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Collectible or Clutter

cooby Jul 13 2018 01:15 AM

Now that my grandmotherly (at least until the next wave of grandkids) duties are finished, I look around my house and think, ‘ what did I keep this for?’ About a LOT of stuff. I think my garbage and my recycle men are going to be amazed on the near future Any odd piles around your houses?

d'Kong76 Jul 13 2018 01:41 AM Re: Collectible or Clutter

We need to have a giant garage/basement/closet sale this fall.

MFS62 Jul 13 2018 01:45 AM Re: Collectible or Clutter

I think we still have the costumes the girls wore in their dance class' annual shows 30-40 years ago. The costumes are in plastic garbage bags in a corner of the attic. And lots of other stuff, too. Later

Lefty Specialist Jul 13 2018 09:52 AM Re: Collectible or Clutter

We have a bunch of toys that went from, 'oh we can't bear to throw that out' to 'let's save it for the (potential) grandkids'. In the meantime, they clutter up my attic in plastic bags as well.

metsmarathon Jul 13 2018 12:30 PM Re: Collectible or Clutter

i come from a long line of packrats. i don't think i'm breaking that trend anytime soon. luckily, my house has an attic with a low ceiling, so at some point, i'm going to be forced to cull the clutter. i hope. but it sure as shit ain't happening anytime soon.

cooby Jul 13 2018 12:36 PM Re: Collectible or Clutter

Glad I’m not alone! Toys are keepers for sure. My grandkids recently went through a big bin of stuffed toys and my daughter and I sat and reminisced about them! Oh! I got that at seaworld! Uncle chuck gave me that! That one was Tony’s!

Ceetar Jul 13 2018 01:23 PM Re: Collectible or Clutter

I've only been in the house almost 5 years so we've only accumulated 5 tons of stuff. We've got a big attic, goes across the entire house, but it's just beams. There's nailed down wood on the one side, but I'd have to expand. But we had mice/chipmunks. There's probably 40 pounds of mouse poop in that insulation between the beams. So everything that goes up there goes up in plastic tubs. ~15 boxes of baby clothes. Most passed down from my cousin who is again pregnant but lives in Texas. And some of it we'll still need for the littler one. Our basement is also the size of the house, but filled with tons of clutter as well. My wife's previous job closed up shop and she ended up taking a bunch of stuff. filing cabinets, sets of test tubes, boxes, lamps. So we've got a lot of "we could use this, just need to organize/plan" but in the meantime the basement fills up, even just with acquired stuff like party supplies and groceries. I think we made the mistake of telling the previous owners to leave stuff. We figured from a 1-Bedroom apartment to a whole house we could use some of it as we grew into the house, but we had enough stuff. Too big coffee/end tables. treadmill, that sorta thing. As for actual kids stuff? We're in that glorious inbetween stage where everything the almost 4 year old is done with is just about ready for the 16 month old. I just recycled about 40 paintings though.

Lefty Specialist Jul 13 2018 03:19 PM Re: Collectible or Clutter

I may have enough Thomas the Tank Engine wooden track to stretch from Chicago to the West Coast.

seawolf17 Jul 13 2018 04:32 PM Re: Collectible or Clutter

I will say that moving clear across the state was a HUGE impetus for us to throw out a lot of stuff.

d'Kong76 Jul 13 2018 04:54 PM Re: Collectible or Clutter

Ya, as I think I said to you here or that other place, "you never realize how much crap you actually have until it's time to move it somewhere else." Our attic is very organized, just bins and boxes. The basement is a disaster of clutter and what not. I'm too lazy to look for the thread, but I'm pretty sure I said in some New Year's thing in January I was going to do some- thing about that. Mid-July, I have to say I've done dick to remedy things.

batmagadanleadoff Jul 13 2018 05:13 PM Re: Collectible or Clutter

Lefty Specialist wrote: I may have enough Thomas the Tank Engine wooden track to stretch from Chicago to the West Coast. See, this is the best post in this thread, and probably the only good one. Because I dont care about your beams and your ceilings. I just wanna know what youse are saving . So I can decide if it's collectible or clutter.

