Something just clicked…..

[Richard Cranium]

I do have a question for you strouty, Back on post number 2167 you was showing one of the towers you was working. some of the antenna's on it looks to be oblong loops, What are they used for? Rich.
I also had to go back and take another look at your lista set up for inspiration.

 

[Strouty]

Rich, seems we are all helping each other or is it enabling? The antenna you were asking is a VHF dipole, it sends and receives signals from a 2 way paging system for a small fire department. I do not know the radio end of things really well, I am the structural guy. Sounds like you have been busy, maybe you could get his help for a few days at your place?


I am going to do a bit of purging next week, the kind that makes me sick to my stomach. I have bins of stuff that I do not know what it is, I know it was expensive and is useful to someone, but I am not giving it any more of my life. I am not going to post pictures of it, for fear that someone will ask why I am throwing it away. I will show the cleared space afterwards. The reason I am not doing it now is because I am waiting for trash day, I will load it in the dumpster and leave. When I come back it will be gone. I think this is the best way, I just want you guys to know that I was going to post pictures of it and offer it for free, but I think it will still own me if I do that. I NEED a clean break. Am I being crazy?

 

[bimmer1980]

get it gone and move on....... If it's not adding value to your live, then it is time to get it out and carry on.....

I know it is tough, but it is just stuff.... I like to remind myself that there is a cost for it just to sit there. You could have some thing that is actually worth something to you in that place.... Even if that means clear space so you can work on a project that you really enjoy.

Best of luck.... I do enjoy reading this thread......

 

[Thumper68]

No, That is how I cleaned up the loft, I just started tossing stuff, Literally I was throwing stuff I knew I didn't want/need off the loft onto the floor of the shop, many of the things broke on impact this was a no return moment. I was tempted to toss a few old monitors but didn't want the mess so those were quickly handed down and the boy moved them directly out of the shop.

Then it was just a matter of sorting the pile into trash and burn, trash got bagged up and into the boys truck for a trash run and the burn went straight into the burn pile.

I did break down and took the time to cut all the cords off things to save for scrap.

keep up the fight.

 

[dlcwent]

I am going to do a bit of purging next week, the kind that makes me sick to my stomach. I have bins of stuff that I do not know what it is, I know it was expensive and is useful to someone, but I am not giving it any more of my life. I am not going to post pictures of it, for fear that someone will ask why I am throwing it away. I will show the cleared space afterwards. The reason I am not doing it now is because I am waiting for trash day, I will load it in the dumpster and leave. When I come back it will be gone. I think this is the best way, I just want you guys to know that I was going to post pictures of it and offer it for free, but I think it will still own me if I do that. I NEED a clean break. Am I being crazy?

I think that is the only thing you can do. Don't look back at your decision. Just try not to think it over too deeply. Let it go and see how it works out for you.

 

[bczygan]

Rich, seems we are all helping each other or is it enabling? The antenna you were asking is a VHF dipole, it sends and receives signals from a 2 way paging system for a small fire department. I do not know the radio end of things really well, I am the structural guy. Sounds like you have been busy, maybe you could get his help for a few days at your place?


I am going to do a bit of purging next week, the kind that makes me sick to my stomach. I have bins of stuff that I do not know what it is, I know it was expensive and is useful to someone, but I am not giving it any more of my life. I am not going to post pictures of it, for fear that someone will ask why I am throwing it away. I will show the cleared space afterwards. The reason I am not doing it now is because I am waiting for trash day, I will load it in the dumpster and leave. When I come back it will be gone. I think this is the best way, I just want you guys to know that I was going to post pictures of it and offer it for free, but I think it will still own me if I do that. I NEED a clean break. Am I being crazy?

That's how I do it.

Putting it on the curb is a problem, even though a lot of scrap disappears from there, not everything does. And the extra effort lets me be tempted.

If I handle it too much, I end up keeping it.

I don't even like letting the dumpsters sit full of stuff, for fear I'll dumpster dive my own dumpsters, like I have in the past.

I do the break it as I toss it thing too, so there is no turning back.

I will give this advice. If you do end up keeping something, don't despair. You can always toss it the next time you go through things.

You will have some regrets. Be prepared for that. But fight that feeling by remembering that anything you need in the future, can always be had.


Bill

 

[Lhorn]

Nothing to add except that you are are lucky man to live there. That view is awesome.

