Do You Hoard Anything?

[Jim Koepke]

The thread about the Popular Woodworking site got me to take a look. This was yesterday but other things came up before getting back.

While there this was read:

popularwoodworking.com/woodworking-blogs/the-demise-of-american-clamp-manufacturing-and-in-defense-of-hoarding-hardware

I do tend to hoard all kinds of hardware, scrap wood and other things. Often it has saved the day. Recently I wanted some #2 & #4 wood screws with slotted heads and made of brass. The supplier where I usually purchase these was out of stock so ordered some. I was going to only purchase about 10 or each. But when the order came in the manager had ordered 50 of each. The price was so good I took them all home.

Many times my stash of screws has saved me from having to run in to town for parts. The springs from discarded cigarette lighters have come in handy when an old chuck from an egg beater drill needs replacement springs.

Scrap wood comes in handy for making custom holders for small parts to be worked on and many other things before getting tossed in to the fireplace for a bit of heat.

So as the title asks, do you hoard and what do you hoard?

jtk

[John C Cox]

Nope... No hoarde here... What gives you that idea? And don't listen to my wife.. It's not a hoarde. ;)

[Prashun Patel]

Long, skinny wood cutoffs. For the 10,000,000 tool handles and pens I will one day want to make out of some crappy, grain-runouty poplar.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I hoard small pieces of hardwoods. It's so expensive here.

[Patrick McCarthy]

Jim, it is a matter of perception. My answer is "of course not!". On the other hand, I could use some more space for the additional stuff I hope to acquire/save/etc. . . . .

My better half has a problem with misperception though, so best we not bother asking her.

Some place, at some time, a wise sage must have said something about "more is better" . . . . .

[Paul Sidener]

Money, and I'm not very good at it.

[Bruce Page]

Nope, I'm an anti-horder. I do have more screws & nuts & bolts than I'll ever need. I buy lumber and materials only as I need it. 99% of my cutoffs go into a trash can but if I haven't found a use for them before winter they go into the fireplace. Such is life in a 2 car garage shop.

[James Pallas]

I "save" things. I have lots of pieces of wood, narrow strips, pieces under an inch long, curved small pieces. I may need them to make several thousand wedges or shims or glue spreaders or patches, you know all of that very important stuff. I may have to lighten up a bit this spring because now you mentioned it I feel like a hoarder:).
Jim

[Brian Henderson]

I keep things only if I think I have a good reason to. If I can't imagine what I'd use it for, it goes into the trash.

[steven c newman]

Chisels...maybe?
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Of course, these are just the "extras" the users are up ON the bench...

[David Eisenhauer]

About every 5 years or so I force myself to thin out (but not eliminate) the offcut supply underneath my assembly bench. I did come from a farm/ranch family and you know they don't throw anything away.

[Don Orr]

I don't hoard, I stockpile raw materials and supplies. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. My wife is actually just as bad if not worse. If you know a quilter you know what I mean about fabric.

[Patrick Walsh]

Not a hoarder in the slightest. I throw stuff out religiously as in the shop and home as soon as i get amy ide its not being used.

I did begin hoarding exotic and exrtra special domestic lumber about three years ago. Its getting to the point i may need to rent a storage space soon. I have one more maybe 10" wall in my shop i can put racks on then im gonna be in a little pickle.

I also keep my decent off cuts under my assembly table. About twice a year i take it down to a neatly organized pile that give me room to continue with the habbit.

[Brent Cutshall]

I mainly hoard screws, nuts, and bolts(and what ever else I find laying around). I haunt the local parking lots and road shoulders. I'll pounce on a good bolt before I will a nickel. But hey, I rarely need a screw that I don't have.

[john zulu]

Hoarding........ I have been known to carry back hardwood near my house. So far no luck with metal....

[Bill Jobe]

Every piece of OO I can find.

[Frederick Skelly]

Got 2 boxes of small stuff. Never know when a bit of plastic or metal will be useful.
Got 3 akro-mills "drawer cabinets" full of new and old nuts/bolts/washers. And every time I have to buy a couple bolts at the store, I buy a couple extra.

[Darrell LaRue]

I have a weakness for spokeshaves. Especially those little Stanley #64 shaves. This picture is from several years ago (2011) and I have accumulated at least this many again.

