Raised To Be A Hoarder - Blog Challenge Day 4 of 7
From my earliest memories until the present day I have always believed that you retain odds and ends in case you need them.
This past week, as I was walking around the facility in South Carolina, numerous employees came to me with requests for common and unique items that we should have on hand to assist in production.
I asked why we did not retain these items when we disassembled machines and parts and I was told that they never thought about that and I scratched my head.
In my mind, the practice of maintaining screws, clips, springs, etc., when taking something apart was a normal practice or plain old common sense.
Taking a step back, I thought about my habit of maintaining items for future use. It did not take me long to realize that my Grandpa Max drilled this into me.
It started on the farm when I would help Grandpa Max in the machine shed working on tractors, etc. and when he was elderly and myself a teen it was home improvements.
Grandpa & I Are IH FansPerhaps, I was not as much help to him as I thought but I listened, learned, and was raised to be a hoarder.
I am not the kind of hoarder that saves stuff that has no value but I do maintain items that are essential. Examples of my retained items include:
- License Plates From Every State And Vehicle Since 1980.
- They make great sheet metal for repairs, projects, etc.
- Thousands of screws, nuts, and bolts from ATMs, bank equipment, etc.
- You never know when you may need a special screw.
- Thousands of clips and special fasteners from ATMs, bank equipment, etc.
- I believe the reason is obvious.
- Used nails, valves, faucets, etc.
- They have saved the day many times in the past.
- There is much more but all of it is critical to fixing something.
This trait comes in handy in my line of work which is equipment repair and service. In many situations, the equipment is obsolete so your only option to repair is an item you saved.
I am grateful that my Grandpa Max passed this trait to me but I sometimes wish I had not followed his direction so well. I have improved with age and will continue to scale down.
- What do you hoard that is critical like me?
- What life essential traits/skills did you learn from a grandparent.
- At WA, we hoard thoughts, memories, etc. and turn them into blogs. What are you keeping in case?
I want to thank you for visiting and wish you health, safety, and success. It is great being fifty plus going on fifteen.
I am still on the road, my laptop is limping, I am waiting for background checks on a potential new gig, and I dropped my old tablet in the tub so I am trying to dry out.
My apologies if I do not respond in a timely manner but will work on this tomorrow at the airport.
Jay Patterson
Recent Comments
45
Howdy Jay, I was gonna take a different view until Deb just reminded me that we have two storage rental buildings full and the out side storage room Funny how that happens. You sound like the guys on the tv show that travel around looking for hard to find things , antiques etc;.
Bless You,
Sam and Deb
Sam and Deb,
I search for obsolete and current equipment, parts, etc, as a technician and to provide logistics for service companies so yes... I look for hard to find items.
When we moved from Iowa to Missouri, I had 12 trailers of junk though.
Jay
My uncle always had coffee cans and pickle jars full of nuts,bolts,screws and such throughout his basement and garage and I do too. You always need what you don't have so keep everything you may need I guess. It is funny you wrote this I had the same thought recently going through my stuff in an effort to minimize down to just necessary items that can fit in a travel trailer or truck bed and I have to find a home for all my jars and cans full of screws,nuts, and bolts.
Jay, I have been considering a storage shed and/or small metal shed recently along with packaging and dating the odds and ends. If I do not open in 5 years, I will get rid of. If I am not around to get rid of in 5 years, I could leave them to someone. Thanks, Jay
Hi Jay. Great attitude.
I am the same. I have quite a few valuable things here as well. Screws, all kinds of computer parts, gadgets etc. Like you I may need a part one day.
Sometimes a neighbor may ask for this or that and it's right here somewhere.
I remember my mother used to say "the right way is the right way, even if you are at the bottom of a well" lol. Makes sense. I always use that as character booster and for inspiration if I am challenged to compromise.
All the best Jay.
David
David, you just stated a key point - "valuable". I am glad others believe in maintaining in case but we understand there is a difference between hoarding and safety stock. I appreciate what your mom says and thanks for sharing. Jay
Good Morning Jay,
My Father was very similar to your grandfather. Papa had a big metal box with little drawers full of bolts, screws, nails etc. I have this box in my garage and it is still going strong. In my workroom, I have bookshelves also with partly drawers and there my Father kept paperclips, small screwdrivers, pencil sharpeners, ink etc.
