Keep or toss duplicate tools?

[hotdogstand]

I pass my "spares", I.E. third sets or old china tools down to my wife for her set in the house. (keeps her out of the shop). Then, if I still have third sets or junk I have since upgraded from, I'll offer it to my less tool-rich friends for some beer money or whatever.
Assuming, of course, that the welding cart is stocked up. No use giving away cheap tools then destroying good ones.

 

[mrvm]

Feels good giving away the duplicate or excess tools to a diy/beginner. Moving up in quality tools makes the transition so much easier and a bit fun. Cleared out most of the lower end stuff last year but kept a few HF freebies or cheapies for prying, stabbing or modding to fit a special need.

 

[bczygan]

Here's what I find.

If I can't find a tool, it's like I don't own it.

In fact, it's worse than that. If I know I own it, or even suspect that I might have one, then I will spend way too much time looking for it. So better to not even have it at all, and have to go get one at the store.

This is especially bad with misc. wrenches and sockets. A pile of them is worse than nothing, because you have to sort through every one, to find what you need.

So sets are important because they are organized. Even though they contain many sizes I will never use.

The next thing, is to get enough variety. You also need multiples of some things that are used together, like wrenches. And you need different lengths and sizes and types. Here again, you will buy some sets that you will use very infrequently. I find I need a balance, so I don't have to go shopping every time I want to do some task or job.

At some point you have the basics, and start getting specialty tools and tools that make the work easier.

But organization is still key. Tools need to be at the most efficient location for use and organized for identification. So you may need more than one set, if you use tools in more than one place.

This also means that unneeded tools should be eliminated or removed. They just complicate and confuse things, and make it harder to find what you need.

All this is from a homeowner perspective.

Bill

 

[four.cycle]

If I know I own it, or even suspect that I might have one, then I will spend way too much time looking for it.

^ I just had this happen to me - I could not find my go-to 1/4" drive 10mm shallow socket. Dumped the whole set out and lined them all up - no 10mm.
Spent about two hours hunting for it - the other box, in my 3/8" drive set, the floor. Nothing.
All this time I've got a nice little set of S-K 1/4" drive metrics sitting there staring at me. So I finally said "the hell with it" and grabbed the S-K and tore into the machine. Got it disassembled and dropped the carburetor into a can to soak.
A couple hours later I had to move a pile of stuff over to get at something else and lo and behold my missing 10mm socket rolls out from under the pile.

So the "extra" came in handy, but I would have spent hours looking for the other one anyway.

Yeah... organize.... I think maybe I need to look into that as an option.

 

[WhiskeyRanger]

Sell or give away the excess. At a certain point, the extras do nothing but take up space.