Ceetar Jul 13 2018 05:25 PM Re: Collectible or Clutter

wobbly warped pool table that I can't help but use as storage space, C or C?

d'Kong76 Jul 13 2018 05:31 PM Re: Collectible or Clutter

I have a box of used bubble wrap, a big box. Can't throw away good bubble wrap.

Ceetar Jul 13 2018 05:32 PM Re: Collectible or Clutter

[tweet][/tweet] d'Kong76 wrote: I have a box of used bubble wrap, a big box. Can't throw away good bubble wrap. it's great for beer trading.

d'Kong76 Jul 13 2018 05:35 PM Re: Collectible or Clutter

Speaking of beer, I have a big box of Grolsch bottles with the ceramic tops from when I last made beer. (like 25 years ago)

Ceetar Jul 13 2018 05:39 PM Re: Collectible or Clutter

d'Kong76 wrote: Speaking of beer always. Did you know me and Fman started a blog? [url]https://www.barleyprose.com d'Kong76 wrote: , I have a big box of Grolsch bottles with the ceramic tops from when I last made beer. (like 25 years ago) clutter.

d'Kong76 Jul 13 2018 06:38 PM Re: Collectible or Clutter

Ceetar wrote: d'Kong76 wrote: , I have a big box of Grolsch bottles with the ceramic tops from when I last made beer. (like 25 years ago) clutter. My wife would agree, only I think garbage would be more her wording. I disagree, large high quality bottles with ceramic tops don't grow on trees.

metsmarathon Jul 13 2018 06:47 PM Re: Collectible or Clutter

if they're high quality wooden train tracks, then keep that shit. if they're poorly toleranced, and don't fit well with other brands, then... i dunno.. maybe toss it? or burn it. i've got a ton of train track as well. plan to keep hold of it. some things i just can't see getting rid of, like train tracks, lego, and major-brand die-cast cars (hot wheels, matchbox, etc). off-brand versions of the same can readily be tossed, lest shame be levied unto you for having bought mega blocks, or majorette cars, in the first place.

metsmarathon Jul 13 2018 06:51 PM Re: Collectible or Clutter

messed up pool table is clutter, clearly. good pool table must be held onto no matter how much you do or ever will play pool on it. we had to move ours out of hte basement after a flood, to replace the carpet, and since it was out, it made more sense to keep the basement open for the kids to play around in more space. i cannot wait for them all to get big enough that i can successfully make the argument to bring it back in from its garage-side-storage purgatory. bubble wrap is for popping. i didn't know it had any other uses. but yeah, i have so much trouble throwing that stuff out, unless i see my existing stash and realize that i don't want to add to it - never mind that i never seem to take away from it for actual bubble-wrapping usage.

Edgy MD Jul 13 2018 07:14 PM Re: Collectible or Clutter

How in the world do you bounce a pool table from the basement to the garage? Those things are as heavy as the devil. I'd rather move a piano, and I've moved a few pianos and don't wish that on my worst enemy*. I'm sure there are pool table repair dudes out there. With 45 square feet of plywood, they can also double as a base for a ping-pong table until the kids get older and seedier in their recreational tastes. *If you need to get rid of a pool table or piano, I'd recommend burning down your house.

Ceetar Jul 13 2018 07:33 PM Re: Collectible or Clutter

Edgy MD wrote: How in the world do you bounce a pool table from the basement to the garage? Those things are as heavy as the devil. I'd rather move a piano, and I've moved a few pianos and don't wish that on my worst enemy*. I'm sure there are pool table repair dudes out there. With 45 square feet of plywood, they can also double as a base for a ping-pong table until the kids get older and seedier in their recreational tastes. *If you need to get rid of a pool table or piano, I'd recommend burning down your house. ahh, see it depends on the pool table? The 'good' ones have like 400 pounds of slate as the base, and those don't warp. My parents have one. We got it when I was like 5. Now that we're all grown up though they said I can have it, if we can figure out how to move it. The bumpers and felt need to be redone though. So some small motivation to clean my basement and dump the crappy one.

