Why We Have "Stuff"

[ddawg16]

Wife goes to pic up the kids from Granny's.....when she pulls up I see some plastic hanging down in the front of her car....after a short talk...find out she hit some road trash...it happens.

Look underneath....the whole thing is held together with plastic plugs...some are missing....

So I go into the garage and start going through my 'stuff'....I find enough stuff to patch things up....go outside....use the stuff to hold up the plastic shields until I can figure out what kind of 'stuff' I need to fill all the holes....

Basically, because I have 'stuff' in my garage, I didn't have to jump in my jeep to run up to the auto supply to get more 'stuff'.

Helps to keep the right 'stuff' in the garage.

 

[BEAVO]

sure glad you had the stuff that u need to fix it cause without it you whould have wasted money in these high *** gas prices

 

[onewaydave]

I dunno John. I almost never throw things away and have a shop, a barn and a garage full of stuff. I could launch a lunar landing from what I have.

But, it never fails. I can never find what I need to fix what I need when I need it. Its not that I'm disorganized, 'cause I can find the almost stuff, a llitle too big or a little too small, just not the right exact stuff.

My local HW store knows when I'm off work, I'll be in 3-4 times a day.

Dave.

 

[bgarrett]

ddawg, you are right!
I keep all kinds of odds and ends and can almost always find what I need to do the job without leaving home!

 

[chrisziem]

I kinda like Great Stuff!

 

[santagary]

All our preoccupation with our stuff and how it's stored goes back to "sorting" skills introduced and studied, generations ago, by Piaget. The wealthier we are, the better quality our stuff. Depending on how we're wired and view the world, the more time we spend "sorting" our stuff in our cave (our garage). We constantly compare our "stuff" with that of others and ask for pics whenever possible, ie: "show us whatcha got!"

Many of us take great pride in the end result of our "sorting" skills and take pics of the result and share them with other like minded sorters. Those, not as skilled or as compelled to become wonderful "sorters" think the skilled are "obd" or "****", which goes back to Freud's theories and how we were...sorry... toliet trained. Those who flew through the process are now slobs and those who had a tough time and fought not going in their diapers (it felt soooooo good) are now proud of their highly organized garages, spaces, cabinets and the arrangement thereof. Having enough "stuff" to maintain our other stuff (spearpoints, clubs, firestarters, etc.) goes back in our human history to our time in caves. Hence "mancave" ????

Sorry Deputy Dawg if I've sorta pirated your thread, but when you commented on having the "right stuff" I just couldn't resist! These observations should kick off quite a discussion today. Guys, if this is new information or makes you uncomfortable...it's just how we're wired genetically and how we've adjusted to our childhood experiences. Many will understand these truths, yet others will think it's all just a bunch of "****" (see: toliet training). Let's hear your responses. This could be fun!Please y'all, don't take any of it personally.

 

[ddawg16]

Sorry Deputy Dawg if I've sorta pirated your thread, but when you commented on having the "right stuff" I just couldn't resist! These observations should kick off quite a discussion today. Guys, if this is new information or makes you uncomfortable...it's just how we're wired genetically and how we've adjusted to our childhood experiences. Many will understand these truths, yet others will think it's all just a bunch of "****" (see: toliet training). Let's hear your responses. This could be fun!Please y'all, don't take any of it personally.

Pirated? Hell no....thanks for the laugh....you caught the tone of the thread exactly...tongue and cheek with a hint of seriousness....

 

[jay50]

All our preoccupation with our stuff and how it's stored goes back to "sorting" skills introduced and studied, generations ago, by Piaget. The wealthier we are, the better quality our stuff. Depending on how we're wired and view the world, the more time we spend "sorting" our stuff in our cave (our garage). We constantly compare our "stuff" with that of others and ask for pics whenever possible, ie: "show us whatcha got!"

Many of us take great pride in the end result of our "sorting" skills and take pics of the result and share them with other like minded sorters. Those, not as skilled or as compelled to become wonderful "sorters" think the skilled are "obd" or "****", which goes back to Freud's theories and how we were...sorry... toliet trained. Those who flew through the process are now slobs and those who had a tough time and fought not going in their diapers (it felt soooooo good) are now proud of their highly organized garages, spaces, cabinets and the arrangement thereof. Having enough "stuff" to maintain our other stuff (spearpoints, clubs, firestarters, etc.) goes back in our human history to our time in caves. Hence "mancave" ????

Sorry Deputy Dawg if I've sorta pirated your thread, but when you commented on having the "right stuff" I just couldn't resist! These observations should kick off quite a discussion today. Guys, if this is new information or makes you uncomfortable...it's just how we're wired genetically and how we've adjusted to our childhood experiences. Many will understand these truths, yet others will think it's all just a bunch of "****" (see: toliet training). Let's hear your responses. This could be fun!Please y'all, don't take any of it personally.

