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Rich Riddle
02-06-2014, 2:49 PM
A friend works with me on rebuilding a condominium. He hoards every possible thing you can imagine and always comes up with some imaginary use for every scrap, no matter how small. His 27 acres has about twenty cars littering it. He claims you cannot get rid of everything in the country because it takes so long to get to a large city to replace it. Here is some of the wood scarps he's been hoarding. Do you keep boards this size or get rid of them? His "piles" of things began to take over the renovation.

281801

Rod Sheridan
02-06-2014, 2:50 PM
Rich, that looks like well seasoned firewood to me.

You'll spend more time (money) sorting that crap than it's worth........Rod.

Erik Loza
02-06-2014, 3:16 PM
My dad keeps stuff like that and does art-type projects with them. He made a really beautiful wall-mounted piece of endgrain pieces, like a 3-D mosaic type thing. But that's more of an art project than actual ww'ing. And his garage is organized, not overrun by stuff like that.

I agree with Rod: For most of us, "firewood". Does your friend consider himself a hoarder?

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

Steve Rozmiarek
02-06-2014, 3:35 PM
I bet a full kerf blade drives him crazy...

I work with folks who have first or close second hand experience with the bad economic times of the depression, not the current one, the one before WW2. It's amazing what these guys save.

David Weaver
02-06-2014, 3:48 PM
I throw them out when I have more than one can. When I was a kid, my mother was a crafter (she still is) and my dad cut out everything from white pine. We had piles and piles of tiny offcuts, and we always used them to start fires in the fireplace. But instead of being stingy, we just put a huge pile of them in the fireplace instead which made starting a fire (even with cold wet firewood) a thought-free procedure.

Now that I don't have that option, I just wait for my can to fill, and throw out 95% of what's in it.

I know lots of people who are as Steve describes, either children of the depression or young adults during it (well, I used to know more, they are slowly disappearing). Their ability to squeeze a dollar goes beyond anything I've ever seen, but they also have a problem with holding on to tons of worthless things because they're afraid they might throw away something of value. Once they hold on to it for a decade or two, it rots or rusts or becomes animal ridden (if stored outside) and then is a burden. But it still doesn't get tossed. Some of them used to save newspapers in their houses in neat (but very large) stacks. I have no clue what they were doing with them.

Rich Riddle
02-06-2014, 3:50 PM
I don't understand Donn. He's only 56, not old enough to have encountered the depression. He saves empty glass bottles, hundreds. every piece of scrap you can ponder. I found pieces 1/4" cubed wood/plywood in the scrap area. He says he "saves" and has "piles," but when here I throw out most of the junk. He hides it; I find it and discard it. In addition to the space they take, I don't like tripping all over that stuff laying around the floors. He also saves sawdust in case a quick remedy is need for speedy dry. There has to be more than one of him running around the woodworking world though. A pity because he's a true craftsman and went to school to make furniture.

Gordon Eyre
02-06-2014, 7:28 PM
I am not a hoarder but must admit that I do save wood scraps and often find use for them. If the pile begins to get out of control I throw away the smallest pieces.

Mike Lassiter
02-06-2014, 7:52 PM
So what about screws, nails and odd and end hardware?
I don't keep every scrap of wood, but what I think is big enough to do something with or make something from. I do keep MOST screws and such. Having them has saved a 50-60 mile trip to HD or Lowes many times, often the difference in getting the job done that night or not. Washers, bolts, nuts, left over extra parts from things that occasionally are have something extra that wasn't used.

Rich Riddle
02-06-2014, 8:15 PM
Mike,

He never met anything he wanted to throw away. He took a box of wooden wheels out of the trash because he just knows that some day they will come in handy for something. You know, the little ones that folks use when making wooden toys. Screws, bolts, nails, old, rusty, doesn't matter. Not sure how people can live that way. I have been through Lexington, TN. Isn't there a hardware store and Fastenal in that city? Those would prevent the need to drive for hardware.

Mike Cutler
02-06-2014, 8:43 PM
I admire his thrift, and I might keep scraps like that around for a little while, but come winter they'd eventually make it to the wood stove.
If he's happy. That's all that matters.
We all have our own little quirks. ;)

Mike Lassiter
02-06-2014, 9:19 PM
Mike,

He never met anything he wanted to throw away. He took a box of wooden wheels out of the trash because he just knows that some day they will come in handy for something. You know, the little ones that folks use when making wooden toys. Screws, bolts, nails, old, rusty, doesn't matter. Not sure how people can live that way. I have been through Lexington, TN. Isn't there a hardware store and Fastenal in that city? Those would prevent the need to drive for hardware.

Wife's Aunt like that before she passed away. Depression when young. EVERY pot pie pan kept, found a piece of boot cut out with penciled on it "for making faucet washers". On the other hand my Aunt who is 94 is likely the most stingy person I have ever known. Yet she doesn't keep much of anything.
As to Lexington, TN - we have a Wal-Mart supercenter now that is open 24-7. Most everything else closes 5:30 - 8:00 PM. Had to drive to Jackson one night for black iron pipe coupling at Home Depot that I found out later I could have got at Tractor Supply except they had closed already. I "live" in Lexington, but I life in the country. To get to town from my house is a 15 mile round trip. Not too bad, until you need something you can't get after normal business hours.
I'm NOT a hoarder, but I keep things that can be reused, and have extra stuff to save that trip late at night to get a water leak fixed or whatever. Many times 5 minutes looking in a coffee can has saved a trip for something and the job was done before I could have gone and got it and made it back.
Funny thing about having lots of tools in several places - work, home, out building, project mobile home - you KNOW you have it, just don't know where it is! Have had to go buy a caulking gun more than once because I NEED one NOW, and can't put my hands on it, until about an hour after I no longer need it. I have around $60K in mechanics tools. I can tell you or anyone else over the phone what drawer to open and where in that drawer that wrench or whatever is at. I am a fool for putting things up and back in there place, yet when you are scattered out among several places things tend to become fuzzy. :)

Brian Elfert
02-06-2014, 11:13 PM
I just got through throwing out a fair bit of scrap wood while cleaning out my garage. I hate throwing out too much because then you won't have that short piece of 2x4 or small piece of plywood you need for a project.