I am so weak.

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[george wilson]

I'm the WORST hoarder! Ask my wife!:)

[Jeff Ranck]

My wife says quilters don't talk about their stash.

[george wilson]

All those spoke shaves,and not even ONE of those little,round Miller's Falls ones? I made some replacement blades for someone here a few years ago. Not the easiest thing to make,as they are cylindrical. I do have one,but never seem to use it. Not because it isn't good. I just like the wooden ones I've mostly made.

[Karl Andersson]

It's not hoarding, it's stockpiling... because it's selective ;)

- Any quality early tool that costs less than $3 at the flea market, whether I already have several or not (i.e. I've got a large pile of Starrett dividers, etc. in one stockpile that cost on average 50 cents each)

- nicely bent pieces of branches that fall in storms - for making spoons. until they dry and split, then they are curvy firewood.

- Pieces of scavenged dogwood. it grows in the woods around here and is very useful for tools, etc. because it's so hard. I look for broken limbs, trunks, etc.

- Of course, hardwood cutoffs bigger than 2 inches, walnut chunks from firewood piles, pieces of 2x doug fir it they have dense growth rings (for painted carvings)

- Brass. Doesn't matter what it is - plumbing fixtures, scrap, cheap thick knickknacks. I have used it for ferrules (knives, chisels) and also hammered things out of it.

- if very cheap, old tool steel like cold chisels, scrap, etc. to feed my early blacksmithing interest cheaply and not ruin storebought stuff

[Pat Barry]

Not a hoarder per se, it's just I don't like throwing things away, ie wood cutoffs, old electric motors, hardware, wire, switches, handles, casters, partially completed projects, half used cans of paint, broken tools that maybe someday could be fixed, tools I don't use but might someday, tape measures, razor knifes, old table saw blades that could be resharpened, etc = you get the idea. What do you consider hoarding?

[Bill McDermott]

My brothers and I cleaned out our Grandfather's basement before selling the building. Decades worth of bits and pieces, gathered by a very busy handyman, amounted to a lot of work sorting and sifting and packing and trashing. I learned something about the downside of what we are calling hoarding here. There was a lot of completely useless stuff that was simply not worth the effort to dust off, let alone keep. But I also learned about the upside. It's been a long time since that cleanout, yet there are still times when I go to my share of Gandpa's stash and am able to lay hands on exactly what is needed. The upshot is that while I do salvage some screws and bolts, there are many others that I send on their merry way. I try to decide by imagining my son cleaning out my stash somewhere down the road. If I can make that work more efficient by sorting the useless from the useful during the accumulation phase, maybe he (or his sons) will not have so much work in the clean out phase. I put myself in the decisive frame of mind I was forced to assume while in Gandpa's crawlspace. I can still smell it. Ironically, it makes me smile now.

[Shawn Pixley]

Having had to clean out the house of a hoarder, I am anti-hoarding. If something comes into the house, something else must leave.

[Chuck Nickerson]

I have a disturbing number (150+) of wooden planes, each of which needs only a few hours of rehab to make them magnificent once again.

When I can't afford lumber or run out of project ideas, those planes are up next!

[Brian Henderson]

Having had to clean out the house of a hoarder, I am anti-hoarding. If something comes into the house, something else must leave.

My wife's grandmother was a hoarder, and I mean that in the worst sense of the word. Her house was wall-to-wall junk, old newspapers, etc. when she died, floor-to-ceiling garbage with little tunnels carved out to move around in. It took us weeks to empty the house into a dumpster. So yes, I am anti-hoarder too, at least in that sense. I don't just throw things away that have use though, although I do go through the house regularly and anything that I can't see a reason to keep, I pitch. I'm the resident clean up expert for the family. Just roll up a dumpster and get out of my way.

[Chris Schoenthal]

Actually, I prefer to be called a "collecting enthusiast":D
My wife does refer to me as a hoarder, especially since in my 20'x20' garage (shop), I have only two 2' paths that I can walk.
The biggest part of it is wood, taking up probably a 12'x8' section of it.
I always have plans on getting it organized, but never seem to get around to it.

