Toss or keep ...

[mowkep]

Started clearing out our shop of 33 years. Doing the toss or keep game. Old fixtures from jobs long gone ... that's easy. Toss. Lots of different types of plastic sheets. Nylon, phenolic, pvc, fiberglass imbedded....etc. Toss or keep?

 

[IndyGarage]

I put the toss stuff in a box, or a crate and if I don't need any of it in a couple months, toss. Funny though just the other day I had a bunch of stuff in there and sure enough needed one item.

 

[Rinspeed]

A week after you throw it out is when you will need it.

 

[Wyoming09]

A week after you throw it out is when you will need it.

This.

 

[mowkep]

I'm trying to gauge interest from forum members. I would happily GIVE the items to someone rather than throw out. They'll end up in a dumpster at some point.

 

[demarpaint]

A week after you throw it out is when you will need it.

It happens every time!

 

[seber]

The price of most sheet materials has gone out of sight. I have a nearly inaccessible area at the end of my work bench with just enough access to shove sheet materials into. They can stay there for years. If I need a sheet, it might take ten minutes to get to it, but can save a hundred dollars if you include the trip to the nearest dealer.

 

[Copymutt]

I’ve been a rat holer my whole life. It’s paid great dividends & it was done so in an organized way. What I’m now realizing is that the time is fast approaching that remaining days are numbered and I won’t be using most of it. Doesn’t mean I can stop.

 

[Gutman]

If not keep, consider donation to Habitat for Humanity before trash, if you have one.

My name is Gutman, and I am a packrat!

I played that same sort of game here, recently. I think it really depends on where you see yourself going/doing in the next few years. Are you doing less tinkering and repairing and such, or is there more of it in your future? I'm hoping for a few more years and my list of ideas and projects continues to grow (wife translates to: 'Spiral out of hand').

Pondering that line of thinking, I actually spent a little more time recently while favoring a back injury to better organize and label the 'junk' I have accumulated over the past 37 years. I'd been meaning to do this for about three years since I moved to my hoped-to-be final location, but now I finally feel that I've done it, less my 'workbench of doom'.

I made sure that my 'keep' category had a place for storage, was clearly marked or binned, and I tried to arrange the locations of like items more logically, plumbing, electrical, painting, motorcycle, auto, etc.

I ended up with some trash items, some decent scrap metal, a couple boxes of stuff for our local Home ReStore, and my shop/garage is much cleaner and way more organized that it has ever been.

All that is left for me is my 'work bench of doom' where I've piled miscellaneous odds and ends of stuff that I plan to keep but have to better sort and bin. It serves as a rainy day project source and I'm slowly whittling it down to another actual usable work bench.

Oh, and I've got an addendum to my will with provisions for a dumpster when the time comes.

 

[dutchgray]

A week after you throw it out is when you will need it.

But if you hadn't thrown it out you would never had remembered you had it.

 

[Dave455]

The answer depends on whether you can organise stuff well enough to find it when you need it?

Provided you can, even if it takes a bit of work, then keep it. The quality of a lot of modern materials sometimes isn’t as good as the older, so whenever I can keep older stuff, I do.

Back in lockdown I spent a good deal of time sorting out old hardware and materials. Don’t regret hanging on to any of it, and in fact, having stocks of stuff around has proved invaluable.

 

[Tools4Me]

Don't throw it out, at least pop it on Craigslist for free and stick it at the end of your driveway for pickup.

When it comes to extra stuff laying around, I keep a small amount of as many things as possible. For instance, I keep a couple 2x4s, a couple partial sheets of plywood in a couple different thicknesses, a couple sticks of 1/2", 3/4", and 1" pvc, one pack of roofing shingle tabs, a couple sticks of 1/2", 3/4", and 1" EMT, one pound max of each of the most common nail sizes and screw sizes for home repairs and small projects. I also keep a couple each of things like pvc fittings, electrical terminal crimps, etc. That enables me to do small/medium projects or do a good job fixing pretty much any automotive or home emergency repair without having to go to any store.

If I have more than a couple of the same thing, I send it on its' way unless I have a specific or sustained use for it. Having a selection is good though, so I rarely get rid of anything if I only have one or two of them. Any parts, carbs, water pumps, etc. that have been removed from something I usually recycle unless there is a specific reason to keep them (rare). Anything larger like older small appliances, I donate or take apart and keep keep several of each type of screw the item has (for future repairs of other items), or any other small internal parts that I might want to keep or repurpose, and the rest gets recycled. Sheet stock, I keep one or two max of any I might have a use for in the future. Too many of one thing, and the likelihood of ever using the 4th or 5th sheet becomes almost zero.

