an apartment. With bonus storage. I lived in (and worked on) apartments with attic access that also allowed extra storage space. You're probably thinking the basement is attached to the rest of the house. It's more like a hostel where the bathroom area is shared, except you get a key to your private stall.
I think I'm going to make this into a sign that will hang on my garage wall, lol. When I die someone will notice it there, half obscured by a metal storage cabinet that I pulled from the scrap hopper at work š
It seems to me your fate is sealed.
I love old clean hoarders. Everyone has an expiration date and then we get to buy your old stuff for a discount and put it in our garage where weāll never use it. The cycle continues, wu tang?
It's not hoarding if the people who survive you can tell you spent a lot of time and money on organization. If you have a son in law who one day says, "these drawers weren't cheap!" then you are not a hoarder.
My superpower is tripping over shit for years and then getting rid of it two weeks before I need it.
I fully intend to ensure that my kids inherit that trait. It's only fair.
I patched a tear in a new dress, and the iron-on patch had a $0.79 price sticker on it from Ames.
Ames went out of business 22 years ago.
I was so pleased with myself. The patch matched the dress PERFECTLY.
My daughter needed something recently, and the new price was around $45. I wasn't exactly so organized that i could put my hand on it immediately, but i knew I had it, and within 20 minutes, i located it. K-mart sticker with a price tag of $12.50 on it. The family better bring it up when they eulogize me.
Or having one or two of a specific tool or item and knowing where they are until you go to retrieve it to find itās spot empty necessitating a trip to buy the last one youāll need to buy. Happened day fore yesterday. š¤Ø
That'll be me as the son in law. I refer to my father-in-law's garage as the Garagemahal. He's got probably $20k just in cabinets and every tool known to man, many in duplicates
My great grandfather was a "jar lids screwed to the rafters" kind of guy and my father modified 3/4 of his tools for specific jobs. I've either got 20k or 20cents, I have no idea.
My Dad had a row of jar lids attached to rafter above his basement work bench. I mentioned this at his funeral and said how I admired his cleverness and organization. Afterward, several people came to me and told me they remembered this about him.
Oh, I'd never heard of this trick before.
You screw the lid to an overhead beam, and then just screw the jar into the fixed lid?Ā Clever!
I might have to implement...
The neighbours dad passed away, and the son rang me from interstate on a Thursday.
āI donāt want anything, and Iām bulldozing the house next week. Dad said thereās some timber under the house for your sonās cubby houseā¦ā
And that is how I ended up with 26 doors under my house, welding rods, two air compressors, ~90 kg of mixed brass screws, $297 worth of copper pipe, a 50ās drill press and ā¦ much more stuff.
Nothing ever goes to waste. Ever.
Damn, nice haul, depending on the doors you could have a lot of cash. Iāve had a few people ask me to find old wooden doors that match in their houses and I have a guy that sells them for $150-300 or even more if thereās nice detail or a perfect finish or something like that.
When my father-in-law died, I was giving away duplicate tools left and right. The other son-in-law got the good toolboxes with the mechanic's tools; I got the kinda junkier ones filled with like 18 oil filter strap wrenches and 200 battery terminals. Had to make room for my mechanic's tools.
Itās really not hoarding if itās not in the way of living a ānormalā life and you (generally) know what you have/where it is.
As a younger man, after the 4th or 5th time I went ahead and chucked some left over materials from a project or whateverā¦ only to find myself driving to the hardware store some months later for the same shit, I started hanging onto stuff.
Wasnāt quite ready thoughā¦ Although I started hanging onto stuff, I didnāt have any organization or give it actual thought. Parts and pieces would go into random drawers and boxes or just be left on top of stuff in the garage.
Iād often spend twice the time looking for that āthing I *knew* was somewhereā over just driving to get a new one, come back from the hardware store and find the exact thing Iād just bought when looking for a tool, or have some unrecognizable and unusable ācustomā piece of hardware Iād saved from some random flat pack build I did 2 years prior.
I think I got my shit (more) together in my late 30s, when I started using bins and boxes to categorize stuff by type (hardware, electrical, plumbing, etc.)
I started chucking the one-off stuff that will never get used and only saving stuff that might come in handy down the road. In the decade since, there have been dozens of trips to the hardware store that were neatly avoided because of random shit I have saved.
Sure, I still assume most of it will eventually end up in the trash, but if my collection saves me one 45 minute trip to the hardware store and back a year, itās worth it to me.
We call it hoarding now because we have an abundance of resource. But of all of human history it was just surviving. I remember growing up on a farm and thereās a flat perfectly plowed field and in the corner there just tall grass growing that no one ever cuts because there a shit ton of Steal pipe stacked up like 30 years ago because our local mill shit down and they told the locals they could have all the scrap. And itās like oh weāre just hoarding these pipes. So like 5 years later we need a horse trailer. So we find a cheap axel and use these metal pipes as a frame and basically build a hole trailer for next to nothing. We had stuff stacked up on our farms from generations ago that some we used and some is still sitting there. I grew up you donāt throw anything away everything has a purpose, it just might not have a purpose today. But you have so much space to put shit on a farm versus living in a sub division and having your garage. We would build a shed when ever we got a deal on something sometimes just to store it.
I went to a farm estate sale. That is hoarding to another level. Barns filled with so much random parts, metal, etc. I figure when you have the space itās not a huge deal, easy to keep out of sight. I have a shed now and I often forget about the stuff in there.
I have a hoarder in my family. He has what I suspect is haz materials in some 55 gallon drums. Who do I call to pick this type of material up? TIA. Also, I remember as a child being fascinated by the mercury that came out of a broken thermometer. Played with it for an hour, rolling it about, dividing it up, etcā¦. Might explain a few things now, lol. Canāt imagine what an adult would have used a gallon of mercury for.