 

[Strouty]

Thanks guys, I was hoping it would be the best approach and I appreciate the support.

 

[Richard Cranium]

I agree, dump it and don't look back.

 

[egnorant]

Been purging my stash for 3 years now. Discovered that I might have used some of the stuff I threw out, BUT most of it was stuff I could not have found anyway until I did the purge. The money spent on new stuff is vastly outweighed by being able to find stuff I did keep! Stuff that I thought might have value to someone got put on Cragslist and if anyone showed up, they were taking it home. Some of it was given away if I liked the person. If they made an offer I accepted so it satisfied my "useful to someone" frame of mind.
Sometimes they left with extra stuff too!

Get ruthless! In a few days at most it will be gone from your shop and your mind!

Bruce

 

[nine4gmc]

Rich, seems we are all helping each other or is it enabling? The antenna you were asking is a VHF dipole, it sends and receives signals from a 2 way paging system for a small fire department. I do not know the radio end of things really well, I am the structural guy. Sounds like you have been busy, maybe you could get his help for a few days at your place?


I am going to do a bit of purging next week, the kind that makes me sick to my stomach. I have bins of stuff that I do not know what it is, I know it was expensive and is useful to someone, but I am not giving it any more of my life. I am not going to post pictures of it, for fear that someone will ask why I am throwing it away. I will show the cleared space afterwards. The reason I am not doing it now is because I am waiting for trash day, I will load it in the dumpster and leave. When I come back it will be gone. I think this is the best way, I just want you guys to know that I was going to post pictures of it and offer it for free, but I think it will still own me if I do that. I NEED a clean break. Am I being crazy?

You're not being crazy Strouty, I had a discussion with my scrap buddy today while we were on the long ride home about his storage units he rents to store ****. Reason I even brought it up was I want to do something with a lot of junk I have been accumulating and it's easier if I "think out loud at someone like me". In some twisted way, I feel that if I can get him to unload some ****, I can do it too. He's way more of a hoarder than me, but I have the sickness too and it's interfering with my happiness.

Throw that **** away, I got your back.

 

[Strouty]

I haven't even thrown anything away and I all ready feel liberated. Thanks guys, it is really nice to be able to get feedback like this. Remember sometimes even when I don't want to hear it, I am still listening.

The crew I was working with today got most of the equipment installed, but this job is not the important one, at least not to me. Tomorrow is the important one, I will get to find out how much money I lose on the job! At this point it looks like it may only be about $1000, but it could change. I hope the tower crew I have for the day will be able to get things done without me babysitting them.

 

[nine4gmc]

That's good stuff Bruce, sorry I missed your post earlier, I read Bro Stro's, hit quote and made my post.
I like your style and when my inner hoarder and subconscious broke *** mindset don't overwhelm me I try to do the same. It's a hard battle for me on two fronts though, having nothing growing up makes it hard for me to let go of things now which leads to my hoarding even more. I keep two loaves of bread, two sticks of deodorant, etc because I can remember a time when I couldn't afford either. It's a sickness...


Sent from my iThingy using Tapatalk

 

[Ryan21]

My goal is to mount the pumps and get the pulleys off the old motors. Anything more than that will be extra, I have so many loose ends right now that I am forgetting how to tie the knots.

 

[bczygan]

One good thing about having too much stuff.

You can afford to be picky about what you are disposing of.

If there is one item that you just can't bear to part with, no matter, you have lots of other things you can readily toss.

Bill

 

[Strouty]

I ended up on the tower with the other crew all afternoon and it was windy, 30 mph with gusts over 40. We got the cable up and into the building just before dark. I actually had to get my brother to help on the ground and then he came up too. When you have 430 feet of cable slapping in the breeze it is nice to have extra hands. Next week there are a few loose ends I need to finish up and it will be totally completed. Looks like I am down about $1000 and almost 3 days of my time. Live and learn, at least it is a good customer.

 

[Richard Cranium]

I am not sure I understand why you lost 1000.00 on this job, What went wrong. was it your tower and you had to hire help to do some thing, did you bid it wrong or did **** just happen?

 

[Strouty]

Apparently I bid it very wrong. I have not had this much wrong in a very long time. Every aspect was off. I think the main issue was that I over estimated the abilities of my Uncle and Cousin. It won't happen again.

 

[dlcwent]

Sorry it happened to you Strouty. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. Been there too many times to mention. Like you said, won't happen again.