Frayed Knot Jul 13 2018 09:05 PM Re: Collectible or Clutter

As someone who helped clean out my parent's house(s) several times including twice in the last 8 years, a little advice: Start thinning stuff out NOW!!!! You don't need to chuck everything at once but start warning your (grown) kids that if they want something then they'd better claim it soon or else it's going on EBay, or on CraigsList, or to the church auction, or simply to the fucking curb. In the meantime you stop importing stuff into your home without a strict rule that something else of equal or greater size has to exit the premisis first. It's called the 'Conservation of Crap' rule.

cooby Jul 13 2018 09:10 PM Re: Collectible or Clutter

Yeah, we have a pool table, a couple of beds and a dozen rubbermaid bins in the basement just waiting for my son and his wife to buy a house, lol... And yes, they are looking!

d'Kong76 Jul 13 2018 09:55 PM Re: Collectible or Clutter

Speaking of trains, I have a bunch of stuff in both HO and N Gauge from the 70's. I was really into trains as a yute, I still am, but my into- it-ness has gone into some sort of hibernation. I also have a train set (HO) from Japan that KB's uncle had shipped to a base in northern California in the early 50's. It's pretty cool and has the old wooden track. Not sure why we have it, but I know it's origin because there's a customs declaration in the box showing how much Yen is cost and it's destination with some military mumbo jumbo.

Frayed Knot Jul 13 2018 11:54 PM Re: Collectible or Clutter

metsmarathon wrote: i come from a long line of packrats. i don't think i'm breaking that trend anytime soon. Pack-rat-itude is definitely hereditary. My Mom's family was semi-bad but dad's was worse, not helped by the fact that he out-lived his only sibling and therefore got all of her stuff plus all their parents stuff and none of them ever threw out anything. I found stuff my father drew in grade school. I found a note notifying my mother's salary increase for his second year of school teaching (something like 5K/yr to 5,300). An also the card sent by my aunt and uncle noting the birth of my cousin Kate (she's now 51 y/o).

MFS62 Jul 14 2018 01:26 AM Re: Collectible or Clutter

d'Kong76 wrote: Speaking of trains, I have a bunch of stuff in both HO and N Gauge from the 70's. I was really into trains as a yute, I still am, but my into- it-ness has gone into some sort of hibernation. I also have a train set (HO) from Japan that KB's uncle had shipped to a base in northern California in the early 50's. It's pretty cool and has the old wooden track. Not sure why we have it, but I know it's origin because there's a customs declaration in the box showing how much Yen is cost and it's destination with some military mumbo jumbo. We have a Marx train set that my late father-in-law bought when my wife and her brother were kids. We used to bring it out and set it up every other year or so when our kids and grandkids were younger, but haven't for a few years. Up until a few year ago, it was in the original box, but that cardboard deteriorated about six years ago a,d the set is now in a plastic container. Later

metsmarathon Jul 14 2018 03:39 AM Re: Collectible or Clutter

Edgy MD wrote: How in the world do you bounce a pool table from the basement to the garage? Those things are as heavy as the devil. I'd rather move a piano, and I've moved a few pianos and don't wish that on my worst enemy*. I'm sure there are pool table repair dudes out there. With 45 square feet of plywood, they can also double as a base for a ping-pong table until the kids get older and seedier in their recreational tastes. *If you need to get rid of a pool table or piano, I'd recommend burning down your house. We needed to replace the carpet in the basement after hurricane Irene. Paid a pool table installing company $300 to move it into the garage. It’s still there. In maybe 5 years I can probably pay $400 to move it back. It was like the biggest downside to having more kids - pushing back the timetable on bringing back to pool table.