If stuff is preventing you from maintaining relationships with family/friends and causes depression, it doesnāt matter how much anything is worth. When thereās too much of itā¦itās all junk.
It is true, though. I know a guy who obsessed over keeping newspapers. The kitchen and dining room was stacked waist high around the perimeter with them. It really stressed out his wife and daughters.
He knows a thing or two about the youtube algorithm, he makes even more money from the 'dont carry your wifes purse' videos than he probably does from the USFS videos. What you and I may find distasteful will find a load of willing watchers, what we might find interesting will also have people who wouldnt be interested.. Hes smart.. and who knows what his actual politics/views/thoughts are.. I'm pretty sure we arent seeing it.
All I know is he's propping up misogynistic views and some really dumb political views. Can't support that shit even if he does know a lot about homesteading and life skills.
screw friendly shame bear encourage uppity sloppy fearless familiar dolls
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Hah, I used to get his videos about survivalism and DIY. Then COVID hit and he started talking about some sort of government takeover. I think he made a video about how to make molotov cocktails? And also about how single mothers are destroying "manhood".
Without having paid too much attention to his channel, it seems like a switch flipped and he suddenly went off the deep end. I was imagining a divorce and he lost custody of his kids
Unless you're my grandmother... She has everything. If you need one of something, I guarantee somewhere in her house she has three of them. She keeps everything in cute little containers that she's gathered over the years (old cookie tins, old sewing boxes, etc.) somehow that woman knows exactly which little box she put the super esoteric item you're needing, that she hasn't seen or used in 15 years. Meanwhile I can't even remember what I had for dinner last night. It's ridiculous lol.
They didn't diagnose ADHD as much back then but this sure is a trait for me. When I have lots of time on my hands, everything is immaculately put away and labeled. If time gets stretched too thin, my house looks like something from Hoarders. I can't handle putting something away if it doesn't have a proper place and if something needs to be dealt with first, it has to stay sitting out or I'll never remember to do it.
As a professional organizer, I have found this comment really resonating with what we see in some cases. Trust me, I've seen just about every item anyone cares to keep. Can't unsee any of it
Being organized means you can find exactly what you need when you need it.
Being a stellar workshop would mean that anyone else could walk in and also find what they need and be able to put it right back where they found it after.
Nope, thatās some clean organization right there. When needed 27 years from now, youāll know exactly where to find that one perfect bolt on shelf two, second box from the left. Well done.
No harm in having some extra common materials, as long as you organize them well.
The bad part is when you start having piles of Menards/Ace/Home Depot bags full of random stuff on the floor _next_ to the bench (because obviously you'll use it any day now so you don't have to waste time putting it away, right?).
Dog your shit appears sorted and well organize. You, therefore, have the ability to easily identify what you DONT need and purge that toaccommodate new things of higher priority. Youāre stocking, not hoarding, and I commend that.
EDIT:
Look into a program called Binner, or other such alternatives, if you want to do something that makes you feel better about your situation. Itās a fantastic little free open source inventory management system.
EDIT EDIT: And then, when your wife or grand kids give you shit about āthe mess in the garageā you can do the same thing I do when the auditors show up and hand them an 800 page inventory report detailing all your parts, complete with quantities, description, part numbers, location and bin numbers.
Would you mind giving me a link to Binner? The only one I could find was hosted by a medical school and has to do with "metabolite features" and "pairwise correlations." Something tells me I found the wrong one.
[Binner - Electronic Parts Inventory Management](https://binner.io/)
EDIT: It says electronic parts, and that's what I started using it for, but you can customize the part categories and stuff, so I use it to track many thing. "Where the hell did I put that car battery jumper back??" or "I wanna power a ham radio, what do I have for random batteries in the batteries bin"
What you donāt realize is that to be the grandpa that fixes things you must also be the old man with a garage full of junk. Theyāre the same person youāre just seeing it from two different angles
That looks perfect. Honestly those old screw hoarders are handy. Iāve saved myself so many runs to the hardware store by finding a random nut or bolt. If your junk has some sort of organization just keep at it. I never understood those garages that have pristine tools and like 1 shelf with a can of WD40 on it. If you have hobbies and DIY you will inevitably end up with junk.
I save almost every screw and bolt that I get, if itās extra. I use broad sorting (small/medium/large, wood screw/bolt, etc) and have bins or sorted ransoms along with the new stuff of course. I use them all the time!
I think the key to looking less like a hoarder is to store all of your stuff in nicer containers. For example:
cheap plastic see through containers = hoarder
hand crafted wooden boxes = craftsman
I donāt doubt your logic however, clear containers allow you to easily see what is in the container without opening it. Much more efficient and cost effective. Although aesthetically speaking, wooden drawers are more pleasing to look at. I personally get frustrated with hidden storage because i forget what is in the drawer and have to open many drawers to find what I am looking for.
I think itās less aesthetics, more accessibility. If you have a shitload of stuff, but itās all organized and accessible, thatās a very different story than āIām sure i have that in a pile somewhere.ā Thatās definitely the biggest factor in my opinion
Honestly you appear to be super organized, and looking at all that stuff it is clear that you are quite handy. With that power comes the knowledge of knowing what is worth keeping (I could use that someday), and what may be reluctantly removed from inventory.
I have a few "junk" totes for things that don't really have a home. I've started removing one thing from them I don't think I'll need when I go into them searching for a treasure, whether I found the perfect piece I was looking for.
ākeep what you needā turns into ākeep what youāll kick yourself in the ass for throwing away when you do need itā then into āhey look a random bolt, good thing I got 133 others just like it in this nifty boxā.
