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Why oh why do we hang onto stuff?

KevinF

Gathermeister-New England
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Two or three years ago I went through closets and drawers and collected an incredible amount of stuff to donate. Clothes, books, household items, etc.

Loaded it all into the car and donated it to various charities.Within a week I couldn't even remember what I had donated. So much for missing it or wishing I had kept it or... once it was gone. I marveled at all the space I suddenly had to live in.
 

BC.

NEPA ShopRat/Skier
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Two or three years ago I went through closets and drawers and collected an incredible amount of stuff to donate. Clothes, books, household items, etc.

Loaded it all into the car and donated it to various charities.Within a week I couldn't even remember what I had donated. So much for missing it or wishing I had kept it or... once it was gone. I marveled at all the space I suddenly had to live in.

Out of sight, out of mind.......words to live by for anybody who loves getting rid of stuff.
 

Pat AKA mustski

I can keep a Secret
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I experienced great emotional (and financial) loss during a school remodel. I was a theater teacher and used to personally sew all the costumes for a show. To give you an idea -35 kids would wear about 90 different costumes and I made them all. In theater, costume changes need to take about 30 seconds so whenever possible you add to some base costume and keep it simple. We use magnets a lot for quick on and off. The only problem is that the costumes often have 3-6 pieces which only make sense to the costumer. Well the remodelers threw out about $20,000 (cost of materials) in costumes! I nearly lost it because that was also my art form and it was trashed in ignorance despite my thorough packing in plastic crates and labelling!

As for streamlining households ... I have done it more often than I care to think about because I moved so much. There are always regrets. When my parents passed, 63 days apart , and I had to make major decisions about a lifetime of memories, I followed this mantra. "When in doubt, store it for a year. " You can get rid of it later, but you can't get it back. However, you DO need to go back each year and look again and reduce it down further. In the end, I have what matters and peace of mind.

As for ski clothing ... I always have one aspirational ski outfit and one emergency outfit which is too big ... just in case ... because hope springs eternal, but you never want to miss a good ski day because nothing fits!
 

Uncle-A

In the words of Paul Simon "You can call me Al"
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I experienced great emotional (and financial) loss during a school remodel. I was a theater teacher and used to personally sew all the costumes for a show. To give you an idea -35 kids would wear about 90 different costumes and I made them all. In theater, costume changes need to take about 30 seconds so whenever possible you add to some base costume and keep it simple. We use magnets a lot for quick on and off. The only problem is that the costumes often have 3-6 pieces which only make sense to the costumer. Well the remodelers threw out about $20,000 (cost of materials) in costumes! I nearly lost it because that was also my art form and it was trashed in ignorance despite my thorough packing in plastic crates and labelling!

As for streamlining households ... I have done it more often than I care to think about because I moved so much. There are always regrets. When my parents passed, 63 days apart , and I had to make major decisions about a lifetime of memories, I followed this mantra. "When in doubt, store it for a year. " You can get rid of it later, but you can't get it back. However, you DO need to go back each year and look again and reduce it down further. In the end, I have what matters and peace of mind.

As for ski clothing ... I always have one aspirational ski outfit and one emergency outfit which is too big ... just in case ... because hope springs eternal, but you never want to miss a good ski day because nothing fits!
You had to be furious about them throwing away your hand made play costumes. When I was teaching one of the side jobs that teachers always seem to have plenty of was building the sets for the school play. It was one of my favorite "Oh by the way, in your spare time" jobs. One of the things was to use a student construction crew and reuse back drop flats and platforms. So one year the summer clean up crew went through and trashed all our background flats and platforms that we reused year after year. It was horrible because the construction budget was always small to begin with and without the existing stage settings it was a royal pain in the butt. That was one of the reasons for that job you had to be a saver of all and anything that you could repurpose.
 
Thread Starter
TS
Tricia

Tricia

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I experienced great emotional (and financial) loss during a school remodel. I was a theater teacher and used to personally sew all the costumes for a show. To give you an idea -35 kids would wear about 90 different costumes and I made them all. In theater, costume changes need to take about 30 seconds so whenever possible you add to some base costume and keep it simple. We use magnets a lot for quick on and off. The only problem is that the costumes often have 3-6 pieces which only make sense to the costumer. Well the remodelers threw out about $20,000 (cost of materials) in costumes! I nearly lost it because that was also my art form and it was trashed in ignorance despite my thorough packing in plastic crates and labelling!

