Are You A Pack Rat? - If So, I Salute You!

[cabinetman]

I've been a pack rat all my life. If it's free, save it. If it has any known value -save it. If it has no known value-save it. If you can't eat it-save it. I have saved every piece of hardware including drawer slides, hinges and handles from every kitchen make-over. Extra hardware that comes in packages included in put together stuff, I save. If I don't know what it is that I'm saving, it gets labeled When Nothing Else Works. I had shelves full with tuna cans, plastic peanut butter jars, coffee cans, just about anything that had a lid, some didn't. There's always the day I'll be looking for something for hours that got thrown away. Or, when throwing something away you say to yourself "I'll never need this". Remember Murphy's Law.

So, I decided to get organized and came up with a great idea for storage. At the time I was using printed mdf drawer side material for some commercial work and had a pile of leftover scrap (that I saved - of course). I made boxes, lots of 'em. They were 5"w x 6 1/2"d x 2 1/2"h, with a masonite bottom. Each box had on the front one of the items mounted with either with screws, or hot glue. I'm really embarrassed to mention how many I wound up with, but when I put them on shelves, all lined up, and stacked up, I could see instantly what I had. Everything went into them, different size screws, nuts, bolts, washers. The boxes were handy enough to carry to the bench and access. It looked like a hardware store, all neat and organized. No dumping out a coffee can looking for a bolt I needed.

Other than puberty this was a big change for me. If any of you have a pack rat story, or some really cool storage ideas, lets hear 'em.



"I'M NEVER WRONG - BUT I'M NOT ALWAYS RIGHT"

[bfrikken]

Now all we need is a picture to see. congrats

[TheRic]

My wife calls me a Pack Rat. I normally tell her, "Don't lower me down to their standards, Pack Rats call me for tips"

So I'm very interested in seeing pictures of what you have!!

[Thalermade]

Congratulations on your organization. I know it is not easy.

It is work for me to avoid being a pack-rat. I ebb and flow. Sometimes I believe it may even be hereditary!

I first learned of the pack rat symptoms in the early 1980's while helping my Dad clean out his Dads house. I think the Depression era had an impact on Grandfather. Some of my relatives (stereotypically, I say) say it had to do with him being of thrifty German descent. Scraps of wood, nails, nuts & bolts, screws. You name it, he probably saved it. The feet on a lamp he made were old caps from beer cans, yes I said caps from beer cans. I thought it was sentimental that Grandfather saved the small outdoor sign from his insurance agency, but my Dad said, it wasn't sentimental, it was practical because Grandfather's point-of-view of you never know when you made need a piece of metal (or whatever the item).

The sad/funny thing is my Dad didn't learn any lessons from this. As a teenager when the clutch pedal return spring broke on my 1970 Mustang, Dad told me to look through his "box of springs", and yes I found one that worked. Before Dad passed away, he found himself running to a nearby small hardware store because it was quicker to go purchase a few small this or that than to sort through everything. Though I will have to say at that point, my Dad had down sized from a house with a small basement and a 2 1/2 car garage to a house with no basement, a one car garage and a small back yard shed. I found over 100 screwdrivers when I cleaned out Dad's garage.

Always working at being organized. Not always succeeding. And so it goes......

Russ

[PJC]

I am a HUGE pack rat! Drives LOML nuts!!! I have been in rehab though and I think I 'm getting better

[stav]

I'm recovering. I bought my parents house when they moved up north and inherited a lot of cans of this or that and screws and bolts of all shapes and sizes. Lots of other what nots and so forth that my dad got from his dad (who worked for Lockheed at Cape Canaveral, so there was a lot of stuff that had no known name or use). I started taking metal items to a nearby scrap metal recycler so I wasn't just throwing it away. I figure that even if I'm not getting paid for it, someone is still getting use out of it. The rest of the stuff gets used up or finds another home. Things are slowly clearing out, but I can't just throw stuff away.

[messmaker]

Every time I think I am cured, I go to the BORG and spend $20 for something I have just thrown away and it all starts over again.

[bigsteel15]

I'm still kicking myself from when we cleaned out under my Grandpa's crawlspace after he passed a few years ago.
At the time I was 26 and didn't have any interest in nor space for hobbies.
Well looking back, I'm glad my dad is a pack-rat. There was a small lathe from I remember, but probably home-made.
The items I did end up with are a Rosewood mortise/tenon marking gauge from 1904. I know this because my great great grandfathers initials are on it and we have a spice cabinet (thanks to my dad) which that man built for his wife in 1904. There is also a folding rule, but I'm not sure the age, possibly around the same vintage?

I also have a 40s vintage "swede" saw.
There are other antique items that my folks still have that will someday come my way.

I purged a lot of fairly useless items both when we moved into an apartment and then again when we moved to Edmonton.
Now I have a garage...watch out.
I know I've duplicated some items & tools aver the last year becasue I couldn't find something.

The one thing that my dad has that I DON'T wish to inherit..his collection of over 1000 hats.

[just4funsies]

I am a packrat, even though I don't like it. But what I like even less is the absolute CERTAINTY that whenever I throw something out, I'm gonna need that VERY THING within a week.

[Pappy]

I am not a 'Pack Rat' , I am a collector (of most anything that can't move away on it's own)!