 

[drivesitfar]

Strouty: another lesson learned and maybe let your client know since he's or they are a repeat customer.

Damn i wouldnt have wanted to be up on a tower, crane or roof with those big winds. You have balls bigger than most of us and congrats on getting the job done.

I too need to unclutter my life a lot. I end up spending time moving things around that i probably wont ever use just because they are valuable which takes time away from the things i want to do. Good for you for letting go of some. Instead of scrapping good for stuff for pennies maybe put an ad on craigslist in free section and pass on some good stuff to the right person and maybe gain a friend or get some good karma.

Im sure the guy selling you his tower stuff last week knew it was worth more but i bet he was happy to have it gone and seeing it go to you.

Have a great weekend

 

[bczygan]

I'm going to make a suggestion that seems counter to the direction of the conversation of late.

It's the old argument of organization versus simplification.

Right now the emphasis is on simplification, by tossing things. And that is all well and good, especially for all the things you can find no immediate or reasonably in the future use for.

Strouty, back a while, in this thread, you were involved in a lot of organizing, and rearranging and even providing new storage devices like cabinets and shelves and such.

I am finding lately, that this is also a useful approach. I've been building new storage space and stocking it with cabinets and tool chests that I had, but had not been using. Along with a lot of tossing, this is giving me organization and a place for all my things.

It is a work in progress, where I have to keep going back over things and getting them more and more organized, but I'm getting to a tipping point where not too much more stuff needs to go, it just needs better organization.

So the answer is a balance.

My wife is facing this at work. They are reorganizing the entire building she is in. Some bean counters are trying to save money. Instead of a U shaped cubicle, they are trying out just giving each person about 4 to 5' of a counter space. Right now she is a bit of a hoarder. She keeps supplies for all kinds of uses in the office that other people need, plus lots of things to make her own space nicer and homey. If the change comes to her area, she will have to divest herself of all of it. Just keep a photo and a place for her purse...nothing else, no plants, no paper files with info that her managers might need, no office supplies. It will change the way she works and the support she can provide.

You can't fit 10 pounds of **** in a five pound bag, but you CAN fit 5 pounds of ****, so choose your **** wisely. And you can get another 5 pound bag and have 10 pounds of ****.

Bill

 

[Richard Cranium]

Well I hope every ones Saturday was productive, I spent most of my day cleaning and arranging my garage. I am far from finished but I am happy with what I did get done. Oh my wife came out and helped for a while also. I think it helps when some one else is out there with me, I seams to get so much more done. Rich

 

[Strouty]

Agreed on the second person, I am much more productive and I stray far less with someone there.

Bill you are correct too, balance is a good way to put it. I need to look at several things: money available, time available, cost or value of items, cost or value of my time, space available, quantity of stuff.

 

[Richard Cranium]

Stroutly, I hope you don't mind me posting 5 pictures on your thread here, I spoke of, that I was going to work on my garage this week end, So here is Saturdays results. Also I had a thread on my garage a while back and I will try bringing it back to life. It was called " putting it all together". I will post these pictures there later tonight...Rich

 

[bczygan]

Stroutly, I hope you don't mind me posting 5 pictures on your thread here, I spoke of, that I was going to work on my garage this week end, So here is Saturdays results. Also I had a thread on my garage a while back and I will try bringing it back to life. It was called putting it all together. I will post these pictures there later tonight...Rich

Rich,
Nice!

I need to take some photos to document my progress the last few days. Have been too busy. Think I'll go out right now.

Bill

 

[Strouty]

Rich, I have no problem with it at all. Glad you are getting some stuff done as well. I really do think we all feed off each other, hopefully in a good way.

I spent the day with my GF loading steel from Massachusetts, we left at 5:30 AM and got back to my shop at 4:29 PM just in time for kick off. I unloaded the truck and trailer by myself. Now I am convinced that I need to scrap more of the steel, otherwise I will have four or five trips. Also found that the tractor trailer will most likely get stuck as there is a lot of sand and it is deep, I had to put the truck in 4x4 just to back the trailer in by the steel.

 

[Richard Cranium]

I've had to put many trucks into 4 wheel drive to back a trailer up the slightest incline and then you add the sand and it is a mess.
My car is in my garage for the first time in the last 13 months that I have owned the car. Kind of a good feeling. I have a lot of work before I can put the jeep in also though. lol

 

[bczygan]

More progress here.