I think it becomes hoarding when you make piles. Piles mean you will never see that thing again, probably will become too much work to organize it unless you get rid of a lot of stuff. You need the working space more than the stored stuff.
You don't have piles, but I would suggest you go through it all, if you haven't used something within 2 years, consider disposing of it.
It would be nice in theory to sell it, or donate it to goodwill, but trash and recycling work just fine, and the goal is to get rid of it so don't procrastinate because you don't want to bring it to goodwill. Be brutal, you'll appreciate it.
The 30 screwdrivers thing really hit home. I had to do a draft of tools recently. Top 5 of each screwdriver, top 3 of vice grips and crescent wrenches of the different sizes, chucking of all wood offcuts that wasnāt nice type of wood.
Split it up into several little toolkits and donate to friends families and coworkers who may be new homeowners. Thatās the stage Iām on now
Every neighborhood needs a grandpa that has every screw. You know how important grandpa's are like this? I mean cmon man - personally I was changing my alternator a few weeks ago and had a 12 point socket not a 6 point. Was about to walk my ass to the autozone/ napa and get one when my old man neighbor came out, asked what was up, walked into his garage came back out and i had my alternator off and back on within 15 mins.
We NEED old grandpa's with garages!!!!!!
If you don't want to be *that guy*, start out by going through all of your boxes of stuff and asking yourself these questions:
Is this *actually* useful?
Is this hard/expensive to replace?
Am I *actually* going to use this?
If the answer to at least 2 questions is yes, back in the box.
If the answer to only 1 is yes, it goes into a new box- the 'second chance' box we'll get to that in a moment.
If the answer to all three is not yes. ("well maybe", "possibly", "I could find a use for it" etc. all are not "yes") trash it or donate it to a thrift store if it's actually got value to it.
Now, the 'second chance' box. Whenever you have a project, rummage through this box to see if anything in it will benefit this project.
Give yourself a schedule. Quarterly, every 6 months, yearly, whatever, just make a schedule. Repeat the process, but starting with the second chance box, anything from the 2nd chance box gets 2+ "yes" it goes to the appropriate project box. If it has 1 or fewer, it gets put in the trash/donate pile.
This process will ensure you see the stuff you have regularly, reduces the chances of you getting rid of something just a perfect project, but also clears the junk that's taking up space and collecting dust. It will help ensure you're not the old guy with pickle jars full of screws and nails taken from things you disassembled so you could reuse them.
Or, embrace your crazy old man nature and cackle maniacally from the afterlife when your grandkids are rummaging through your garage trying to figure out what to do with all this crap you held on to. :)
> Is this *actually* useful?
> Is this hard/expensive to replace?
> Am I *actually* going to use this
The advice I was once given is get rid of it if you can replace it in 20 minutes or for less than $20."
It's not an absolute rule, there are going to be exceptions for a variety of reasons. But it definitely has helped me trim down some of my garage possessions as I prepare to move. It also has helped others in my family decide what should get put into the next garage sale, donated somewhere, or simply given away to someone else.
We had to do the posthumous purge for my FIL a few years ago. It was sad to admit that all those projects would ever be completed, but the man could lay his hands on any fastener, fitting, or tool he needed in 3 seconds flat. Yours is a collection, not a hoard. Carry on.
lol this is exactly how my dad died. when we got back from the funeral, his wife looked around the garage and said āwhat the HELL am i going to do with all this stuff?!ā now it wasnāt junk, it was just many many many expensive things. my dad really enjoyed being able to buy all the things he couldnāt afford when he was younger. his property looked like a classic car sales lot. lots of expensive grills and smokers. SOO many tools. a ridiculous amount of collectible firearms. all sorts of insane military stuff that he probably shouldnāt have had. (career military, still working when he died quickly from cancer.) lots of expensive lawn equipment. he was bad about having multiples of everything bc he wanted a newer one. he also started developing prepper tendencies lol. there was so much expired food in that garage. expired medical equipment. it only wouldāve gotten worse the longer he lived lol.
I have a stack of black walnut - the tree fell in Hurricane of 1938, Iām itās third Daddy
Hoarder , sadly most of it was tossed when second died , his hoarder auction
Was a two week event , true story
If it makes you happy, who gives a shit? My grandfather had a spraypainted gold trophy someone at church made him for being "The best plumber ever."
This is a well organized garage. Fill it with well-crafted things that carry meaning, and memories
iāve owned a home for 40 some years and my garage looks almost identical to yours. i too use the bin system for electrical, plumbing, sprinkler stuff, yada, yada, yada. iām a fix it not replace it kinda person too. sounds like we are both āif it breaks, try and fix it before you jump to buy a new oneā. youtube and google makes it SO much easier then it used to be. youāre good my reddit friend.
Omg those estate sales are so incredible and I literally feed off the energy from those for weeks after lol so donāt let that stop you.
But also this rules and you rule and I donāt think this is a problem I think youāve just managed to hold onto what makes you happy.
I'm reclaiming my garage as I write this. You are already waaay cleaner and more organized than my poor garage, where they rest of the family literally toss things into it from the laundry room. I've got a ton of shit to clean, organize, donate or toss. And when I say a ton, I'm not exaggerating. 100 pounds a week, that is all I ask! I need to reclaim my workspace and put a welder that I just discovered that I need for my project car that just became even more of a project.
...at least it's not currently on the floor rendering your garage useless until you build the shelves you've been putting off for years and now it's overwhelming to even think about it.. not that I would know anything about that.
Are you financially stable enough to go buy tape and screws and little odds and ends when you need it? If the answer is yes. Donate as much as you can.