WOW, I just **** in my drawers after reading all of this.......

 

[xcgates]

Why I like my dealer to have "stuff."

I go in to have them mount a new front tire, remember I lost a bolt for the rear rack, and the tech finds one in his box-o-stuff, puts it on, and tightens up one of the other bolts that was coming loose.

Guy gets props in my book! (And not a few of my dollars, I might add...)

 

[stan lomax]

i could not agree more! sorting stuff is paramount to using the stuff we've taken the pains to save. not knowing if you have the right stuff is the same as not having the stuff at all. of course you could spend tens of minutes trying to find the right stuff each time you need stuff, which if you totaled up would be way more time than if we sorted our stuff once and thereby could put our grubby little nicotine-stained fingers on them right quick.

great anthro-psycho analysis there santagary. who says garage dwellers have no advanced philosophical culture?

stan

 

[rsanter]

because we work on projects
I hate having to run to the store to buy small items to complete a project
spend $2 in gas to go buy something that is $1.89

bob

 

[54FordPanel]

There used to be a great commercial on the radio in Denver for the Mile-High Flea Market. Badly paraphrased, it went something like:

"Come to the Flea Market. We have stuff. Stuff like you wouldn't believe. Aisles and aisles of stuff. You can find all the stuff you'll ever need. You'll buy stuff. And you'll buy more stuff. Pretty soon, you'll have more stuff than you know what to do with.
Then, you know what you do?
You bring it to the Mile-High Flea Market, and sell it to the Under-Stuffed."

I'm sure MiterWrench remembers it, and other old time Denverites.

 

[mrbreezeet1]

You'll buy stuff. And you'll buy more stuff. Pretty soon, you'll have more stuff than you know what to do with.
Then, you know what you do?
You bring it to the Mile-High Flea Market, and sell it to the Under-Stuffed."

Well isn't that true?
But I just hate to give any of mine up, so I don't sell it at the flea market.
Thanks.
Tony

 

[Alchymist]

Anybody here dictate to the wife what peanut butter to buy? You know, the ones with the just right size plastic bolt storing jars?

 

[neverenoughtools]

ddawg, you are right!
I keep all kinds of odds and ends and can almost always find what I need to do the job without leaving home!

Same here, a wide variety of "stuff " comes in handy!

 

[wormwood]

My teen age girls all drove a forlorned Honda Pilot.

The entire front end plastic underpanels are held together with nylon zip ties. Works remarkably well.

 

[58Yeoman]

A few months after my wife and I bought our house in '08, the kitchen p-trap started leaking...it was metal and had finally rotted through. I rumaged around in the drawer in the shop, and had enough plastic pipe to do the job; all left-overs from previous jobs. She was impressed.

 

[56nash]

I have found that if it is mine it is "stuff" if it is in somebody else's garage or shop it is "****". I had the opportunity/duty to go through my dad's stuff/**** about 10 years ago when they moved out of the family home and into my place with my wife and kids. That is another bad chapter not to open here or now. Anyway we saw more "stuff" saved over the years than any person could reasonably ever find a use for or want to for that matter. I sometimes envy my uncle who dates the boxes in the garage and if he has not opened them in a couple of years he will open them take out the valuable pieces and have his kids either take them, sell them or he will toss them out. But me I have lots of "stuff".

 

[weegaz22]

I dont have a lot of space for "stuff" but usually when i have a clear out a week or two later i will end up needing something that i threw out the week before....just sods law.

 

[Boiler]

Personally I have to throw out or scrap lots of stuff, simply due to not having the space to store it or time to sort it properly. I will probably maintain this behavior even when I have enough space "someday".

Guy I work on Jeeps with has so much stuff that he's filled two garages, a pump house, and has extra storage at an old dairy for his long term storage stuff. Any time you want to work on anything there, you have to make room to work due to all the stuff. More stuff also can make finding the stuff you actually use that much harder. And forget being able to ask someone else "hey go out to the other garage and get me an XYZ." because to everyone else, its just a mountain of ****.

 

[rvr6000]

There's definately a fine line between stuff and ****. Or better yet, I think I would label **** as a sub-category of stuff.....afterall, it's still stuff. I had one grandpa who had a lot of stuff....except 90% of it fell into the **** category. My other grandpa didn't have as much stuff.....but it was mostly all good stuff....useful stuff.

When I was a kid I was always more impressed by all the stuff the first grandpa had....but I was too young to know it was all ****. As I grew older it didn't take long to learn that, although the second grandpa didn't have as much stuff, it was all good stuff that would last a long time or could still serve a purpose.