As for streamlining households ... I have done it more often than I care to think about because I moved so much. There are always regrets. When my parents passed, 63 days apart , and I had to make major decisions about a lifetime of memories, I followed this mantra. "When in doubt, store it for a year. " You can get rid of it later, but you can't get it back. However, you DO need to go back each year and look again and reduce it down further. In the end, I have what matters and peace of mind.

As for ski clothing ... I always have one aspirational ski outfit and one emergency outfit which is too big ... just in case ... because hope springs eternal, but you never want to miss a good ski day because nothing fits!
How did you not come unhinged when that happened??
:nono:
 

Bad Bob

I golf worse than I ski.
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Saw the error of throwing away the wrong stuff on a local government level in Utah. That can have some real issues over time. 'ya don't know what you've got til it's gone.'

I am a Landman which can entail doing land and mineral rights research in the county courthouses. The documents are often kept meticulously in fireproof records vaults. Over a couple of hundred years they can start getting pretty extensive. Working in one county in NE Utah and kept running into references to other documents but no document (that's just not right!). After the 4th or 5th occurrence went to the County Clerk and heard this sad tale. 'The County built a new courthouse 15 years before. When construction was completed they used prisoner to move the records to the new facilities in an effort to save money. A pickup truck of records went missing in the move and has never been found, none of it was backed up on computer or microfiche.' This would be like a 10 year hole in the Congressional Record. It could be very handy if Grandpa lost the ranch in a poker game, or Great-Grandpa left the mineral rights to one of his other wives.

In the immortal words of Forrest Gump, "it happens".
 

Doug Briggs

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I have a few shelves of recycled PC hardware. Old rs-232 cables, AGP display adapters, various power supplies. I have a PC running XP. You never know with that old stuff who might need to keep a 20 year old machine going. :) Fortunately this stuff is organized (to a degree) and not taking much space.

Photos of skis on the chopping block to follow soon.
 

T-Square

Terry
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We had a large warehouse on Midway Island where all the stuff that "wasn’t needed" was stored with no inventory. We called it the Ski Warehouse. (Evidently after the 1st Class Storekeeper that originally ran it, an SK1.). Anyway when we changed to a contractor run operation there were calls to have it all trashed. I had the contractor inventory it. Over $4,000,000 of useable materials that we were able to finally use because we now had an inventory to run off.

We also had a 55 gallon drum arresting gear oil. Somehow it got sent to Naval Air Facility Midway Island instead of the USS Midway. :doh:
 

Uncle-A

In the words of Paul Simon "You can call me Al"
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I have a few shelves of recycled PC hardware. Old rs-232 cables, AGP display adapters, various power supplies. I have a PC running XP. You never know with that old stuff who might need to keep a 20 year old machine going. :) Fortunately this stuff is organized (to a degree) and not taking much space.

Photos of skis on the chopping block to follow soon.
XP still running wow, and I thought that getting rid of my copy of 98 when cleaning out to move was extremely risky.
 

Doug Briggs

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XP still running wow, and I thought that getting rid of my copy of 98 when cleaning out to move was extremely risky.

It is amazing how many Luddites try to keep ancient PCs on life support.
 

Philpug

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@Tricia and I have been accumulating much swag over the past years so we will be having some auctions coming up soon, stay tuned.
 

crgildart

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The Bull City
As promised, photos of lots of free skis.

Free Lots of classic and vintage skis
Here's what I do with my dead sticks instead of throwing them away when no one wants them bad enough to come get them. Even offered to get PJ the Comprex a few years ago.
17103256_1602115569803975_9046304878881521384_n.jpg
 

Doug Briggs

"Douche Bag Local"
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Here's what I do with my dead sticks instead of throwing them away when no one wants them bad enough to come get them. Even offered to get PJ the Comprex a few years ago.
17103256_1602115569803975_9046304878881521384_n.jpg

I am trying to get my old skis in the hands of folks that want them. When I eventually move, I'll donate the balance of them to the Breckenridge Distillery for their annual Shotski World Record attempt.
:beercheer:
My Neighborhood Association would have a fit if I started to decorate my fence with them. :eek:
 

T-Square

Terry
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XP still running wow, and I thought that getting rid of my copy of 98 when cleaning out to move was extremely risky.

You should have upgraded to Windows ME long ago.
 

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