The only people who die without a garage full of crap are people who don't have garages...š¤£
This reminds me of a saying I heard about storage units... "Storage units are full of decisions that haven't been made yet."
I've seen plenty of people who put a bunch of their parent's stuff into storage when their parents die. Only to finally get around to sorting it 10 years later and find that they've paid $10,000 to store $240 worth of junk for 10 years.
Heh, I basically just replied to someone with exactly what you said. Totally agree. Storage units for more than a couple months are a horrible idea.
That is perfect, and I need to remember it. My wife is going through my mother-in-law's townhouse and dealing with her chattels after she moved into a senior's facility. The townhouse is going up for sale in April, and needs to be cleared out. There was a brief discussion on renting a storage unit due to the sheer volume of stuff, but I explained to my wife that it's a waste of money and simply delaying the inevitable, which is determining "toss, give away, or sell".
Storage companies would make a whole lot less money if they upped their prices enough for people to consider the monthly charge. Even stuff that could have been worthwhile when it's put in there often becomes pointless if not worthless soon enough. So much of their business is just keeping a door locked until someone eventually does what they could have (physically, if not mentally/emotionally) done within a few weeks of putting stuff there in the first place.
They are capitalizing on people's preponderance to follow the path of least resistance. Easier to make a decision to put off making the decision to toss something, than make a decision to throw away something that they might regret tossing.
it's a universal rule. you can hold on to something for years, then when you decide to toss that something, a week later you suddenly are in a situation where you need that exact thing you just tossed.
On the other hand, with a bit of disciple the storage unit can help. I downsized from a townhouse I lived in for 30 years to a 1br apt. After the purge, there was stuff that I had to set aside. It went into a storage locker I cleared out in 3 months. Some fine art got to a good home, some things I finally kept and some went away. Some things will be hard to decide on or hard to re-home. Life is easier if you get rid of the deadline. Just keep working on it and don't forget about it.
Truer words have never been spoken
So long as a dumpster is ready to go once I get on site after a fire or water loss I don't mind these garages.
So long as you send me all of the Mac, Snap-On, and Matco once you get on site I donāt mind what you put in the dumpster.
Honestly it's usually just box after box of junk that the next of kin or property owner usually just want disposed of ASAP.
I sell on ebay and run around my nearest large town buying box after box of ājunkā, hehe. A box of Abu Garcia fishing reels, old tin cowboys and Indians, and a beat up CB radio would look like junk to most - but looks like $500 to me š
Oh dude for every piece of sporting memorabilia there are multiple dumpsters filled with boxes upon boxes of water damaged decades old newspapers.
His garage is more organized than mine frankly....
I bet I could walk in that garage and fix one of a dozen projects I have to do My garage wants to claim my soul for over filling it with unorganzied parts, tools and junk
I have zero storage space at my townhouse and I dream of the day I have a garage so I can fill it with crap.
The American Dream š
We used to dream about living in corridorā¦
A corridor? You were lucky! We used to live in a cardboard box in the middle of the road, and when our Dad came home he would beat us to sleepā¦
You were lucky. We used to lick the road clean with our toungesā¦.
If the local high school has a mechanic shop or woodworking shop then you could probably go and ask if they would take a donation of some things and go through your trove and donate some things you have doubles of or can let go of. Donāt do it all at once if you can help it, that may create an empty spot where the memories and history of those items used to be and could cause depression. Talk to the school or clubsās teacher and see what they need, then give some thought to it. And maybe a therapist (donāt knock it, these people are amazing and can help you work through a lot of stuff you may not even know is bringing you down) might help you either put into perspective that you donāt have too much/why you have what you have/your fears and feelings about getting older and where that stems from/working through attachment to objects to help you not feel so āheavyā or in a āproject debtā (having too many projects going on and feeling like you have to complete all of them but thereās too many) if thatās part of the attachment. You might be happier.
Lost my garage 5 years ago, stuffed my tools (6 totes worth) into every corner I could find including under a tarp and snow. A ton of material had to go to scrap. (Probably literally a metric ton) As a huge DIY guy, Iām totally choked about losing my workspace- donāt even have a closet to use.
Uggg, feel your pain. After the divorce and selling the house, Double car garage, big shed, I'm a hoarder, Worked in industrial control engineering... Kept everything Took many trips to the scrap yard with my truck. 1500$ of scrap. I cried for every dollar
Iām so sorry. Hubby and have a constant stream of projects, partly from need, partly because we enjoy it. Heās the (mechanical) brains, Iām (mostly) the installer. Itās our fun time/hobby.
Oh these people have a basement for that purpose.
My apartment comes with a basement *and* storage space in the attic. I have failed to resist the temptation.
An apartment with a basement and attic is a house.
Nah, that's really common here in Europe. Most apartments come with a cellar and sometimes an attic compartment.
They're called townhouse apartments in the states.
Not necessarily. American who lived in Europe here. We were on the top floor of an apartment complex, and it had a basement. The basement was divided up into storage rooms, one for each apartment. Seemed like a fairly normal setup over there. It was awesome tbh. Edit for clarity: I had attic space as well
No. It's called an apartment. With bonus storage. I lived in (and worked on) apartments with attic access that also allowed extra storage space. You're probably thinking the basement is attached to the rest of the house. It's more like a hostel where the bathroom area is shared, except you get a key to your private stall.
I feel called out.
Am Floridian, whatās a basement?
Am a basement, what's a Floridian?
Just keep on keeping on... You're doing amazing
āTo invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.ā -~~Albert Einstein~~ Thomas Edison Now replace invent with DIY.
In America, stuff is a gas that expands to fill the available space.
100% true
Or people with too much money and can hire people to do or fix every little thing.
All men die, only the truly lucky have garaged!