For the most part I think that's how I live now. I keep a lot of stuff but also toss a lot or give it away (One man's trash.....). I remember hearing a quote one time.....I'm too poor to by the cheap stuff. It's a simple phrase but I think really says it all when it comes to buying quality. In the end it's gonna cost you a lot less.

 

[Honda guy]

Ever notice how some people just don't appreciate us pack rats? That is, until the day they lose a certain clip, and it's only available if you order a $200 latch assembly, and the customer is gonna be there in 30 minutes to pick up his bike.
Then who's the hero?? Oh yeah

 

[Sick Puppy]

Ever notice how some people just don't appreciate us pack rats? That is, until the day they lose a certain clip, and it's only available if you order a $200 latch assembly, and the customer is gonna be there in 30 minutes to pick up his bike.
Then who's the hero?? Oh yeah

At work I have a reputation as a scavenger. I work in an office, and in my transfer I went from having a clear desk (i.e. I had nothing) to everything I needed (and a whole bunch of stuff that others wanted) in a week. Everything I 'procured' was from vacant desks and storerooms. If anyone needed anything, I was able to tell them either where to go, or who to go to. I think I'm wasted in my office job, no idea how to utilise it as a transferrable skill though! lol

Wife says I have too much ****. My solution was to have an earthquake - lots of stuff - sorry, '****' gone now!

 

[Boyd]

As the late, great George Carlin once pondered, "why do we call all of our stuff "stuff", but everyone else's stuff is "****?"

 

[autoclassicnut]

Here's George

 

[Kevin54]

My teen age girls all drove a forlorned Honda Pilot.

The entire front end plastic underpanels are held together with nylon zip ties. Works remarkably well.

Zip ties are to todays cars as what bailing wire was to yesterdays cars A must have!!!

 

[slimpickins]

There's definately a fine line between stuff and ****.

ALL stuff is **** until you need it or find a use for it.

Remember that movie "The Gods must be crazy" when they try to pay that african tribesman with cash and he just drops it and it blows away. If you have no use for something, its definitely ****. But we keep all this ****, because someday a special need will magically turn **** into stuff! Whenever that happens, that's when you look at your garage full of ****, and think how nice it is to have stuff. But its really a bunch of **** until you need it.

 

[Call me the Breeze]

As a matter of fact, just last week I was looking for a bolt for my tractor, and I didn't have the right size... My wife said " you mean to tell me, with all that 'stuff' you have out there, you don't have the right size bolt? Then she rolled her eyes and went into the other room as I gave her my best Ralph Cramden "How'd ya like to go to the Moon Alice" jestures.

I like "stuff", I'll probably never use any of it. But it's there if I need it - providing I can remember where I put it.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Zip ties are to todays cars as what bailing wire was to yesterdays cars A must have!!!

When I was in the Marines, it was duct tape and comm wire. I used to tell people, if you couldn't fix it with duct tape or comm wire, it wasn't broke.




Why I have stuff ? Murphy doesn't work a 9-5 job, his shift rotates all the time, that's why **** happens any time of the day or night. Unfortunately, not all businesses are open 24/7/365.

I have stuff to keep my sanity.

 

[jeffk14]

I have lots of "stuff". Sometimes the "stuff" gets piled too high and I throw some of it out. I never need any of the "stuff" until approximately three weeks after I've thrown that particular item of "stuff" away.

 

[Jazz]

When I lived in the country (10 miles from the nearest hardware store) I had a LOT more "stuff" which I would now classify as junk. I no longer have a 5 gallon bucket full of fasteners. It took me longer to find the one I needed than it takes me to go to the Ace Hardware less than a mile from my current home. Still however I have to admit it’s always nice to be able to repair something without having to go out at all. It feels nice to have been prepared or to save a little money by recycling something.

 

[bazzateer]

WOW, I just **** in my drawers after reading all of this.......

Now that's some stuff you really don't want to lay your hands on!

 

[z28snksknr]

I find that my ability to dissapear into my garage for 20 min and return with the solution to the current problem or accomplish some task is never truly appreciated by anyone other than me. I chalk it up to the current "Immediate Gratification Generation" not getting the concept of planning and foresight. It's just "oh, you fixed it for me, now on with my day".

As for our hard wiring:
I think the "**** Retainers" store there stuff in a way that prevents them from having to memorize it's location - neat and orderly allows them to decide where it SHOULD be so they can spend their energy collecting more stuff instead of spending energy finding it. The "**** Expelatives" (to use Freud's lesser known classification) don't see a need to place an order to their storage since they have a running knowledge of what they have and where they put it (flawed memory or not ). It also makes them the only ones who truly could find something in that heap - thereby building some security into their stuff so that some **** retentive ******* doesn't show up and simply know where the good stuff is!!

Fun thread.

 

[Boyd Who]

Here's George

Carlin's "stuff" routine is probably his greatest writing of all time!