In my mind, things are coming together.

So I took some photos.

They tell a different story.

It's funny how the minds eye sees things differently.

Photos on my blog later today.

Got to go to a funeral first.

Bill

 

[egnorant]

Simplification and organization must include utilization. I'm finding that you will always have these 3 things. My trick is to maintain simplification! It is much harder when I am a little organized and able to utilize my shop better. Gotta resist the urge to celebrate my progress with another cheap trailer load of ****.

Bruce

 

[Richard Cranium]

That was my problem, too many cheap trailers of ****

 

[nine4gmc]

Same here. My friend said I should pass on some, that I didn't need to bring every one of them home but I digress. I'm too poor to pass on good free stuff and/or stuff I can flip for a few dollars.

 

[Strouty]

I am finding that the "free" stuff is costing me way more than any of the stuff I have bought.

As far as my road trip to pick up tower parts, I am convinced that I need to scrap almost half of what is left. I think I found a place that is about 30 minutes from where the steel is, trying to confirm they are open on Saturdays now.

 

[drivesitfar]

Strouty: you might be able to post a Craigslist ad in the area where the
"scrap" is and maybe get somebody to pick it up either for free or for a few bucks and save you time and gas. just a thought. post pictures and a good write in the correct area and maybe the old owner can let them in and even save you a few hours drive and gas? or leave for the old owner after you have what you want if he's ok with that?

i agree some of the "free" stuff i'm not using is costing a lot more than the things i buy to use or re sell.

good luck

 

[Strouty]

The agreement is everything must be out by the end of November, so I am just going to do it. I don't want to get third parties involved and end up having to go back anyways. Scrap is at $40 a ton, so it will still pay for my fuel and that is better than nothing. I think I have two trips of scrap and then maybe three trips for good steel. It should end up being two more trips with two trucks and trailers each time. Worse case, I have to make an extra trip by myself. Once it is done I will have a nice racking system and a great gin pole and skid winch. The extra mounts, brackets, hardware, and galvanized steel is all a bonus. This is what I hauled back yesterday, the trailer looks like it could haul more, but there was lots of heavy steel under the bulky stuff.

 

[Thumper68]

Yup this score deserves a big "YOU ****!!"

 

[slowzuki]

I have a bit of hoarding instinct as well, with a father in law who works in demolition with a constant stream of goodies. I'm very slowly reclaiming some space and cleaning up the yard. The tips that have helped:

1. Honesty about what projects will ever be completed. For me this is vehicles, at least 10 cars/trucks have left now at far less than I felt they should be worth, but it feels good when they go. I even gave away several items. There are 5 more to go.

2. Never store stuff that Craigslist can store for you. This means stuff that is constantly available on craigslist for usually the same prices, will be there when you need it. You don't need to stockpile it. It also means if you have some of that stuff already, don't feel bad about "storing" it back into craigslist by selling it.

3. Stuff you have collected because it is worth X, is only worth X if you actually sell it, otherwise its a constant cost to store it. If you have no intent or way to use it, but don't intend or actually have time to sell it, its actually completely worthless.

4. Figure out what you paid for your property/shop/building - convert it to square feet. Figure out what you pay in tax/heat/elec etc per square foot. Write it down and remember that every time some offers you free stuff, look at the object and think of the $$ it is going to take up. Also think of what you are worth an hour and the cost of moving your "treasure" and organizing it. I like to call my time 20$ an hour, so if someone offers me a free sheet of plywood worth 20$, and I have to spend close to an hour getting it and putting it away, I would have been ahead just buying a sheet on my way home from work, when I needed it.

5. Although Garage Journal is full of people with lots of time to constantly organize and reorganize garages, lots of folks (me at least) don't have free time to constantly do this. Reorganizing costs me money from my business, which means costs me money. I'm not saying one shouldn't be organized, but constantly reorganizing to cram more and more stuff into one space is a distraction from a problem of too much stuff. I love the creative solutions folks have to jam lots of stuff into tiny shops but that is time and brain hp diverted from making money if its a working shop.

6. Sorting stuff multiple times takes too long and costs money. Getting a dumpster or storage trailer that is used as a dumping grounds is a great option to clean out the shop handling things once. Storage trailer is good for folks with anxiety about actually throwing stuff out, its slow motion process as you put it in there until the roof leaks and ruins it for you then you can feel better about throwing it out.

