My life has been devoted to caring for my junk!

[Jerry]

I thought good storage would cure all ills.  Not the case at all.  It just encourages one to save more junk!
Two questions I asked myself.

1. when did you use it last?

2. how much to replace it?

I concluded, throw it out or give it away.  It is working.  I "Inherited" some "Slatwall" and have made big inroads to a usable garage!  No, not for cars, but a place to  work in!

I should have taken a few "before" pictures.
I think my problem was growing up poor and thinking I better save stuff.

[Indiana Karen]

Looks great Jerry.  I live with the worlds biggest collecter of "stuff".  He won't get rid of anything and carries home everyone else's throwaways. I am a neat and tidy person, so you can imagine the problems it has created for the past 35 years. 

There is something about the first of the year............everyone gets in the mood to clean out their nest!  Everyone I have talked to lately is busy "clearing out" except hubby. 

Today, I am cleaning kitchen cabinets............or at least I was, until the Culligan Man showed up and turned off my water for a couple hours. 

Karen

[Jerry]

I have been on this "kick" for a while.  Craig's list and the Salavtion Army have helped.
A few years ago I bought great plastic boxes. Labeled them all!  I figured out most had but a few things in them. Swiched to cardboard boxes and gained a lot of space.
The boxes will go on Craig's List!
Yeah, you and hubby are in a quandry!

[miguynmkoi]

I know how you feel Jerry! You are doing a great job cleaning up.  My addiction is only tempered by my kids teasing me.  I have spoken to lots of friends and they think it is a casualty of growing up poor or the influence of parents who "save".

I'm slowly throwing out the garbage and giving away good stuff to Salvation Army and Goodwill.  Hurts when I first give the stuff away but the feeling later feels clean.  I'm trying very hard to give the "2 year no touch must give away" a chance.  Working on year and a half soon.

[-Greg-]

You are a better man than me Jerry, I am a pack rat for sure!!

[Jerry]

Me too Greg, but I saw the tv show about people buried in their junk. It scared me!

[livetogarden]

My motivation was our house fire. EVERYTHING in the house had to be removed so the house could be restored. A restoration company was in charge of packing it, cleaning it and storing it but when we would be able to move back in all that stuff would have come back, only improvement would have been that it was all clean.  We would have had to find spots for all of it. So I got very selective about what was to stay and what was tossed or given away. After having to unpack about 100 boxes of things we did keep was I ever glad I had done away with so much.

[Mikey]

   Your Tide duplicates remind me of our storage area in the garage.  The Fetching One seldom ventures out into the garage but when she sees Tide, Downey, Cascade, Bounty etc. on sale she will buy it and leave it in the kitchen for me to take out to the garage.  It's not unusual for us to have 4 duplicates of those items.   

[mascot]

I have to admit I'm a bit of a pack rat for car parts.  I currently have two trucks and two cars, one truck is being parted out, two cars are both getting new engines and new transmissions (well, rebuilt) and the second truck has a brand new engine (not rebuilt) just waiting for it with a rebuilt trans when it is needed.  Then there's the plethora of boxes full of car parts and bolts and nuts and brackets and switches and wiring and ... you get the picture.

Hopefully, when the two cars are done and have their drivetrains installed I can throw out all the extra parts that I probably won't need anymore.  See, that's my problem... I say "probably" and it stays because I just never know when I might need it.  And that logic, as self-defeating as it may sound, has saved my butt a few times when I needed something that can no longer be found at a wrecking yard!

And my Tide/Cheer/etc. duplicates are all for old oil, coolant and such so I can take it all to the recycling center when they have their free weekend!

[Jerry]

Michael, I have those shelves in pic number 2, they are great! Costco!

[PondmaninAL]

At least y'all have some room left. My shop just has a path through it right now where I've not had time to get out there and sort it out.

[Mikey]

Our son wanted to mislead the fetching Mrs. Mikey by putting some extra weight into her Christmas gift.  I forget what the gift was but the added weight was the result of a sandwich zip-lock baggy filled with galvanized steel washers.  She tossed the bag to me and it weighed over 2lbs and was filled with various sizes of washers.  I assumed he had purchased the washers at Home Depot and asked him why he hadn't just got a brick as it would have been a lot cheaper than all of those washers.  He laughed and said that he had been in an organizing mood and he went through all the coffee cans and jars in the garage that contained various nails, screws, nuts, bolts, washers etc. and sorted them out.  The baggy was all the steel washers we had.....    I am now the proud owner of a lifetime supply of steel washers..... 

[kaz]

Hang on... what's with the giant size loo rolls on the top shelf... or shouldn't I ask?

[Mikey]

I thought they were paper towels...... 

[Jerry]

They are paper towels.  The ones on the far left are toilet tissue   No Banana leaves this time of year!