As part of repairing and renovating our home after our little flood incident, I'm also trying to cut back on clutter and make the place more welcoming. I have the problem that I'm prepper-minded and also something of a packrat. My wife isn't. Inevitably, we run into conflict over that now and again.
I'm somewhat comforted to realize that I'm not alone in my affliction. Eaton Rapids Joe writes, in a section labeled "Cleaning out the "Sargasso Sea" room" at his blog:
One of the rooms in our house was designated the "If you can't figure out where it should go, throw it into that room".
. . .
It was like excavating a midden-pile from some long-lost civilization.
. . .
So far this project has been a great success. We are now able to open the door and are able to assess what is actually inside the room.
There's more at the link.
Perhaps he and I should each rent a U-Haul (the largest available, of course), and ship our respective junk valuables to each other for sorting? I'm sure we'd appreciate the chance to add to our respective collections - and our wives could compare notes on what they found.
Ducking . . . running . . .
Peter
12 comments:
It would be nice to have a room to put things into! Then again "too much stuff" has been and is one of my problems... It's not as bad as it was, I still have "too much stuff" but not enough to need a big u-haul anymore.
My house is slowly filling up with my "collections". I have multiple antique waffle irons, sewing machines, clocks, records and books (not antique but plentiful). I have no one to mitigate my Magpie-ian (Magpian?) tendencies. I'm trying but a reasonably sized house is getting hard to walk around in. And I used to pride myself on how nice it was to sit or work in any room, now I'm starting to wish there were fewer things in each room.
And the local thrift shop is giving away a really nice Necchi sewing machine because it "doesn't work". I'll bet I could make it work. 😁
Every time I feel like I get my junk pil- uh, man cave in order, it seems like the room immediately starts going backwards. I’ll add a 3rd uhaul to the mix, I’m sure Mrs. Bee would be just as thrilled to help with the sorting as the other wives 😬
Old phones, books, tools, camping gear, model trains…
Oof. I've been helping an elderly lady clean out her house after 40 years of her husband's prepper hoarding tendencies. On the one hand, all of the things were very well organized. On the other hand, who is actually going to use a 10-year supply of soap, 3 tons of 40-year-old food storage, or 500 fine glass Christmas ornaments?
Worst of all is the 50 years' worth of receipts. He saved them all, apparently, from the time he emigrated from Germany. Though finding his original citizenship handbook was pretty cool, the sheer mass of papers we've gone through is incredible.
My own collections tend toward seeds and books, though even those I've been weeding through lately . . .
To badly paraphrase Carroll Shelby: There is no such thing as too much stuff, just too little storage space.
https://www.eveoncontainers.com/en-US/used-40ft-shipping-container
We actually used a room for years to hold the "extra stuff", "don't want to make a decision what to do about it stuff", and "maybe we'll use it later stuff".
It was a nightmare when we had to sell the house.
Meanwhile, at our NEW house, my husband hasn't changed - still keeping stuff because it MIGHT be useful someday.
I'm also the more 'surplus' oriented spouse and have to justify spending $$$ on items which will not be used until 'some event occurs'. I patiently tell my wife it is necessary to have this item because IF things go wrong, there will be no time to go to store, even if it is available on hand to purchase.
COVID helped gain some respect for this. I don't think many had thoughts of a 'slate wiper' virus actually taking root and having items ready to handle that really gained some favor. But that was three years ago - what have you done lately ? :^)
We all know most women think differently from most men. Regardless of leftist propaganda that's simply biology. I have a large house...with room to store preps. My wife and two daughters verbally acknowledged all along the need to be prepared. But while acknowledging that fact they would also ask why I felt it necessary to have some things in volume, enough to last for months or more. They simply didn't get it. They always thought "if I need something I'll just go to the store and get it". Then the Pandemic arrived and you couldn't find toilet paper and other daily necessities to save you life. Then aand ONLY then did they actually GET IT. They finally grasped the fragility of our supply system and economy. And even NOW, after seeing it first hand, they resist keeping adequate stock on hand. Women.... Decorative but rarely practical.
We could live to be a thousand years old and not use all the stuff my husband has set by "just in case". He worked in construction for decades and there's nothing so crappy that it can't be used to build/repair/create something else. We have buckets of screws, enough lumber to build several sheds, leftover metal roofing and a two-car garage full of other flotsam and jetsam. I absolutely hate clutter so this drives me nuts.
One wasn't enough for me, so I bought a second!
Of course, that was after we went from a large house with a basement to a smaller one without...
I did find they are convenient for moving long distances.
Jona
Mrs ERJ "suggested" that we put up some long tables similar to the ones you might see at a yard sale and then shop off of them as we get organized and find logical places for things.
So far, that has worked pretty well.
One friend who is very handy uses five-gallon buckets. They are inexpensive and sturdy but are not very visual. We are still working on some way to have a manifest on each bucket and a master manifest to find that bucket.
Thanks for the kind words.
But how can you say "No" when the nice widow woman wants to sell you seven, working CB radios for $5?
ERJ:
The storage container needs a code that designates type, color, size, and then a code that designates the major content group, such as medical, personal, electronic, tools, clothes, food, etc.
Magic marker and painter's tape for labeling.
Clipboard with pages of lists of the containers with contents noted, plus consider photos of the contents spread out on a table or floor for more detailed search attempts. Folders of photos, that can be replaced with newer versions as better groupings or condensing of contents.
I'm using bins from Costco, so the variations are:
small=S
medium=M
large=L
clear=C
black=B
tools=T
clothes=C
etc
-------- S.C.T:001 ------- [small clear tools #1 ........]
Be consistent with the order, as some of the letters are the same, but mean different things depending on order sequence. At least for me, so far ;)
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