Reminds me of my grandmother's carport and garage. I loved diving into those cupboards when I was a kid.

Inventory spreadsheet. Make a sheet for each bag, tote, etc then list whats in it. Then look at the dates of the spreadsheets and ones that haven't been touched in a year pull out and check.

I make my living off my "inventory" of stuff, reclaimed wood, steel, and just about ANYTHING imaginable. It is my hedge on inflation and a SERIOUS resource for my "fabricating". It is acres and weighs 100's and 100's of tons all told. A little backround, I weld, blacksmith, sawmill, kiln, engineer and invent just about ANYTHING imaginable. Things are palletized, organized, and stored fairly well, AND a I have 20 private acres to store it on. I have become a "go to guy" for just about anything you can think of. I ship things all over the country. The two year rule is non-sense.

Ironwood

I've seen the show 'hoarders' and thought "what's the problem?" ....

I have about 5-6 of those Datrex bars that sit unused in my food inventory. When I bought them I opened one and gnawed on the lemony concoction, and realized that while palatable it wasn't a viable TEOTWAWKI food source, feeding my family Datrex would actually signal the time to give us all the Black Capsule. So I keep them as a virtual barometer for when our end is near - when I'm hungry enough for Datrex, its time to go.

More seriously, fire extinguishers - I have 2 expired this year, and my brother who is hosting a family thanksgiving this year has 3, so in honor of national flaming turkey fryer day*, we're going to hold a fire extinguisher clinic for 40+ extended family gathering for the feast: those who have never held a fire extinguisher or put out a fire safely (PASS method) will be able to do so. Especially the kids in the family, it may make up for them having to sit at the little card table. My brother has a large side yard a safe distance from houses, overhangs, trees etc that will make a perfect place for controlled burns. So light a small tub of gasoline, have a 9 year old put it out, repeat until you run out of extinguishers, then go in and eat an enormous amount of food. A new American tradition.

* Last year I responded to no fewer than 3 house fires started by turkey fryers set up and run amok too close to the house, igniting the eaves and spoiling people's national holiday. I'm on call again this year for Red Cross, but someone else gets the fun of the prime turkey fryer hours in the AM, I take over at 5pm. Gobble gobble!

I've seen it and thought, "Crap, better go clean the garage."

As far as expired fire extinguishers go I collect old antique extinguishers. I have found that many of the ones that are expired or decades have passed since last inspection are still viable. I wouldn't rely on one or use that as an excuse not to replace. Just saying is all.

There's a difference between 'junk' and 'valuable stuff'. Sometimes, the line is a little fuzzy, but with inflation going in the direction it is, why should I dump something that cost $10 a few years ago, and would cost $35 to replace?

Books: first you line them up at the back of the bookcase shelves, then you line up another row in front. Old trunks are both decorative and useful, as they hold lots of books.

Sue

The main difference between keeping usefull stuff and being a hoarder is if its organized. When you move one thing and a stack falls over or you find broken and smashed things buried under others its gone too far.
Of you can keep it onganized to where stuff isn't getting lost of broken and its not a danger to you or your family or the person rescueing you then its still ok
I ended up building a second shelf in the top of my closet so I can double stack things. We are buying a bunch of those closetmaid cubicales because they are nice ~12" cubes that come in different colors so you can sit them on a shelf and they look nice. One holds all the blank cd/dvd media and cases and labels, those may only get used a couple times a year but are handy to burn a bunch of pictures on for the grandparents, or about once a year I'll burn each family members important documents and they go in the binder in the safe as another method of backup.
Another one has my set of electronics books, another a set of books for c programing, either I might not use now but may in the future as the kids get older.
But they are organized and don't fall on you, if you were to say go to my inlaws house and walk into a bedroom there is a big desk with stacks of stuff and if you try to blow the dust off the top a pile will tumble down.

Yes, my wife calls it 'junk' and I call it 'valuable'.