My grandmother reused plastic Ziploc type bags. I hated eating at her house if the food came out of a plastic bag as she never got them clean. I never reuse stuff like that.

Jim Matthews
02-07-2014, 7:14 AM
The problem isn't the stuff, it's the space he inhabits.


"That's what your house is, a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get . . . more stuff!
Sometimes you gotta move, gotta get a bigger house. Why? No room for your stuff anymore."

George Carlin


I burn anything smaller than 10" in length.
I don't burn plywood, or pressure treated lumber.

Cognizant as I am of the red-neck 401k (pile of tires, rusting cars, tangle of salvage) I still have my own starter pile under this year's snow.

I believe the impulse to hoard is as old as people, and led to the invention of handbags, pockets and the wheelbarrow.

Myk Rian
02-07-2014, 7:24 AM
Rich;
Your friend shows every indication of being a hoarder.
Seriously.

Chuck Wintle
02-07-2014, 4:32 PM
Rich;
Your friend shows every indication of being a hoarder.
Seriously.

I agree...hoarding is a mental disorder, not trying to cast aspersions on your friend, but hoarding is a sign of sickness.

Bill Cunningham
02-08-2014, 8:37 PM
Hmmmm I have to mentally FORCE myself to throw some stuff out..But I'm getting better.. I just took 5 computers, 3 monitors, 6 printers, and a bunch of old hard drives to the recycle depot.. All I did was salvage the magnets from all the hard drives..Their great magnets!! The only old computers I have left are a Timex, a Heath H8, and a R.S. Mod.4 & a Tandy1000.. But their collectors items now.. And there is a stack of wood in my woodshop that I have to gather up and dump/burn/etc..

Tom Stenzel
02-09-2014, 7:50 PM
When we moved to our palatial 1000 square foot house I had to get rid of a few things. Like the Honda motorcycle that I hadn't ridden in 20 years, my CP/M computer that still worked fine but I just didn't any place for. And don't ask about the 8 track recorder and the two milk crates full of tapes. I'm still torn up over that!

Today my daughter said she thought I was "kinda a hoarder". Kinda? Is that the best she could come up with?

-Tom Stenzel

Alan Bienlein
02-09-2014, 8:13 PM
It would have been in the burn barrel before you could blink an eye!

Shawn Pixley
02-09-2014, 9:02 PM
I keep stuff that small if it was figured wood or exotics. Otherwise i give to my neighbor to burn.

Roger Feeley
02-10-2014, 10:29 PM
Rich, I leave it to you to decide but I can tell you a story. My father hoarded things like that. He would look at a broken maple clothes hanger and say, "That's a good piece of maple. Maybe I can use it someday." When he died, my mother (then 77) had to clean all that out. Her three sons visited and helped some but the bulk of the work fell to her. She had moved to a retirement community and took a few things with her but most of what was in that house was my dad's hobbies.

She started out with thos 100 gallon trash dumpsters. She got 5 of them and her goal was to fill all 5 every week. That was how she paced herself. She filled all 5 dumpsters every week for three months.

During those three months, she invited us kids over to take whatever we wanted. I had a pickup and took some stuff. My two brothers showed up with U-Hauls and took away loads of antiques.

Then she engaged the services of an estate sale company. A crew of 12 people spent two weeks marking items for sale. The sale took 4 days and her net after the 20% commission was $11,000

Finally, she invited in the Salvation Army to haul off the rest.

My father painted in oils, did woodworking, welding, silversmithing, and leather. He tied flies, had his own darkroom and did his own matting and framing. He was well equipped to engage in all those things and all that had to be disposed of.

I am my fathers son and I consciously try to avoid his acquisitive ways. Sometimes it breaks my heart to throw out a piece of wood that ought to be good for something. But I do it.

Rich Riddle
02-11-2014, 4:14 AM
Roger,

What a coincidence. Donn lives in the Kansas City Metro area, but on the Missouri side. Hoarding seems to run in his family.

Jeff Erbele
02-14-2014, 7:56 AM
20 cars strewn across 27 acres sets the stage. This guy is not going to live long enough to drive all of them.

Justifying junk does nothing but define it as such.

...but this could be extra special, extraordinary junk! :)

Bill Cunningham
02-16-2014, 9:55 PM
20 cars strewn across 27 acres sets the stage. This guy is not going to live long enough to drive all of them.

Justifying junk does nothing but define it as such.

...but this could be extra special, extraordinary junk! :)


Ahhh but 'then', it would actually be called 'Junque'

Kev Williams
02-16-2014, 10:34 PM
Hoarder.

My wife's parents are hoarders. Won't get rid of anything that they consider "theirs" regardless of it's worth, or lack of it. I won't get into the long version, but her dad had an old Cadillac many years ago, which got to the point it was pointless to fix it. Rather than sell it off for scrap, he took a torch, cut it up and buried it in the back yard.

And that is the just the tip of a very large iceberg...