Reminder: Please Don't Collect Bunches of Stuff.

My father has truckloads (That's semi trailer trucks) worth of stuff. Much of it quite valuable. What's going to be of particular interest is his collection of spare parts for vintage motorcycles. Like 2000 square feet, most of it on 10-foot-high shelves. Sold piece by piece it's probably worth into 7 figures, but I'll likely sell it in batches by marque for a good deal less. That plus his motorcycle collection makes me hope that I'm retired by the time he passes, because sorting it all will be a full-time job for a while. (I also like the guy and hope he'll stick around for other reasons ;))

Cousin_Eddie (Forum Supporter) said:

All my wife will have to do is run a quick garage sale to get rid of my remaining E36 M3, cash the life insurance check, buy herself a set of boobs and get a new boyfriend. She will have it made. I've got my retirement set up so she will draw a monthly check as long as she lives. 

Wife and I have an agreement:

If I go first she needs to get the Land Rover she wants so she looks good in my funeral procession.  

If she goes first I hope I meet somebody at her wake.  

As her recently divorced cousin recently said;  I'd like to meet somebody I can share my life with that will leave me alone.  

Datsun310Guy said:

As her recently divorced cousin recently said;  I'd like to meet somebody I can share my life with that will leave me alone.

That sums up my wife & I pretty darned well.  

I get a 10 yard dumpster every year to clean house with. Been hampered far too often with stuff that "maybe I'll need it" or "it's worth money to the right buyer" that I won't put my family through it.

The thing about "worth money to the right buyer" is that often times the people that collect or pay through the nose for such things are already dead now and their kids/grandkids are stuck unloading "valuable" stuff nobody wants.

I now date things "I might need some day", and after 2 years, they're tossed like old leftovers. 

My wife is a quilter. I have many vehicles that share very few parts. I think we all know how this is going to end for one of us. The only question is which one. 

Me and my wife have been pairing down for a couple years. Still more to go but we aren't accumulating much anymore. I have a cube that is full of books that I must keep (for myself) that is 2ftx2ftx2ft and can be lifted and thrown in a dumpster by one person. All the rest of my books are digital. My attic can now be cleaned out in about six hours by a motivated couple. 80% of my documents are digital (and backed up in a cloud just in case). It's worth it just to live in a less cluttered house not to mention being easier to clean out for the family. On a different rant, growing up my parents parked both of their cars in the garage. To me there must be room to park and to work on vehicles in the garage. So my wife parks her car on one side, and I park my bike on the other and the corolla and work van park in the driveway. What I have decided is that parking a car in the driveway helps deter some bad guys from even trying to see if anyone is home, but that is a different thread.

Back when I left Texas I sold everything I owned that wouldn't fit on my motorcycle.  So after basically starting completely over I've tried to keep the things I accumulate as minimal as possible.  But I'm constantly struggling because the things I want to do require tools. And tools require space. And space invites things to fill it with. And tools are handy to have. But I want to live a minimal life. 

Eh, the struggling continues. 

Over the years, I've accumulated tons of stuff. Tools, parts, ATV's, mowers, cars, trucks, trailers....stuff. When we moved out to the country about 10 years ago, I built a nice 2400 sq ft shop to put it all in. Toyhauler travel trailer, '66 Porsche project, '66 C10 project, '71 Bronco project, bunch of Honda 3 wheelers and extra parts - 2400 sq ft filled up pretty fast.

After a while, I realized I wasn't getting anywhere on any of the projects, because I was spread too thin. Not enough time, money, or energy to work on, or even really enjoy, all of them. I needed to thin the herd, concentrate on one, get it done.

Toyhauler was the first to go. Kids were grown and didn't really want to go camping anymore, and the wife and I would honestly rather stay in a nice hotel if we're traveling. 

C10 went next - I loved the truck, but it was rust bucket. Sure, I could have welded in a bunch of patch panels but.....I sold it.

Then, the Porsche. Letting that go was hard, I'd had it for so long, actually done quite a bit of work on it, but finally admitted that deep down, I'm just not really a Porsche guy. I love the cars, but not the lifestyle. Sold it to a guy who puts electric drivetrains into classics, hope it turns out well.

Then, the Honda 3 wheelers, one at a time. Hard to see those go, too, but I'm getting older and don't need to go blasting around on them so much anymore. I did keep the 200x, though.....for now.

