Of Little Value

[KGT1200]

Years ago I helped my mom clean out my then deceased father's den, and garage and found his private collections of things that seemingly had no value.

He collected pens with advertising; he had accumulated over 100 $5.00 bills, freshly minted all from different period of the last 40 years. He collected brass from all of our guns, 30-30, 308, 357 306. Buckets of shells he would never have time to load. All seemingly of little value.

Let me tell you what I possess "of little value"

-Dog collars and tags from three generations of dogs

-A circa 1971 Coast to Coast blue tank ai r compressor that still has enough "ummph" to fill up a car tire; but thats about it. Sounds like it wants to explode!

-50 gallon red rust metal drum full of tangles strands of barbwire of all ages shapes twists barbs and sizes! I have literally drug this thing over 4 moves and 40 years. I'm going to make a wall display of the wire...someday.

-A softball size piece of white marble I got in Marble Colorado. What is significant is when I collected it; 1967, I was 10 years old.

-piece of mica the size of your fist, shiny and bright thousands of thin layers collected years ago on the southern slope of Horsetooth Mountain in Colorado

-Deer sculls and antlers
I have deer sculls of the horns from acquired during various hikes over the past years. All the countless sawed off horns I used to have got left with my previous life as a hunter.

-My baby carriage that my mom used with me in 1957...canvas body wire frame with spoke wheels. It still would work, I leave it gathering dust and hanging on the barn wall.

-Lineman spikes and line man belt that belonged to my father, the "do everything" phone man for Ma Bell.

-A 150 LB, wall hung, gear driven and hand cranked drill press with a 1" chuck

-assortment of bear traps. I aquired them at a junk yard for .50 apeice.

-broken lures and dry flys that I tied that were well worn and retired. Nice memories!

-plastic cups with motorcycle theme drawings on the outside, and a pin and a patch still wrapped in plastic on the inside...chock full of good memories.

I could go on and on but won't!

What do you have of priceless possessions "Of Little Value?"

[jamesdunn]

Red,
Human beings are aquistive creatures. Most of us have stuff of little economic value, but more importantly we possess things of nostalgic or sentimental worth. Of course a lot of stuff we have around is just stuff.
I have a saddle in storage in Colorado. I have not lived in Colorado for six years, yet I pay 65 bucks a month there to have a place for my junk/things. There are various and sundry items there, such as tools, ski equipment, etc. Most has economic value, some does not, and oh, by the way I don't have a horse (For the afore mentioned saddle.). Unless you count the two bikes I own.... as iron horses!

[Montana]

I ran a self-storage business for friends and you wouldn't believe what people will store, pay to store for YEARS, then abandon. Between this and having cleaned out dead family members' homes, I now have nearly nothing extra in my house. It feels good to open a cupboard and there is clear shelf space.

One family member who died, who lived in CA, cleaning out that house entailed a hazardous waste emergency that resulted in blocking off the whole neighborhood while it was dealt with. One thing about keeping stuff for decades is, some of that stuff has later been found to be poisonous or now is unstable. We're talking chemicals, asbestos rocks, etc.

Another side of this is the person who leaves boxes and bins of stuff that seemed valuable but results in nearly no residual value when it must be dealt with after your death. The "collectibles" market is such a scam.

Don't do this to yourself or your family.

[Sue]

What do you have of priceless possessions "Of Little Value?"

3 boxes full of blue canning jars, some with zinc lids and some with glass lids that are held in place with a metal "clip" Gotta get rid of them... I think they might be worth something but I have no clue.
Uhg.

:dunno

[Sue]

Don't do this to yourself or your family.

Wow Montana .. you are one tough cookie! :D

[TexanRT]

What do you have of priceless possessions "Of Little Value?"

My Dad's old woodworking shop is quiet these days. His shop is filled with incomplete projects -- duck decoys, owls, geese, pelicans and more. There's sawdust on the floor from a hundred day's work, a pile of wooden blocks ready to be carved into decoys. There's a dozen or so old lures hang on wires -- some of which caught some very nice bass back in the day. I remember the days when we'd go down the road to various sporting goods departments and he'd study the latest lure designs then return home to copy those designs into wood -- some worked and some didn't. There are a couple of old fishing nets and boat paddles -- because every boat regardless of size and weight deserves a fine paddle. :) There's at least one old trot line in there from back in the days when we caught fresh catfish and had our Saturday afternoon fish fries out in the Atchafalaya basin. I've spent lots of quiet hours looking through the old shop and his old tools remembering the boats and pirouges he'd built over the years. One day I discovered an entire box of brand new duck calls he'd made during his last year -- he was homebound but always looking for a way to stay busy. The shop is quiet these days -- full of priceless momentos of little value.

