Packing and moving stuff out of what is now somebody else' house. Where did all this stuff come from?

Clothes I haven't worn in years, coffee mugs by the dozen received as gifts that I never use, articles in folders that were important for some now-lost reason, knicknacks that seemed interesting or cute but not enough to pack or move, ball caps from events by the dozen in a pile on a closet shelf, recepts and tax records more than a decade old carefully filed away, old computer software and diskettes that could only run on museum piece equipment if at all, cheap lamps and appliances that I could probably rewire someday except even fixed they are junk, good parts from otherwise broken stuff, etcetera.

Am I the only member of the it-might-come-in-handy-someday club?

I think most of us here are pack rats to one degree or another.

Are you sure you weren't rummaging through my house? Houses, garages and attics all across the country are filled with the stuff that you speak of.

I suspect that becoming a boat bum is gonna be just about like being trailer trash, you suddenly don't have as much storage space, so you will stop saving/buying stuff you don't actually need, and use, you just don't have the space for it. This has saved us a fortune, since we now just zip right on past antique shops and garage sales. You will find that very soon every available storage space will be filled up; to acquire something new, you have to decide what to get rid of...

I say buy a bigger house with a shed or two on the property. No sence in giving up junk when you can take out a new morgage!

And being a pack-rat has paid off for many of us at one point or another.

I'm thinking of my box in the shop that I named after my father-in-law.

He has a stash of plastic widgets, hoses, wires, metal pieces (basically junk) that has proved invaluable in "southern engineering" some repair or project around the house.

I've dove into my junk box many a time to rig up shims, braces, whatever. My wife was not too thrilled when I fished the ancient cookie sheet out of the garbage, but it ended up making a humdinger of a wind screen / stand for my beer can stove

All things in moderation.

Looking at what you're hanging on to with an eye towards versatility. (The broken elephant lamp itself might not be useful, but the guts could be).

Oh thanks, samhain.
On this quiet Sunday afternoon I was considering... thinking about... just maybe... going through the you-never-know boxes... and actually throwing some of that stuff out.
But your eloquent and articulate post has carried the day.
The stuff stays!
(For the moment).

Nurit

He who dies with the most junk wins…

The only problem I've had with the "might come in handy one day" stuff is that the "one day" never seems to come...whereas the stuff just keeps growing.

At the rate I accumulate stuff for that one day, I'll need a couple hundred of those "one days" to use up the stuff.

Gotta go buy some more stuff...

John E

I live to serve.