Greetings from the cooler south, Taetske
Taetske, I agree with everything you have a supply on. You never know when you may need these items and in time they may be collectibles. Glad to hear it is cooler. Jay
I hoard fabric, Jay. When I was a little girl, my grandma sewed for other people on an old treadle sewing machine in the late 50s and early 60s. She refused to get an electric one. She had drawers full of people's fabric and patterns. She knew who they belonged to, and didn't bother to label them. It was quite a challenge for my mother and aunts to try to figure out who to return them to after her death!
I used to do a lot of sewing, and had a lot of scraps of fabric that I kept for a rainy day. Once when I was sorting things getting ready to move, I got rid of all the scraps and most of my patterns. I did not allow myself to go into a fabric shop, and was doing great at avoiding a new supply of fabric sneaking into my sewing room.
Then, my aunt, who used to do beautiful quilting, got dementia and my cousins had to move her into a nursing home. She had boxes and boxes of fabric stashed away. My cousin brought my mother and me NINE boxes full of new fabric. My mother and I had a ball going through the boxes looking at all the material. Aunt Viola had the fabric for several quilts all ready to go, and some quilt blocks cut out.
Mom and I chose what we wanted to keep, and gave the rest to the Ugly Quilts group. This is a group of women who make quilts using whatever fabric is donated to them and give them to charities. They really aren't ugly, that's just the name of the group because the quilts aren't planned ahead of time.
Other friends who know that I do quilting have given me their scraps over the years, and my stash has grown out of hand. I have several quilts planned and stored according to themes, such as "Thank You Military" to make quilts for injured soldiers who are hospitalized or in rehab.
It is a challenge for me to walk by the fabric section at Walmart without stopping to take a peek. I have waaay too much fabric now, and no time to mess with it, and I'm running out of room to store it. So, yes, you could say I'm a hoarder in that sense.
Oh, and by the way, my family are Allis Chalmers farmers. I have a cousin who hoards them. He has 17 antique AC tractors he has restored and stored in friends and neighbors' garages and barns. He does their lawn care in return for housing his tractors. So, I guess hoarding or collecting is in my veins!
Looks like I've written a post instead of a response, Jay. Maybe next time you give me an idea, I'll do just that!
Carol
Carol, Fabric makes sense and I love the idea of the Ugly Quilts group. Maybe you are correct.... collectin, not hoarding. Thanks for stopping by and sharing. Jay
I tend to hoard things as well. My grandmother and grandfather, born in time to go through the Great Depression. They learned to save everything.
I think that the things that my husband and I both tend to hoard are the free greeting cards that we get sent in the mail from various companies. It relates to something else my grandmother taught me.
She was the daughter of a successful doctor who came from family money. She raised me on etiquette, particularly the 1929 edition of Emily Post's book of etiquette. I had to learn all of that, plus learn to walk with that thick edition balanced on my head.
I vowed not to be so "proper" when teaching my children, but I did teach them to have good manners. They send out thank you cards and notes of sympathy and encouragement, so these cards have always come in handy. I am hoping that they teach their children to do the same.
Have a good trip home, Jay. I know you are grateful to be headed there.
Anita
Anita, Thanks and just walked in the door for a day since we have a family trip over the weekend (camping). Understand cards... just like return address labels and calendars. Jay
You dropped your tablet in water....that won't be the same will it Jay?
Yes I have saved stuff too nice to discard will probably never use them. I did do a clean up last month though, got a big bin delivered to the house and loaded it up fast before the neighbours discovered it.
Thoughts now, that's trickier, hard to let them go, as much as you may want to. Still working on that. And no would not make a pretty blog tee hee.
Cheers Jae
Jae, this has been a crazy trip for technology and myself. I reduce my piles often but probably have too much still. Understand the thoughts, mine were not really nice in SC this week. Thanks, Jay
Hi Jay Hoarder came to mind as I read your interesting post about times back then with your grandpa. I think having a close relationship with him made you the person you are today! We all have regrets at time when we think back of how it was.
Back in the day, everyone were hoarders, yes, parents and grands had to scrape up everything they could to just make ends meet. I think some of the stuff they gathered, that they didn't really need it, but needed to make sure everybody had some and more..
I think my mother was a light hoarder, but not so much to rub off on me. When I got marry and had 5 children, I had to become a hoarder. Right today, They are all up and on their own, i am still a hoarder. I collect second fashions and sell them.