[Mel Fulks]

I get too much stuff ,then get rid of enough to get some more. I confess to instantly conjuring up bizarre scenarios of what the item being considered for permanent residency could be used for ,then later tossing it because it's useless junk. But I doubt I'm nutty enough to get my own TV show. I mean there is no way I could compete with the stars who when asked by one of the therapist detox people holding a plastic leaf bag full of plastic band aid peel-off pieces if it's OK to toss them quickly replies "I might need them for book-marks"

[Bill Jobe]

misperception[/B] though, sopool best we not bother asking her. . . . . .

Excellent advice, Patrick. I usually try to make it home after dark with my loads of wood, then tuck them in as best I can make them look like they were there all along.

[Pete Taran]

Hoarding? Nope, none here, not at all. Just have one of every kind, that's not hoarding, it's collecting. Say it with me folks, coll-ect-ing.

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[Brad Barnhart]

My Father was a hoarder in the sense. He came from the era that money was tight, you lived on on what the farm raised, & threw nothing away, because ya never knew when ya might it.

My mother on the other hand is a quilter. Geez, that's another nightmare in itself!

So, In some ways I am too. Lumber, especially. But screws, old tools, scroll saws, & sawblades fit in there, too. We live in the middle of nowhere. Anything of any importance that you may need "in the moment of a tight" has to ordered, & the rest of my shop inventory I try to keep up with when we go the city.

[Patrick McCarthy]

Excellent advice, Patrick. I usually try to make it home after dark with my loads of wood, then tuck them in as best I can make them look like they were there all along.

Oh Bill, I have even tried sprinkling saw dust on new acquisitions to no avail. She is NOT particularly attentive to detail in any aspect of her life EXCEPT when she walks into my shop, instantly sensing that there has been a disturbance in the force, promptly the inevitable "So, when did you get this?" . . . . and how much did it cost??????????

The foregoing is true, but actually I really am blessed in that she usually doesn't balk at the price, nor does she feel the need to spend similar sums to "catch up".
None-the-less, her favorite rhetorical question, usually asked as she walks away shaking her head side-to-side, is "How many saws do you need???"

[Brad Barnhart]

Mostly lumber. Especially cherry & walnut. Its hard to come by here, & expensive to buy. Screws, glue, nails for my air nailers would be next. A few old tools, as I've built my arsenal up to about all the toys I can fit in my humble little shop.

[Jake Rothermel]

I doubt I'm adding anything new to the list here. Any hardwood I can reclaim - because I'm poor (cheap?) and can't spend the mortgage on that gorgeous piece of maple, thank you....

I try to be judicious about hardware. If it's clean and in good shape, I'll stash it; if its dinged, chewed, or super rusty? Gone. Except square nuts. ...I'm really partial to square nuts, for some reason, I don't know why... For the longest time, ALL of my hardware lived in a single four-container plastic storage bin. If it didn't / couldn't fit in that, I usually (reluctantly) got rid of it.

Honestly, I've moved so many @$%&# times in my forty years that I (and my wife) have gotten pretty darned good at cutting away the fat, so to speak. "Have I worn this in the past two years?" Gone. (I probably don't fit into it now anyways...) "Do I really want to carry that up these three flights of stairs?" Gone. Wait! Can I fix that bookshelf? Maybe just stash it and I'll fix next weekend.... NEXT next weekend...

It's probably inaccurate to call it "Spartan" living; but I kinda don't want two of something if I only need one. Chisels, though...

-Jake

[Phil Mueller]

Not woodworking related, but books. Every shelf filled with them. Still have collage text books from the 80s. Keep thinking I might want to read or look through them again. But, of course, never do. Time for a serious library donation.

[Jerry Olexa]

Yes, wood and hardware..I hate to run to the store when I'm in middle of a project...Hardwoods I save but then every year or 2 its time for a cleanout so the cars can fit into the garage.....You never know when you might need something that others might have thrown away..:)

[Brent Cutshall]

A local hospital had their trees trimmed yesterday, and there was good sized limbs laying everywhere. The company that trimmed them went on break or something, and left the limbs unsupervised. Well, needless to say, I walked away from that place with some new maple for my stack. Hey, it's free wood!