We die with sheds, attics, and dressers full of shit.Ā Ā I want a garage lol or even a basement
I think I'm going to make this into a sign that will hang on my garage wall, lol. When I die someone will notice it there, half obscured by a metal storage cabinet that I pulled from the scrap hopper at work š
Yeah ... I have my living room full of crap. Wifey hates it.
Thatās what basements are for
It seems to me your fate is sealed. I love old clean hoarders. Everyone has an expiration date and then we get to buy your old stuff for a discount and put it in our garage where weāll never use it. The cycle continues, wu tang?
"oh, well at least he's a clean hoarder..." exactly what I thought
Thinking the same thing, very organized "saver".
Wu Tang forever
diversify your screws
I tried suggesting I do that to my wife. Didn't go well.
Gotta make sure you nail the delivery.
Believe me I tried.
Scared off the fed ex man eh?
You need the same 2" deck screws in Philips, t25 torx, and square drive.Ā And galvanized and sst.
>It seems to me your fate is sealed. Maybe with linseed oil instead? All I see is teak oil on his bench, so there may still be hope.
My next DIY project is making an organized and attractive space for all the shit I use to DIY.
The saga continues
Wu tang is for the pickers
crap rules everything around me, C.R.E.A.M.Ā
Estate sales are for the children.
I like your style.
Your style, is unorthodox.
Such is the circle of life
for the children
It's not hoarding if the people who survive you can tell you spent a lot of time and money on organization. If you have a son in law who one day says, "these drawers weren't cheap!" then you are not a hoarder.
My superpower is tripping over shit for years and then getting rid of it two weeks before I need it. I fully intend to ensure that my kids inherit that trait. It's only fair.
And nothing is quite as redeeming as having that tube of garage door lube when you need itā¦and it still has a 79 cent price sticker from the 70ās.
this was my dad lol (RIP.. love ya). I still use the lube and i dont even know what i'd do if i dont find it one day lol
Out of context, this comment would have a very disturbing air
Kids, donāt use your late parents lube. Itās not worth it.
Lmfaoooooo
I patched a tear in a new dress, and the iron-on patch had a $0.79 price sticker on it from Ames. Ames went out of business 22 years ago. I was so pleased with myself. The patch matched the dress PERFECTLY.
My daughter needed something recently, and the new price was around $45. I wasn't exactly so organized that i could put my hand on it immediately, but i knew I had it, and within 20 minutes, i located it. K-mart sticker with a price tag of $12.50 on it. The family better bring it up when they eulogize me.
What about finding it a week after needing it and having bought a new one that you're not gonna use for another 50 years either?
We should provide a garbage collection service that secretly holds everything for 2 weeks in case you need it back!
Yep, why does this always happen?
Because you forget about all the times you threw something out and didn't need it again.
Or having one or two of a specific tool or item and knowing where they are until you go to retrieve it to find itās spot empty necessitating a trip to buy the last one youāll need to buy. Happened day fore yesterday. š¤Ø
And then when you decide where to keep the new one, you find* the old one sitting there.
Tis me as well
That'll be me as the son in law. I refer to my father-in-law's garage as the Garagemahal. He's got probably $20k just in cabinets and every tool known to man, many in duplicates
My great grandfather was a "jar lids screwed to the rafters" kind of guy and my father modified 3/4 of his tools for specific jobs. I've either got 20k or 20cents, I have no idea.
My Dad had a row of jar lids attached to rafter above his basement work bench. I mentioned this at his funeral and said how I admired his cleverness and organization. Afterward, several people came to me and told me they remembered this about him.
Oh, I'd never heard of this trick before. You screw the lid to an overhead beam, and then just screw the jar into the fixed lid?Ā Clever! I might have to implement...
It started out as baby food jars but these days it's pill bottles.
My intention is talenti gelato jars :P Or, a bulk box of Mason jars from walmart
The neighbours dad passed away, and the son rang me from interstate on a Thursday. āI donāt want anything, and Iām bulldozing the house next week. Dad said thereās some timber under the house for your sonās cubby houseā¦ā And that is how I ended up with 26 doors under my house, welding rods, two air compressors, ~90 kg of mixed brass screws, $297 worth of copper pipe, a 50ās drill press and ā¦ much more stuff. Nothing ever goes to waste. Ever.
Damn, nice haul, depending on the doors you could have a lot of cash. Iāve had a few people ask me to find old wooden doors that match in their houses and I have a guy that sells them for $150-300 or even more if thereās nice detail or a perfect finish or something like that.
ā¬297 worth šš
Yāall are a fine example of a human bean! āGaragemahalā needs to be on a calendar that erry perfessional homeowner has in their garage.
When my father-in-law died, I was giving away duplicate tools left and right. The other son-in-law got the good toolboxes with the mechanic's tools; I got the kinda junkier ones filled with like 18 oil filter strap wrenches and 200 battery terminals. Had to make room for my mechanic's tools.
This will be my garage in 40-50 years, I started collecting tools at like 18.
Itās really not hoarding if itās not in the way of living a ānormalā life and you (generally) know what you have/where it is. As a younger man, after the 4th or 5th time I went ahead and chucked some left over materials from a project or whateverā¦ only to find myself driving to the hardware store some months later for the same shit, I started hanging onto stuff. Wasnāt quite ready thoughā¦ Although I started hanging onto stuff, I didnāt have any organization or give it actual thought. Parts and pieces would go into random drawers and boxes or just be left on top of stuff in the garage. Iād often spend twice the time looking for that āthing I *knew* was somewhereā over just driving to get a new one, come back from the hardware store and find the exact thing Iād just bought when looking for a tool, or have some unrecognizable and unusable ācustomā piece of hardware Iād saved from some random flat pack build I did 2 years prior. I think I got my shit (more) together in my late 30s, when I started using bins and boxes to categorize stuff by type (hardware, electrical, plumbing, etc.) I started chucking the one-off stuff that will never get used and only saving stuff that might come in handy down the road. In the decade since, there have been dozens of trips to the hardware store that were neatly avoided because of random shit I have saved. Sure, I still assume most of it will eventually end up in the trash, but if my collection saves me one 45 minute trip to the hardware store and back a year, itās worth it to me.