7. If you can't throw something away, set a goal of selling it with a low or flexible price on Craigslist. I have a goal of selling at least one item a week on Craigslist. (Kijiji here) - the trick is not browsing for new junk while on there listing.

Edit:
8. One of the incoming streams of junk for me is the "high" I get from finding something for an extremely good or free price. I have figured out this is related to a very money restricted childhood. Something that has helped with selling things cheaper than what I know they are worth is projecting those euphoric feelings of a deal onto a buyer and at least pretending they are feeling how I felt when I obtained the items.

 

[bimmer1980]

4. Figure out what you paid for your property/shop/building - convert it to square feet. Figure out what you pay in tax/heat/elec etc per square foot. Write it down and remember that every time some offers you free stuff, look at the object and think of the $$ it is going to take up. Also think of what you are worth an hour and the cost of moving your "treasure" and organizing it. I like to call my time 20$ an hour, so if someone offers me a free sheet of plywood worth 20$, and I have to spend close to an hour getting it and putting it away, I would have been ahead just buying a sheet on my way home from work, when I needed it.


[/QUOTE]

I really like this!!!!!!!!! I have had similar thoughts as well.....

 

[Strouty]

Slowzuki, very true for sure. You can see that a lot of us do not value our time, I am starting to and seeing the mess that I have created for "free" is going to cost a lot to deal with. At least I am being more realistic about the stuff from this latest endeavor, I will be scrapping a lot before it ever hits my shop. Less to organize later and that is the thought process that is driving me now. I sold that boat at a loss, but damn it felt good to have it gone. I may not end up with any money for the scrap when it is over, but I won't have to handle it again. Hopefully the stuff I choose to save ends up being resold, I know some will sit for a while, but galvanized stuff does not rust, so it can be 20 years old and still command almost new prices. It all depends on how it is stored, when it is banded with regular metal banding, the band rusts and bleeds all over the galvanized parts and you can never get it cleaned off. I plan on buying some galvanized banding, then I can easily store things without worrying about destroying them.

The guy that is taking the extra dirt is coming for it on Wednesday. Once it is gone, I can start moving things around in preparation for the winter. My guess is that I won't have time to truly organize everything before the snow hits, but I am going to try. I still have a lot of more important things to get done, so for now I will dedicate an area for all of the new materials. I moved the 6x6 out of the way today and I keep remembering that it needs the muffler installed, funny how you only think of things like that when they are right in front of you. I guess I need to put it on my whiteboard.

I brought in the hydraulic motors that came with all my goodies, the guy had tried to make a powered trailer, but it was too slow, so he went with electric motors. I got the tank, valves, pump (rusted bad), lines (junk), and six motors. I figure I will take the lines off and get some plugs for the motors, then I can store them in the trailer out of the way. I would like to do the same thing he did, but I think he just had too small of a reservoir to run all of them at any speed. Either way they are worth something and right now it is just a tangled spider web of hoses and parts. I took some pictures of the parts that I unloaded in the dark, I think I did pretty well to unload everything as nicely as I did. I can't wait to get the other fork lift, that will really be nice once it is all working.

 

[Strouty]

I ended up tossing about a dozen 5 gallon buckets that had either fry oil or hydraulic oil in them, I had to remember that I can buy them for $3 each and the buckets take too much effort to clean out right now.

Here is the excavator the guy taking the extra dirt brought over.


Here are the motors, I will post more pics when I start getting them apart.



I got to use my reel trailer twice in the last week, I am glad I bought it for $150 way back. It is self loading (except I have to pump like crazy to get it back up!)

 

[slowzuki]

I'm sure you know this Strouty from managing tower jobs but if you can put your outside junk on pallets when its being unloaded, it makes it a lot easier to sell it, or send it to auction, or organize it. Metal loose in a yard is terrible to clean up unless its with the thumb on the excavator.

Its interesting to see the work you do, my dad worked surveying all over Canada building a microwave communication tower network coast to coast in the 60's/70's then on our provinces own VHF emergency communication system.

I think he still has a bit of his tower gear, tells me about doing inspections in the 80's, they would be on their own free climbing towers hours away from anyone. Always used to be a set of chains in the car so he could get up to tower sites.

We used to cut up the UHF loop antennas for garden stakes lol. I still have some of the little plastic containers for blast welding powder that I use for sorting. Took the last of the 200 some repeater gear radio chassis he had stashed in our basement in for scrap a few years ago.