[MotorradMike]

A really smart ex boss of mine was such a packrat he actually had a large warehouse rented in Montreal to store it all.

He once told me the secret to becoming a collector.

Step #1: Collect one incomplete thing.
Step #2: Collect 9 parts which should fit it but don't.

You now have 10 incomplete things!

[108625]

Wow Montana .. you are one tough cookie! :D

If you've ever dealt with a "hoarder" in the family, you'd agree with MT.

In response to the question, it would be easier in my case to make a list of what has value :laugh, but honestly, I've personally adopted a philosophy that only those things that represent some connection to important people in your life are truly sentimental; everything else is just stuff.

[rinty]

Throwing out stuff is painful, but you feel good afterwards. We've just done a garage clean out and re organized three rooms in our house. There were about 20loads that went to the dump / storage / relatives. Now I just have to do clothes: about 2 rack metres.

My brother had an SO for many years, who was a pathological collector. She even kept a hummingbird in the freezer that had flown into one of the windows.

The most painful discard I ever had was when we moved, about 7 years ago. All my pilot stuff: maps, briefcase, E6B, books, manuals...:cry

Maybe I should have kept that stuff...

[GeoffMiller]

I have to agree with 108625 and Montana. Amazing how many secret hoarders there are out there! Actual conversation; "Why do you keep all of the burned out headlights from your cars?" Answer: "Well the low beam still works." We decided that we don't want to leave a mess for our kids like we were left with.:cry

[Statdawg]

Every spring and fall our church has a rummage sale and I make sure there is Junk for Jesus.

[SIBUD]

Every spring and fall our church has a rummage sale and I make sure there is Junk for Jesus.

For some reason, that struck me as one of the funniest posts ever on this forum. :D

[SIBUD]

Besides my own junk, I have my father's collection of nuts, bolts and screws.

I plan on leaving them to my kids, along with my own collection of the same. :clap

[hlothery]

13 moves in 23 years in the Army. My wife and I had a rule.....if a box had not been opened from the last move, it was thrown away without being opened before we moved again. My wife, bless her heart, continues her "purge" of our belongings each spring, as we are now in our 15th year since retirement, and our 19th year in the same house (WOW!). I have very little that is not tied down or currently in use!:D

[Voni]

Moving helps you get rid of stuff.

I think the only thing I couldn't give away are our pictures . . .

I so treasure the memories contained therein.

Now mostly digital so they take up very little space.

Voni
sMiling

[crazydrummerdude]

It pains me to think of what people have thrown away. Everything has a market.

[Mika]

Junk is to be recycled in some way or form.
Collectables are to be bought sold and traded.
Keep either to long and they become heirlooms that are given to your children when you don’t want the junk or collectables…err heirlooms any longer.

This has worked in my family for generations and my children can testify to that.
:nod

[Montana]

It pains me to think of what people have thrown away. Everything has a market.No kidding! When we had a neighborhood garage sale, I put a bunch of stuff in it, such as winter camping gear I hadn't used since I stopped running sled dog teams. A long morning and over $400 later, I realized the stuff that sold quickly was 18" strips of left over vinyl flooring, but not classic Correlle kitchenware.

From May 2008 to June 2009 we looked at about 1,000 slides and 36 reels of 8mm and 16mm film. We digitized about 200 of the slides and a dozen of the films. I made digital photo albums, 4 DVDs in each set: one with the raw images, one with the films, one with a slide show that has 5 chapters, and one DVD is the list of images, as an index, plus documents of the family trees, pdf files of books from around 1900 on the family history going back to the 1600s, and it's all in a plastic DVD case along with a glossy insert. These were handed out to each branch of the family at the reunion in June.

Then we gave back the three projectors, the five boxes of slides and the two large boxes of reel film, back to the family member who had stored them since the 1960s. Yes, some stuff may be worth keeping, but if you don't want to do something with it, find a family member who will.

Me - Heartless? No. Ruthless? Yes.