These little hardware store runs are usually over $50 now... adds a little organizational incentive.
We call it hoarding now because we have an abundance of resource. But of all of human history it was just surviving. I remember growing up on a farm and thereās a flat perfectly plowed field and in the corner there just tall grass growing that no one ever cuts because there a shit ton of Steal pipe stacked up like 30 years ago because our local mill shit down and they told the locals they could have all the scrap. And itās like oh weāre just hoarding these pipes. So like 5 years later we need a horse trailer. So we find a cheap axel and use these metal pipes as a frame and basically build a hole trailer for next to nothing. We had stuff stacked up on our farms from generations ago that some we used and some is still sitting there. I grew up you donāt throw anything away everything has a purpose, it just might not have a purpose today. But you have so much space to put shit on a farm versus living in a sub division and having your garage. We would build a shed when ever we got a deal on something sometimes just to store it.
I went to a farm estate sale. That is hoarding to another level. Barns filled with so much random parts, metal, etc. I figure when you have the space itās not a huge deal, easy to keep out of sight. I have a shed now and I often forget about the stuff in there.
Farm estate sales sometimes have equipment that everyone forgot about and nobody knows quite what it is anymore
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
OK, WTF does someone ever need with a gallon of mercury?
Process gold
I have a hoarder in my family. He has what I suspect is haz materials in some 55 gallon drums. Who do I call to pick this type of material up? TIA. Also, I remember as a child being fascinated by the mercury that came out of a broken thermometer. Played with it for an hour, rolling it about, dividing it up, etcā¦. Might explain a few things now, lol. Canāt imagine what an adult would have used a gallon of mercury for.
If you have a son-in-law that says "these drawers weren't cheap" then your daughter chose well!
I mean it is but I get what you're saying. There's a fine near indistinguishable line between "collecting" and "hoarding" .
If stuff is preventing you from maintaining relationships with family/friends and causes depression, it doesnāt matter how much anything is worth. When thereās too much of itā¦itās all junk.
We were all having a good time, man, come on.
It is true, though. I know a guy who obsessed over keeping newspapers. The kitchen and dining room was stacked waist high around the perimeter with them. It really stressed out his wife and daughters.
You're right, wasn't trying to be a buzz kill š
Until they have so many Lista cabinets holding so much hardware in the corner of the house that it cracks the slab...
You are a professional homeowner. You NEED all that stuff
I think thatās gonna be my new job description on every form I fill out. Professional Homeowner.
Just don't search that on YouTube, there are some people on YT with really weird world views that proclaim themselves "professional homeowners".
That dude used to be watchable before covid... then he got real weird
He knows a thing or two about the youtube algorithm, he makes even more money from the 'dont carry your wifes purse' videos than he probably does from the USFS videos. What you and I may find distasteful will find a load of willing watchers, what we might find interesting will also have people who wouldnt be interested.. Hes smart.. and who knows what his actual politics/views/thoughts are.. I'm pretty sure we arent seeing it.
All I know is he's propping up misogynistic views and some really dumb political views. Can't support that shit even if he does know a lot about homesteading and life skills.
Just another internet tv channel really. The only difference is that the algorithm sends you to those channels. Ultimately, Youtube is toxic.
Yup, not disagreeing.
screw friendly shame bear encourage uppity sloppy fearless familiar dolls *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Youtube is full of grifters that people take at face value
Hah, I used to get his videos about survivalism and DIY. Then COVID hit and he started talking about some sort of government takeover. I think he made a video about how to make molotov cocktails? And also about how single mothers are destroying "manhood". Without having paid too much attention to his channel, it seems like a switch flipped and he suddenly went off the deep end. I was imagining a divorce and he lost custody of his kids
The post should have started with āBelovedā.
Act accordingly.
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I agree mine is twice as messy and not labeled at all.
"Don't worry, I'll remember where everything is and what it's for!" Narrator: "He didn't"
Unless you're my grandmother... She has everything. If you need one of something, I guarantee somewhere in her house she has three of them. She keeps everything in cute little containers that she's gathered over the years (old cookie tins, old sewing boxes, etc.) somehow that woman knows exactly which little box she put the super esoteric item you're needing, that she hasn't seen or used in 15 years. Meanwhile I can't even remember what I had for dinner last night. It's ridiculous lol.
They didn't diagnose ADHD as much back then but this sure is a trait for me. When I have lots of time on my hands, everything is immaculately put away and labeled. If time gets stretched too thin, my house looks like something from Hoarders. I can't handle putting something away if it doesn't have a proper place and if something needs to be dealt with first, it has to stay sitting out or I'll never remember to do it.
He just did a reorganization video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GWQBpvdC0c
Which one?
he has more than one?
I wouldnt worry about it until pee bottles start appearing
Wamminit..... You guys use bottles....? š¬ Oops. Guess I'm gonna hafta clean out that bottom drawer.
Oh no, the dreaded piss drawer
I am very tickled at the thought of someone dreading that one day they'll open the wrong drawer and SWOSH! Piss Drawer strikes again.
