Hoarding/Junk addiction

[rusty ol ranger]

I have an idea.

We’ll start a support group for people with too many unfinished projects.

A few times a year we’ll get 5 or 6 of us to all take off work for a week. We’ll go to someone’s house and try and finish as many projects as we can in the week.


The inaugural meeting will be at Rusty’s house. We’ll see how many of his old cars we can get road legal and running in a week. In return he’ll let us sleep in his barn and feed us two hot meals a day.

You ok with take out? My cooking sucks lol.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

You ok with take out? My cooking sucks lol.

Supply the food, I’ll bring the grill. We have to get my green Ranger squared away first though so I have something to travel with, lol

 

[scotts90ranger]

I have similar issues, too many projects and not enough time and too much time working other stuff that seems to take priority... I end up going to auctions to help my brother who's a farmer and is trying not to be in debt like so many farmers do... I'm getting better about acquiring stuff and can talk myself out of things easier anymore. Heck in the last couple months I even got rid of one of my spare bench grinders and my benchtop belt/disc sander (4" wide version since I got the 6" version) to a coworker.

I've come to terms with getting rid of some things just need to actively do it... I need to spend a weekend cleaning a couple things up (two metal bench's mostly) to clean up the yard some, hoping to have a good yard sale with actual good stuff this summer...

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I’m actually considering getting rid of all of my D-28 and 7.5” stuff. The only rig I have that still has either of those under it is my 88 and I’m not coming up with a good reason to keep it, just change to a D-35 and 8.8 and then I get rid of oddball parts. Less variety to keep on hand for spare parts. Problem is I need to deal with other stuff before I dig all of that out to get rid of. I probably have 4 complete D-28s around here and about the same number of 7.5” rears.

 

[racsan]

my garage is such a mess right now, projects, bolts, random parts I might need, used tractor parts that are still good. For awhile I had 10 gallons of used motor oil even. (put that on marketplace for $5 and sold it) At the property line in the fencerow is a old flatbed trailer thats no longer roadworthy, it has tires & wheels on it and jugs of used hydraulic oil. Have lots of ranger parts & haven’t had a ranger for 2 years now- including a good ‘97 drivers side door! Theres a moped I bought at a yard sale for $50 but need a special tool I cant find or make to pull the flywheel. I wouldn’t say Im a hoarder but I do collect. a lot.

 

[Blmpkn]

No....ive watched hoarders and its no where near that bad.

I think alot of mine stems from nostlagia...it bleeds into every part of my life. Getting older and coming to terms with the way things are is hard as hell for me. I think thats why im so picky about certain things on my older vehicles...i want it as close to a time capsule as possible. So i can crawl in it and pretend its 40 years ago again.

Nostalgia is a huuuuuuuuge driver for a good portion of my absolutely unnecessary purchases to be honest, so I totally get it. I feel like you have a couple decades on me at least.. and I'm almost on your level already.. so I'm gonna be suuuuper bad once Im your age especially considering that.. between the time you were a teen and today.. things haven't really gotten THAT much shitter in the grand scheme of things.. but between the time I was a teen and the time I'm your age.. the level of enshittification is going to be many many magnitudes higher.

I also have enough of my mother in me where if I notice something on a deep sale that I *might* need in 8 months I'll just go ahead and buy it... Just to find out after 8 months that I actually didn't need it at all lol. Just cant pass up a good enough deal..

A good portion of hoarding is just a... slightly convoluted survival instinct/ financial self preservation type thing when you boil it down far enough.. especially for the folks raised by great depression parents and those who simply grew up as 'have-nots' like I said.

Peace of mind plays a factor as well. Like me personally... I have enough "survivalist" & survivalist adjacent gear & supplies laying around that I'll likely NEVER use In anything close to their full capacity because I'll (hopefully) never find myself in that sort of situation... But it's an incredibly good feeling knowing that I'm better prepared than most everyone else should shit go awry in a big way.. and peace of mind is incredibly important to ones overall mental health.. that goes without saying. I can probably thank the boy scouts for a good portion of that.. "always be prepared!" Lol. I generally use all.. well.. MOST of said gear while camping at least so.. while all that gear isn't a COMPLETE waste of money & storage space.. it's still all very under-utilized and mostly gathers dust.. especially since I haven't been camping in like.. 3 years.


Makes me think of a song by Slayer called skeletons of society. The lyrics tell a story about some sort of cataclysm that well... Pretty much destroys society as we know it.. presumably nuclear Armageddon.

"Minutes seem like days
Since fire ruled the sky
The rich became the beggars
And the fools became the wise"

It's pretty clear that 'the fools' in the overall context of the song are the nutjob preppers with 14 years worth of freeze dried food and doomsday bunkers and enough arms&ammunition to conquer a small African country. Those folks get laughed at and mocked.. called paranoid.. unhinged.. whatever else by 'The rich' who are quite literally blind to reality thanks to their affluence.. believing that nothing bad could ever happen to them because they've never had to struggle and are too caught up in their own vanity & social status to recognize that things very well may not stay the same forever.. well... If the proverbial shit does ever hit the fan.. the majority of the rich ARE going to become the beggars.. very quickly.


Anyhow..


Considering your living space is fine.. and it seems like you just have a bunch of "yard art" and more utilitarian USEFUL stuff.. I'd say you're just worrying too much. You COULD probably pare down your 20 tons of various vehicles into a more reasonable 10 tons lol.. lose a bit of stress over the whole too many projects/not enough time dynamic and be alright..

... But if it makes YOU happy owning all this stuff.. well.. **** it Keep it all. Get some more even.

We only have one life to live, and lives are best spent while HAPPY. Living in a constant state of yearning is bad for the psyche.. do some soul searching and find a good balance. You'll be fine

 

[RobbieD]

If the proverbial shit does ever hit the fan.. the majority of the rich ARE going to become the beggars.. very quickly.

Poetic justice.

"I'll trade you this Rolex for that can of beany weenies."

 

[Rick W]

I have an idea.

We’ll start a support group for people with too many unfinished projects.

A few times a year we’ll get 5 or 6 of us to all take off work for a week. We’ll go to someone’s house and try and finish as many projects as we can in the week.


The inaugural meeting will be at Rusty’s house. We’ll see how many of his old cars we can get road legal and running in a week. In return he’ll let us sleep in his barn and feed us two hot meals a day.

Very interesting. I’m thinking we could couple this with the certification program. You wouldn’t want to just run out and fix stuff that wouldn’t be used right away. We could form a committee and decide which things should be fixed, and which things might need to be further disassembled and placed into the sheds of miracles, and in the private scrap yards. It would be like a development step in the certification process.