Extra riding mower? Gone. Big-ass air compressor I never used? Gone.  Wheels? Tires? Parts to cars I didn't have any more? Gone.

Gathering up all the old, broken, used, bent, rusty extra parts and selling them for scrap turned a small profit, plus got it all out of my way.

Selling all the stuff netted a few thousand dollars, got me a lot more room in the shop, and let me concentrate on the one project I kept - the '71 Bronco. Bought it for $300 years ago as a parts truck. Now it's worth many times that and I'm enjoying making progress on it.       

Reading this thread, I'm glad my parents (mid-70's) have been intentionally sorting and downsizing. My dad is down to one car, two motorcycles, and a shed full of who knows how many bicycles, but that is a significant reduction from the days of multiple runners, plus multiple projects in every category.

I also am glad that I downsized about a decade ago, moving out of my house with detached garage, and moving into a one-bedroom in a downtown high rise with a single parking space, plus a remote rented shop/garage. Best thing I ever did, especially as a single guy. Nothing like paying monthly for storage to motivate one to pare down to the essentials. Of course, I did backslide a bit when I started renting the second parking space at the condo for more motorcycles, but nobody's perfect. 

In reply to gearheadE30 :

I would really like some tips on how you make eBay work for you. I rarely have a successful eBay sale that netted anything by the time I shipped it and gave up fees.

dps214 said:

Tom1200 said:

He also collected firearms and stocked ammo.

In fairness that turned out to be the right move. Assuming it's not wildly outdated you can probably make 50% or more profit on it.

Not when you have 50,000 rounds of various ammo. Yes his widow will make some profit on it but it would have been a lot easier on her to have that 10-15K in the bank.

RevRico said:

their kids/grandkids are stuck unloading "valuable" stuff nobody wants.

I parted out a crap rusty '72 240Z and kept the key parts for a future car.   My garage is small so I transferred parts into my basement crawl space.   

New fenders, 5-speed trans, glass, head, interior, 3 seats and a bunch of boxes.  I realized I might fall over dead and somebody's going to be pissed off carrying it out.  

"Why the hell did your husband have a transmission in the basement"?   So I held a Craigslist clearance sale.   

When I put stuff on a shelf to save for later, I try to ask myself a few questions: how likely am I to use this in the future?  And if I do need it, how hard or expensive would it be to get another one? 

That drives a lot of the keep/toss decisions.  But I've definitely still accumulated stuff that I either intended to use and haven't gotten to, or that at this point will no longer get used.  I have periodically purged the computer parts collection when it's started to accumulate too much old or retired hardware.  I should do the same to the garage as well at some point, but off hand, I can only think of a handful of things that I know I have and should get rid of. 

Being single and living alone, being buried in "stuff" is definitely a problem I have been struggling with. Car stuff... bicycle stuff... guitar stuff...  books... and a few other hobbies to a lesser extent.   My attic is packed to the gills with stuff... most of it superfluous. The basement is in a similar condition.  I managed to unload the motorcycles, so at least my shed isn't too packed, although I would like to be able to get some stuff easier.  

Beyond the potential situation about what my poor mother would do with all of this crap should I get splattered by a texting SUV driver while road riding, my house is also in desperate need of extensive repairs and renovation.  In order to do the work, the house really needs to be pretty much empty.   Completely empty if the twp approves the complete knockdown-rebuild I am hoping for. 

But...  it's all so overwhelming.  So much stuff... and selling stuff is such a PITA. 

On a related note, has anyone dug into the new rules where PayPal will be reporting incoming $$ over $600 to the IRS?  So far, I haven't sold much, but I have been making sure to keep receipts for shipping costs in order to (in theory) offset the declared "income".  Normally, my Fed taxes are pretty easy, so this will be a new hurdle to deal with. 

My mother went through a similar deal with firearms when her husband died a few years ago.  She was finding them stashed all over the house for weeks.  His son took them all, but it was definitely an odd situation.  Otherwise, he didn't have much for her to get rid of.  Just an old motorcycle that we gave to Nonack, which was a win-win for all involved.

That reminds me, once the war in Ukraine stops, I have a box of 4Runner parts for a truck I haven't owned in 4 years I need to send to Hungary Bill.

This is a good thread.  I'd been fairly downsized from relocating every couple of years; my relocation to Germany consisted of 3 boxes and a backpack, and one of the boxes was a bicycle.  Then I bought a house.  It's amazing the amount of things you can collect in all that space, which has driven a bit of a craigslist sell-off of things I don't need.