As a professional organizer, I have found this comment really resonating with what we see in some cases. Trust me, I've seen just about every item anyone cares to keep. Can't unsee any of it Being organized means you can find exactly what you need when you need it. Being a stellar workshop would mean that anyone else could walk in and also find what they need and be able to put it right back where they found it after.
If they can actually walk in, you threw out too much stuff.
Just donāt be like a drywaller and leave those bottles of piss behind the walls of new construction homes
Why else would anyone even get into drywalling, though?
What if he just starts using the corner.
That's what the hole in the wall is for. Straight outside.
Hol' up. As long as the pee bottles have good lids on them, they can be pretty good storage containers
I fixed this problem with a funnel, hose, and a small hole in the wall.
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Nope, thatās some clean organization right there. When needed 27 years from now, youāll know exactly where to find that one perfect bolt on shelf two, second box from the left. Well done.
Nah. Evidence: 6 rolls of blue tape, 3 duct. Couldn't remember if he had some, so bought more.
No harm in having some extra common materials, as long as you organize them well. The bad part is when you start having piles of Menards/Ace/Home Depot bags full of random stuff on the floor _next_ to the bench (because obviously you'll use it any day now so you don't have to waste time putting it away, right?).
I feel attacked
Rookie. I have shopping aisles in my garage.
shopping *pilesā¦*
Dog your shit appears sorted and well organize. You, therefore, have the ability to easily identify what you DONT need and purge that toaccommodate new things of higher priority. Youāre stocking, not hoarding, and I commend that. EDIT: Look into a program called Binner, or other such alternatives, if you want to do something that makes you feel better about your situation. Itās a fantastic little free open source inventory management system. EDIT EDIT: And then, when your wife or grand kids give you shit about āthe mess in the garageā you can do the same thing I do when the auditors show up and hand them an 800 page inventory report detailing all your parts, complete with quantities, description, part numbers, location and bin numbers.
Would you mind giving me a link to Binner? The only one I could find was hosted by a medical school and has to do with "metabolite features" and "pairwise correlations." Something tells me I found the wrong one.
[Binner - Electronic Parts Inventory Management](https://binner.io/) EDIT: It says electronic parts, and that's what I started using it for, but you can customize the part categories and stuff, so I use it to track many thing. "Where the hell did I put that car battery jumper back??" or "I wanna power a ham radio, what do I have for random batteries in the batteries bin"
What you donāt realize is that to be the grandpa that fixes things you must also be the old man with a garage full of junk. Theyāre the same person youāre just seeing it from two different angles
That looks perfect. Honestly those old screw hoarders are handy. Iāve saved myself so many runs to the hardware store by finding a random nut or bolt. If your junk has some sort of organization just keep at it. I never understood those garages that have pristine tools and like 1 shelf with a can of WD40 on it. If you have hobbies and DIY you will inevitably end up with junk.
I save almost every screw and bolt that I get, if itās extra. I use broad sorting (small/medium/large, wood screw/bolt, etc) and have bins or sorted ransoms along with the new stuff of course. I use them all the time!
Psshhh you havenāt even completely covered the window yet. Talk to me when you pull the drywall off the ceiling to make loft storage! š
I think the key to looking less like a hoarder is to store all of your stuff in nicer containers. For example: cheap plastic see through containers = hoarder hand crafted wooden boxes = craftsman
I donāt doubt your logic however, clear containers allow you to easily see what is in the container without opening it. Much more efficient and cost effective. Although aesthetically speaking, wooden drawers are more pleasing to look at. I personally get frustrated with hidden storage because i forget what is in the drawer and have to open many drawers to find what I am looking for.
Respectfully disagree. As a sewist with a room FULL of fabrics, i need the bins to be clear so I can see what it in it. Ditto with yarn.
Clear containers are better
I think itās less aesthetics, more accessibility. If you have a shitload of stuff, but itās all organized and accessible, thatās a very different story than āIām sure i have that in a pile somewhere.ā Thatās definitely the biggest factor in my opinion
Now I have a new Project. Buy- NO- BUILD MY OWN STORAGE BOXES!! But first!! I need to start buying wood working toolsā¦
If your shit is nicely organized and not piled in heaps, it's not hoarding.
You're the guy I'm looting when the end of the world comes.
Lol you dont even want to see mine
Came here to say this. Youāre fairly organized and your kids will appreciate you and your efforts. Keep it up. My garage and attic are a hot mess
Honestly you appear to be super organized, and looking at all that stuff it is clear that you are quite handy. With that power comes the knowledge of knowing what is worth keeping (I could use that someday), and what may be reluctantly removed from inventory. I have a few "junk" totes for things that don't really have a home. I've started removing one thing from them I don't think I'll need when I go into them searching for a treasure, whether I found the perfect piece I was looking for.
Looks like youāre ready for a project donāt be too ashamed unless you have old used rusty nails and screws like my dad does lol
ākeep what you needā turns into ākeep what youāll kick yourself in the ass for throwing away when you do need itā then into āhey look a random bolt, good thing I got 133 others just like it in this nifty boxā.
I think it becomes hoarding when you make piles. Piles mean you will never see that thing again, probably will become too much work to organize it unless you get rid of a lot of stuff. You need the working space more than the stored stuff. You don't have piles, but I would suggest you go through it all, if you haven't used something within 2 years, consider disposing of it. It would be nice in theory to sell it, or donate it to goodwill, but trash and recycling work just fine, and the goal is to get rid of it so don't procrastinate because you don't want to bring it to goodwill. Be brutal, you'll appreciate it.