[rinty]

My wife and I don't have garage sales any more; they just use up too much quality time. We try to place stuff with family members and friends first, then we take the stuff to the local charity place, and anything they don't want, gets dumped. I have noticed that the charities are getting pickier on what they'll take.

Selling stuff by advertisement also uses up too much quality time, and I don't want to deal with the tire kickers.

[AKBeemer]

Like Hugh we had the imposed discipline of nearly two score moves during our military career. Now that we've been in the same place for 15 years we have amassed more junk than would seem possible, but a great purge has begun. We held a garage sale last month and made $4000 towards Annie's bike fund. Before we move in a couple of years we are planning an estate sale, just without the dieing aspect we hope.

[kgadley01]

I'm going to clean out the shed real soon. lots of stuff will need to go, like my wifes English Saddle. she hasn't had a Horse in years. also my wife's tredmill must go. I think I'll keep most of my Treasures. LOL

[jforgo]

Have you seen ammo prices lately? Load that brass up - or tumble clean and sell it.

[MCMXCIVRS]

My wife and I don't have garage sales any more; they just use up too much quality time. We try to place stuff with family members and friends first, then we take the stuff to the local charity place, and anything they don't want, gets dumped. I have noticed that the charities are getting pickier on what they'll take.

Selling stuff by advertisement also uses up too much quality time, and I don't want to deal with the tire kickers.

I'm of the same mind on this. I'll give something away or toss it rather than go through the hassle of selling it. The money recouped is seldom worth the effort.

Of course this only applies to items of minimal value that have outlived their usefulness, don't go getting any ideas about my motorcycles. :nono This principle is motivating too lest my wife apply it to me. :uhoh

[Sue]

Since we are moving, we are cleaning out a lot of stuff that we no longer have a use for.... We hauled it down to the side of the road, and nearly every item was snatched up by the locals who happened to be driving by.

Although I am sure we might have been able to sell some of that stuff, I don't have the time or patience for garage sales. It's nice to know it will live on, through someone else, and isn't just going to a landfill somewhere.

:clap

[hlothery]

Since we are moving, we are cleaning out a lot of stuff that we no longer have a use for.... We hauled it down to the side of the road, and nearly every item was snatched up by the locals who happened to be driving by.

Although I am sure we might have been able to sell some of that stuff, I don't have the time or patience for garage sales. It's nice to know it will live on, through someone else, and isn't just going to a landfill somewhere.

:clap

The same thing happened when I cleaned out my parent's house after they died. It was amazing how little was left for the collection I had paid for after the neighbors and passers-by were through.

Terry and I are on the regular call list for Texas Paralyzed Vets and another organization helping the homeless called the Rainbow House in San Antonio. They call us weekly for pickup, if we have anything.....so, if you are at my house, don't let Terry see you set anything down for too long! I've lost several "prized" possessions in that manner.:D

[Holly]

Junk is a true gas. It expands to fill all the space available.

I'm an airforce brat so used to cleaning the stuff out with each move. Its amazing how quickly the moss accumulates when the stone stops rolling.

Holly

[AKBeemer]

Is there a charity that serves motorcyclists? No really.... I have riding gear that is in great shape but I just do not like it. It is more pain than it is worth to try to sell clothing. I'd like to give it to someone who will use it and can't afford good gear.

[crazydrummerdude]

Is there a charity that serves motorcyclists? No really.... I have riding gear that is in great shape but I just do not like it. It is more pain than it is worth to try to sell clothing. I'd like to give it to someone who will use it and can't afford good gear.

Although originally pertaining to kids gear, Putts on advrider was setting up something like that, I believe.

[Pat Carol]

You never realize how much stuff you have until you move.

Pat Carol

[rmarkr]

Is there a charity that serves motorcyclists? No really.... I have riding gear that is in great shape but I just do not like it. It is more pain than it is worth to try to sell clothing. I'd like to give it to someone who will use it and can't afford good gear.

What about a consignment type deal through the Country Store. We donate the gear, they sell it at a price to cover costs, and perhaps generate a few $$$ to donate to a worthy cause.

Sorry about the thread hijack!

[MCMXCIVRS]

You never realize how much stuff you have until you move.

Pat Carol

And if you move to a larger house (garage), you'll get more stuff to fill the space.

We had a lot of stuff when we last moved 11 years ago; there is way more now despite regular purges. I dread ever moving again.