Did you ever get an urge just to

[Cipher]

fill in the basement and forget what's down there.
I have been sorting the mess down there for a few days and its shocking how many thousands of dollars worth of screws and nails I have.
There is enough remnant paint to do half the house thought he colour would be odd.

I have a Rubbermaid tote full of fine steel wool. Why is that here? What enters the mind to make anyone want to corner the world market and then give up.

then there's the 550 engine that never made it to the bench. A good reminder to get the cylinders bored to fit the wiseco kit I bought for it with a 400 USD price tag still on it. 400 1980s dollars.

5 totes of bike spares from before the temporary (now permanent) shipping surcharge made getting stuff costlier than buying it.

Why two sometimes 3 of every power tool? All corded and unused sulking about the lipo powered saw and drill.
Is it cos my mother was a depression legacy baby? Just like the discovery of Iron the great depression didn't leave every region at once.

a mason jar of 1986 vintage weed. stills smells weedy but when I opened it dull slow thinking muttering souls ambled out.
My vise good god clearly ive no need of it as it still has its jaws out awaiting my arduous trek through the death trap pages of amazon to order new screws.

a giant tote of DVDs and VHS tapes 3 vcrs 2 dvd players and so many cables Im in danger of crack heads invading for the copper.
78 rpm records of negro spiritual form the 30s and a hand crank phonograph.

A piece of drywall just in case thet stop making drywall. more drywall tools than many contractors own and certainly more than one could carry.

A regulation snooker table and a grand ( not baby had one tried to put it in a corner things got ugly ) piano.
Gonna sit at the piano now maybe ill die here i make a great prop.

[rphillips]

Oh, something wrong with that? I thought all basements & garages were supposed to be that way, that's why I ain't dove in to mine yet.

[dpep]

Not many basements here in Florida but I have a full attic, a full garage, and a big pile under a popup in the back yard all with stuff that I MiGHT need someday. Oh yeah. Of course the chance that I could actually find that particular stuff when I need it is somewhere between very slim and none.
...

[bonanzadave]

and a grand piano.

Geez, was that like a ship in a bottle project ? How the hell did you get it down there ?

[timebombprod]

well, if you're looking to clean up the garage, always search up the item and see what its worth.

[rustybronco]

Off hand a microscope with boom stand, three ham tranceivers, soldering station, oscilloscope, frequency counter, signal gen, 1950's am/fm needing cap work, scale motherboard needing a xtal, a shelving unit full of GS1000E parts and it's frame. There's eight shelving units, a host of cabinets, one refrigerator and two freezers down their.

No in answer to your question.

[salty_monk]

You guys make me feel better... Thanks

[dorkburger]

Same here. Many hunderds, likely thousands (when new) of the kids old gaming systems and accessories, a nerf gun arsenal, clothing, books, etc. My stuff includes many boxes of vacuum tubes, old radios, a photography enlarger and relics from my old film photography days. The house came pre loaded with a few boxes of random hardware.... many with Rickels price stickers on them.

The garage is a mess as well.

[Lorenzo]

@Cipher
...an hand cranking pornograph

I do personally keep a database currently updated, to keep track of the ware, stacked in all possible places, in a space were the normal threading is sideways...

[RichDesmond]

... many with Rickels price stickers on them...

Dang, there's a blast from the past. The proto-Home Depot.

[trent]

Reads like a Craigslist ad..lol

I moved couple years back, that's when you really realize how much stuff you've accumulated.

That ole comedian George Carlin had a bit about "stuff"

Anyway just reminds me about considering getting a dumpster dropped off.

[bwringer]

My Dad was an epic hoarder, and after he died, the months of backbreaking and soul-destroying labor required to deal with it all had a great effect on me. There's very, very little in my garage that does not have a reasonably rational use.

Yes, my garage is not big enough, and it's quite full of motorcycles, parts, and tools. But everything has a reason for being there, I can (almost) always remember and find what I'm looking for, and I have room to work safely and quickly.

Long before Dad died, I learned from his bad example to keep my tools reasonably well organized. When I was a kid, he never seemed to finish much of anything because the tools and materials were forever lost and jumbled in the general debris.

I tried many times to do things like organize Dad's wrench and socket sets, but I could never find all the pieces, and he soon scattered them again anyway. When I started gathering tools of my own I kept them strictly separate and reasonably organized.

All that said... man, I would really hate to have to move it all. I've been in this house since 2005, and even then getting everything in the garage moved from our old one-car garage was an epic saga. Now that our two-car garage is fairly well stuffed with two more motorcycles and two or three times the tools and machines... yikes.

[GSJim]

Sounds like my place. My wife wants me to renovate the basement but there is too much stuff to renovate around. I don't have a grand piano down there like Cipher, but I have a Hammond organ in pieces (hums, needs caps), bass and amp, several guitars, a trumpet, French horn, whistles, chanters and way too many books. Does anyone else have Encyclopedia Brittanica? A full set was left here by my brother. The tools are reasonably well organized but there is no room to spread out a project to work on it. That happens in the summer when I can use the garage. The garage is also too full because my wife doesn't want the trailer on the driveway during the winter and I'm storing stuff that belongs to my beer brewing club. It also doesn't help that I'm running our national office out of half of the rec room which was supposed to be renovated last year.

There are signs of future improvements. The oldest son bought a house so he's about to get all of his assorted crap that he left behind when he left home. I wasn't fast enough unloading his stuff when he rented his previous place. His wife's parents got there first with all of her stuff and there wasn't enough room for me to add a load. We won't be reopening our office for a while but I am visiting every week so I can move all the low priority stuff back to the office. I hate to recycle books but none of the used stores around here are accepting books at the moment.

I should also mention that I'm the family historian/genealogist, so every document or photo that no one else in the family wants is in my basement.

So much stuff.

Jim

[RichDesmond]

...Does anyone else have Encyclopedia Brittanica?...

Yep, full set. In boxes. In the basement.

[salty_monk]

Last two times I moved I started on the garage first... moved it at least two weeks ahead of the other stuff but generally it's all two wheeled toys and associated parts, camping gear, surfing gear or tools