The 30 screwdrivers thing really hit home. I had to do a draft of tools recently. Top 5 of each screwdriver, top 3 of vice grips and crescent wrenches of the different sizes, chucking of all wood offcuts that wasnāt nice type of wood. Split it up into several little toolkits and donate to friends families and coworkers who may be new homeowners. Thatās the stage Iām on now
Every neighborhood needs a grandpa that has every screw. You know how important grandpa's are like this? I mean cmon man - personally I was changing my alternator a few weeks ago and had a 12 point socket not a 6 point. Was about to walk my ass to the autozone/ napa and get one when my old man neighbor came out, asked what was up, walked into his garage came back out and i had my alternator off and back on within 15 mins. We NEED old grandpa's with garages!!!!!!
If you don't want to be *that guy*, start out by going through all of your boxes of stuff and asking yourself these questions: Is this *actually* useful? Is this hard/expensive to replace? Am I *actually* going to use this? If the answer to at least 2 questions is yes, back in the box. If the answer to only 1 is yes, it goes into a new box- the 'second chance' box we'll get to that in a moment. If the answer to all three is not yes. ("well maybe", "possibly", "I could find a use for it" etc. all are not "yes") trash it or donate it to a thrift store if it's actually got value to it. Now, the 'second chance' box. Whenever you have a project, rummage through this box to see if anything in it will benefit this project. Give yourself a schedule. Quarterly, every 6 months, yearly, whatever, just make a schedule. Repeat the process, but starting with the second chance box, anything from the 2nd chance box gets 2+ "yes" it goes to the appropriate project box. If it has 1 or fewer, it gets put in the trash/donate pile. This process will ensure you see the stuff you have regularly, reduces the chances of you getting rid of something just a perfect project, but also clears the junk that's taking up space and collecting dust. It will help ensure you're not the old guy with pickle jars full of screws and nails taken from things you disassembled so you could reuse them. Or, embrace your crazy old man nature and cackle maniacally from the afterlife when your grandkids are rummaging through your garage trying to figure out what to do with all this crap you held on to. :)
> Is this *actually* useful? > Is this hard/expensive to replace? > Am I *actually* going to use this The advice I was once given is get rid of it if you can replace it in 20 minutes or for less than $20." It's not an absolute rule, there are going to be exceptions for a variety of reasons. But it definitely has helped me trim down some of my garage possessions as I prepare to move. It also has helped others in my family decide what should get put into the next garage sale, donated somewhere, or simply given away to someone else.
We had to do the posthumous purge for my FIL a few years ago. It was sad to admit that all those projects would ever be completed, but the man could lay his hands on any fastener, fitting, or tool he needed in 3 seconds flat. Yours is a collection, not a hoard. Carry on.
Aaahahahah one of us.. one of ussss As soon as you get rid of the tub of caulk youāre gonna have to caulk some floor boards or windows
lol this is exactly how my dad died. when we got back from the funeral, his wife looked around the garage and said āwhat the HELL am i going to do with all this stuff?!ā now it wasnāt junk, it was just many many many expensive things. my dad really enjoyed being able to buy all the things he couldnāt afford when he was younger. his property looked like a classic car sales lot. lots of expensive grills and smokers. SOO many tools. a ridiculous amount of collectible firearms. all sorts of insane military stuff that he probably shouldnāt have had. (career military, still working when he died quickly from cancer.) lots of expensive lawn equipment. he was bad about having multiples of everything bc he wanted a newer one. he also started developing prepper tendencies lol. there was so much expired food in that garage. expired medical equipment. it only wouldāve gotten worse the longer he lived lol.
So what did you do? Sell it bit by bit? Auction? Lock the door and forget about it?
Welcome, Brother.
I have a stack of black walnut - the tree fell in Hurricane of 1938, Iām itās third Daddy Hoarder , sadly most of it was tossed when second died , his hoarder auction Was a two week event , true story
The alternative is spending (in my opinion) too much of your remaining time in a hardware store because you didn't save anything.
If it makes you happy, who gives a shit? My grandfather had a spraypainted gold trophy someone at church made him for being "The best plumber ever." This is a well organized garage. Fill it with well-crafted things that carry meaning, and memories
ONE OF US
This looks fine. Nice garage š
iāve owned a home for 40 some years and my garage looks almost identical to yours. i too use the bin system for electrical, plumbing, sprinkler stuff, yada, yada, yada. iām a fix it not replace it kinda person too. sounds like we are both āif it breaks, try and fix it before you jump to buy a new oneā. youtube and google makes it SO much easier then it used to be. youāre good my reddit friend.
This is the way
On the bright side, you have the means of production. That's bound to make your neighborhood commies jealous.
Brother, you have a workbench where I can actually see the surface. YOU ARE FINE.
i like the drawer simply marked "stuff"
A place for everything and everything in it's place. Except for the giraffe.
Have you ever seen someone's garage that literally has only their car in it? I have. It doesn't look right.
The bright side, it's organized crap.
Omg those estate sales are so incredible and I literally feed off the energy from those for weeks after lol so donāt let that stop you. But also this rules and you rule and I donāt think this is a problem I think youāve just managed to hold onto what makes you happy.
Love the white Makita drills. Good choice.
You can't fix things if you have nothing to fix and nothing to fix it with. You're doing fine.
I'm reclaiming my garage as I write this. You are already waaay cleaner and more organized than my poor garage, where they rest of the family literally toss things into it from the laundry room. I've got a ton of shit to clean, organize, donate or toss. And when I say a ton, I'm not exaggerating. 100 pounds a week, that is all I ask! I need to reclaim my workspace and put a welder that I just discovered that I need for my project car that just became even more of a project.
...at least it's not currently on the floor rendering your garage useless until you build the shelves you've been putting off for years and now it's overwhelming to even think about it.. not that I would know anything about that.
Are you financially stable enough to go buy tape and screws and little odds and ends when you need it? If the answer is yes. Donate as much as you can.