Two of my daughters followed my foot step, they became big time hoarders, they sell second fashion too. One of them made between $10,000 and $15,000 last year selling second fashions. It can make you a fortune if you have a passion for what you collects.
Jay thank you for sharing that post, very interesting topic.
Have a very nice Holliday Season!
Louisa B
Laptops are not meant to swim bro! Hope it dries out without incident. There are valid reasons for saving things, and I'm of the age where it has benefitted me as well.
On a somewhat related note, my answer to the question, "If you were stranded on a desert island, what 3 things would you want to have?"
1) A Bible, because I'll never run out of inspiration.
2) A Machete, because I'll be able to hunt for food.
3) A Redneck, because they can build or fix anything.
Hope you're well Jay, peace my friend! :-)
Bob, I am chomping at the bit to get home tomorrow and took a bit of time to blog but surely enjoy your list. My Grandpa Max's last name was Rudnick... when my kids were young, they though his last name was Redneck. He was something else. Jay
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Oh, this is funny. I confess: I am a hoarder! Big time. Like, I am the antithesis of Mari Kondo's minimalism. My home looks like an antiquary, and I have so many collections of 'you never know'.
I never had grandparents. But there were plenty of life skills from parents. One of these parents is now passed, but was old enough to recall WWII, so let me be creative by inserting older parents' wisdom. I learnt to:
1. Pay it forward; A very long time ago, when we really needed it, we were the fortunate recipients of others' charity. Second-hand clothing and toys, kitchenware, too-much produce. So when it was our turn, we hoarded in order to share again. We've given away children's clothing, furniture, car parts, food, and even a whole car.
2. Work so hard I hurt: Hard work. Really physically exhausting, hard work. I learnt to love that as well, and to do it, even when I didn't feel like doing it, but because it needed to be done.
3. Have practical skills that are useful to others: I can chop and stack firewood. Start fires quickly. Cook like a pro with next to nothing. Tie complicated knots. Sew. Solder electronics. Build and repair the home with all kinds of hardware tools. Preserve food. Make paper. Fix computer issues. Build and repair computer hardware. Propagate plants of all kinds.
I keep trying to add to the list of ways I can be useful to others, by learning from people who are smarter and more skilled than I am. I feel like this is a kind of 'just-in-case knowledge hoarding'!
Ivy, Thanks and for some reason, I am not shocked by your ability to rise to any occasion.
We need to be self-sufficient but not too proud to reach for an extended hand.
All great traits/practices and my favorite is learning from others that a smarter, better, etc.
I have always loved to hire people that are smarter, better, etc. and have them work for me until they take my job when I do something new.
Have a great weekend. Jay
Sounds like me Ivy! My Dad remembered watching the news from the war in the movie theater before the movie since that was the only way they could see the war back then.
I grew up in the bush in Alaska where we cut our own firewood, had our own saw-mill to cut lumber from trees we felled and drug back by snow-machine on trails we built ourselves and packed down with skis and snowshoes. We hauled our own water by bucket and Dad eventually built a solar water system and power system as well as a solar powered refrigerator and freezer in later years.
We had huge gardens, chickens, rabbits and a dog team. We mined for gold and hauled sand and gravel from the river to mix our own cement for building.
We picked berries, made jam and smoked salmon in a homemade smokehouse with alder we would cut and peel and dry ahead of time. I could go on and on an on of course!
It was an amazing life.
That all sounds SO AMAZING! What a remarkable upbringing you've had!
You too! Your descriptions made me think of all the varied things we did. We only had a woodstove for heat of course so we cooked our food on there as well as big, huge, metal washtubs full of dog food for the team in the winter. In the summer we had a 55 gallon drum that we used to cook the dog food outside. In the summer we would use a BBQ to cook so we didn't have to heat up the house since it would get pretty hot in the interior of the state in the summer (80's often which was hot for us).
I learned to sew by hand and so many other skills that aren't done much by kids now!
For sure - I worry about what isn't being taught!
And now kids don't even know geography or history either!
Ohhh, laughing because I'm recalling so many comedic conversations on this topic. :)
Yes.
Yes...it makes me so frustrated and sad! My husband was a history major and he just can't hardly take it! We also notice kids now don't have chores...they might take the trash to the curb and that is a big deal! We don't quite understand what happened in a generation! I guess we were the unusual ones though! We had very old-fashioned backgrounds with real work and self sufficiency.