 

[m6z]

Everyone's different. Personally, I just don't have the room to keep stuff like scrap lumber, car parts and other bulky stuff like that. I would and I have when I've had the space to do so. I keep some hardware on hand, but that's really about it. I'm not a wood or metal fabricator either though.. I'm in a new house with a small two car garage. I'm going to eventually have to build a shed just to have a place to keep stuff like bicycles and ladders.

Will you realistically have a use for it in the future? Can you afford to replace it? Do you have the room to store it, just to store it.

My wife would call me a hoarder, but I'm not. I just don't like buying new stuff every couple years "just because".

 

[mowkep]

This is not personal inventory. These are items from our machine shop which we will be shutting down in the coming months. I was asking about pieces of nylon sheeting scraps, the same with phenolic, pvc and fiberglass imbedded sheets. Any metal with a scrap value will be done so with. Machines will be auctioned.

 

[dutchgray]

In your situation I would get rid of virtually everything, unless its it's something you know you already have an upcoming use for.

 

[mowkep]

Knowing the cost of some of these items makes it real hard to just toss. But then again who at home is using any of the items I described?

 

[tool_scrounge]

I can justify getting rid of stuff if it is going to a good home. Some folks sort material into large flat rate boxes and sell them for reasonable to home machinists.

 

[RTM]

I use Delrin and it’s cousins at home occasionally. It’s great for things like jigs, works like wood, slides great too.

 

[steaks&anvils]

I use Delrin and it’s cousins at home occasionally. It’s great for things like jigs, works like wood, slides great too.

mallets. non marring.

 

[MushCreek]

If it's a game, I've been losing (or winning) for years. I keep nearly everything. Just a couple days ago, I dug out a piece of Lexan to make a guard for my milling machine. Haven't touched that stuff in at least ten years, but it was there when I needed it. My shop is a disorganized mess, and I still have no idea how to store some of this stuff.

 

[mowkep]

I use Delrin and it’s cousins at home occasionally. It’s great for things like jigs, works like wood, slides great too.

Lots of that laying around. I made a bat rack out some years ago. Fun to machine.

 

[Al Borland]

It's all fun and games until you die and someone else has to deal with your hoard.
(Kinda hoping I can watch/laugh from the beyond while the wife/son deal with mine,)

 

[Rabid Badger]

If you don't want it and don't care about making money from it, put it on the free section of Craigslist. It'll be gone in 24 hours.

 

[RTM]

Lots of that laying around. I made a bat rack out some years ago. Fun to machine.

I went to a robotics shop close out , grabbed a shoebox sized pile of off cuts, the guy replied that half the cost was a single rod of Delrin about 1x12”

 

[Mark in Indiana]

When it comes to materials, I'm a hoarder. In between the wall studs of the unfinished parts of my basement, I store all kinds of wood, steel, plastic and engineering materials (micarta, plexiglass, UHMW, etc). Not only do I get the stuff for nothing, it saves a ton of money and time if I'm working on a project and need a small piece of wood or other material to finish it up. The time saving is invaluable because I don't have to waste an hour traveling to the home improvement store.

Here's an example of why keeping material is good: Pictured is an example of an air grease pump unit that I restored. I won it at an auction for $1. It was missing the "wiper disk" (2nd picture), which pushes the grease down in the bucket, as you're pumping it out. ARO would have charged $$$ for a wiper disk, if there was one available for my pump. It only cost me $5 for the plastic flange fitting on top. All of the other material, ABS, neoprene and hardware was what I had in my supply. Making it was the most fun.

So I'm keeping. My heirs can decide to toss or keep, after I'm gone.

 

[Sumboodie]

For the most part, If I haven't needed it in a few years, sell it or toss.

 

[65ranchero]

Years ago my father and step mother retired and was moving to another state they had a 2car garage that my father had filled with "stuff" to the point that there probably was no room for more that one car in there . Yea, it was useful stuff and I would of collected it myself but not storage space. I had my own "stuff"
They had a garage sale and purged some stuff , some went to the land fill and what was not given away was trucked down to the other house.
2 years later he passed and stuff left in the new house had to be dealt with ( It was not me).
After my brother and I drove the rented box truck to the new house got me inspired to do a sort of self recognizing my own " stuff" problem.
I came home and did the 1st purge. that was in 1988.
fast forward to 2013 I retired and did a move to another house and did a second purge and I have been minimal "stuff" free as of now.
I keep a small amount of reclaimed things/ hardware to keep me from spending at the local hardware store.