You can pry my thousands of zip ties from my cold, dead fingers though...

My weakness is tools. I have literally tons of tools. Not really multiple sets, but if there is a tool that makes a job easier, I'll buy it. Pullers, presses, test equipment, crimpers for everything from wire to AC lines, air tools, battery tools, tire machine and balancer, the works. Then you add the 3 lathes and mill, and there are another couple of tons. Name a tool and there is a good chance I have one. I'm sure my wife will sell it for pennies on the dollar unless my kids claim all of it. My eldest might, he's kind of wired like me.

From there, I have quite a few antique clocks. 30+ the last time I counted. They have some value as well. Every one of them has a card tucked in the bottom telling what it is, how much I paid for it, who made it, when it was made, and an approximate value at the time I purchased it. All together they might be worth $15-20k. I won't be getting rid of them beyond giving one to each kid when they start their own house. Their enjoyment to me is worth more than my kid's discomfort when it comes time to dispose of them. 

Most of the books we have already disposed of. Between my wife and I, we had 1000s of them. I started buying books when I was 15 and have been an avid reader since I was 10. Anything I ever got interested in, I bought a book. Up until 2005, I still had every book I had ever bought. From hot-rodding small blocks to Bonsai or garden ponds to gunpowder and enough sci-fi books to start a library. Bookcases and boxes full of them. Books stuck in every nook and cranny all through the house. Most of them went to Goodwill or the library the last time we moved. I do have around 50 hard-back first editions and rereleases that have value to me and a few how-to books that would be nice to have if the world comes to an end. Call it 100 books. Beyond that, all of our books have gone digital. At the moment, I have a touch over 500 on my phone.  

My wife and kids can do whatever they want after I'm gone. Sell it, trash it, I don't care. I'll be keeping it because it's my stuff and I enjoy using it. 

Everything else in the house and garage belongs to my wife. I'll be calling for a dumpster. Every paper every kid drew on is in the garage. Every memento bought or receive, every piece of clothing she ever owned. Anything that might have some sentimental value she has kept and her definition of sentimental is all-encompassing. I think it comes from being a military brat and having to get rid of stuff every time she moved as a kid. And probably from her mother. She just brought home every scrap of sheet music that her mother collected over 35 years of being a choir director. Luckily it just passed through on the way to the church her mother grew up in. Well, most of it did. 

Seven years ago, we moved from a 1200sf 2-bedroom house with a 600sf garage into a 6300sf house with a 1600sf shop... and somehow we have so much stuff it feels full. HOW do we Americans accumulate so much frikkin stuff?!

I'm like Toyman, I give myself a pass on buying tools. Anything I need to get a job done. I might need to revise that policy, what with all the tools accumulating. No machine tools but man I've managed to amass an impressive quantity of tools.

Toyman! said:

My weakness is tools. I have literally tons of tools. Not really multiple sets, but if there is a tool that makes a job easier, I'll buy it. Pullers, presses, test equipment, crimpers for everything from wire to AC lines, air tools, battery tools, tire machine and balancer, the works. Then you add the 3 lathes and mill, and there are another couple of tons. Name a tool and there is a good chance I have one. I'm sure my wife will sell it for pennies on the dollar unless my kids claim all of it. My eldest might, he's kind of wired like me.

From there, I have quite a few antique clocks. 30+ the last time I counted. They have some value as well. Every one of them has a card tucked in the bottom telling what it is, how much I paid for it, who made it, when it was made, and an approximate value at the time I purchased it. All together they might be worth $15-20k. I won't be getting rid of them beyond giving one to each kid when they start their own house. Their enjoyment to me is worth more than my kid's discomfort when it comes time to dispose of them. 

Most of the books we have already disposed of. Between my wife and I, we had 1000s of them. I started buying books when I was 15 and have been an avid reader since I was 10. Anything I ever got interested in, I bought a book. Up until 2005, I still had every book I had ever bought. From hot-rodding small blocks to Bonsai or garden ponds to gunpowder. Bookcases and boxes full of them. Books stuck in every nook and cranny all through the house. Most of them went to Goodwill or the library the last time we moved. I do have around 50 hard-back first editions and rereleases that have value to me and a few how-to books that would be nice to have if the world comes to an end. Call it 100 books. Beyond that, all of our books have gone digital. At the moment, I have a touch over 500 on my phone.  

My wife and kids can do whatever they want after I'm gone. Sell it, trash it, I don't care. I'll be keeping it because it's my stuff and I enjoy using it. 

Everything else in the house and garage belongs to my wife. I'll be calling for a dumpster. Every paper every kid drew on is in the garage. Every memento bought or receive, every piece of clothing she ever owned. Anything that might have some sentimental value she has kept and her definition of sentimental is all-encompassing. I think it comes from being a military brat and having to get rid of stuff every time she moved as a kid. And probably from her mother. She just brought home every scrap of sheet music that her mother collected over 35 years of being a choir director. Luckily it just passed through on the way to the church her mother grew up in. Well, most of it did. 

I had to sell much of my quick value Tools during the recession of 2008  vertical mill,  lathe.  Grinder.  Plus a lot of my timber working tools. 
  But as I'm finishing up the house I'm selling all my wood working tools.  I'm also getting rid of the wood.  I figure that's going to give me 6 car spaces in the shop.  Then a final clean out of my old car junk once the MGuar is done. Should give me another car space.  
I'll need 5 spaces for cars and one for Her boat. 3 for car tools and equipment.   Plus 3 more for spares.  The last 5 will become my man cave.   
    That gives me a total of 3 man caves. The bar on the bridge. The billiard room and the shop. 
 If that sounds excessive she's got the Kitchen, the breakfast nook ( although technically we both use it).  Her office, her sewing room , the Portical  room,  her storage room, ( originally the baby's room )  2 walk in closets and 3 of the 4 bathrooms. 
   The art studio  is empty and unclaimed at this point. 

If you are having trouble selling or giving stuff away, think of this:

Would you rather see that item go to someone who can use and enjoy it, or end up in landfill?

If it's still on the shelf when you die, it's more likely ruled to be garbage.

Hopefully Vracer111 will chime in.  I know he just downsized a lot moving from Houston to a more remote location to live a more rural life.  He had a lot of interesting insight on things including this.  

Ian F (Forum Supporter) said:

Being single and living alone, being buried in "stuff" is definitely a problem I have been struggling with. Car stuff... bicycle stuff... guitar stuff...  books... and a few other hobbies to a lesser extent.   My attic is packed to the gills with stuff... most of it superfluous. The basement is in a similar condition.  I managed to unload the motorcycles, so at least my shed isn't too packed, although I would like to be able to get some stuff easier.  

Beyond the potential situation about what my poor mother would do with all of this crap should I get splattered by a texting SUV driver while road riding, my house is also in desperate need of extensive repairs and renovation.  In order to do the work, the house really needs to be pretty much empty.   Completely empty if the twp approves the complete knockdown-rebuild I am hoping for. 

But...  it's all so overwhelming.  So much stuff... and selling stuff is such a PITA. 

On a related note, has anyone dug into the new rules where PayPal will be reporting incoming $$ over $600 to the IRS?  So far, I haven't sold much, but I have been making sure to keep receipts for shipping costs in order to (in theory) offset the declared "income".  Normally, my Fed taxes are pretty easy, so this will be a new hurdle to deal with. 

My mother went through a similar deal with firearms when her husband died a few years ago.  She was finding them stashed all over the house for weeks.  His son took them all, but it was definitely an odd situation.  Otherwise, he didn't have much for her to get rid of.  Just an old motorcycle that we gave to Nonack, which was a win-win for all involved.

That's not just paypal, that's any bank account that has more than $600 go through it during the year. 

I'm hoping someone anywhere realizes that this is a horrible mistake and it gets vetoed, but considering the incompetence and out of touchness of the average national politician, I'm not holding my breath. 

Supposed to start next year. It needs to be taken awaybefore it can start.

I am bad. I need to do better. I prioritize my down time poorly and allow everyone to drop their crap in my space until it becomes my responsibility to remove it. 

That being said my father in law is exponentially worse. It will be my responsibility to sort through multiple pole barns, five homes and a huge number of vehicles and trailers to resolve his life's work. I am estimating at 40 hours per week it will be no less than 16 months of work.

In reply to Cousin_Eddie (Forum Supporter) :

spend the boob money now.  why should the new BF get all the fun?

After a column in GRM on a similar subject, I considered starting a side business - my wife and I would make contacts with estate sale companies, and buy up hordes of car parts for a better deal than what walk-in sale visitors are likely to pay. Then do some in depth research on the parts and sell the items online with everything clearly identified.