What makes us collect the crap we'll probably never use.

[440]

What makes us collect all the crap that we do and will probably never use? I was sorting through car parts today and thinking what the hell am I ever going to with all of this, a couple of alternators, water pump, intake manifolds, carbs and carb parts, air cleaners, power boosters, tons of unused gaskets, wheel cylinders etc... The list goes on and on. If some component fails I'll go buy a new one instead of raiding my used pile.

I'm sure many here have extensive piles of "stuff," So why do we hold onto it if we probably wont use it?

[myk]

Human nature.  We're explorers, conquerors.  Whether it's land, water, steel, oil, or even flesh, we will never be satisfied.  We will always want what we have and then more.  Why stop at a '69 Charger when you can have '67 GTX and a '71 Chevelle too.  Why settle for one house when you can buy a villa in France for the summers.  Why settle for your wife when you can ALSO bandy your seed about with the lonely college girl that moved in next door.  Someone once said that human beings are like a virus: "you (humans) move to an area and you multiply, and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area."

This sounds horrible to most, but honestly 'OP, between you and me I'm fine with it...

[HANDM]

Human nature.  We're explorers, conquerors.  Whether it's land, water, steel, oil, or even flesh, we will never be satisfied.  We will always want what we have and then more.  Why stop at a '69 Charger when you can have '67 GTX and a '71 Chevelle too.  Why settle for one house when you can buy a villa in France for the summers.  Why settle for your wife when you can ALSO bandy your seed about with the lonely college girl that moved in next door.  Someone once said that human beings are like a virus: "you (humans) move to an area and you multiply, and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area."

This sounds horrible to most, but honestly 'OP, between you and me I'm fine with it...

Either that, or we're just a bunch of hoarders.....   

[TK73]

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/hoarding/DS00966

Hoarding, also called compulsive hoarding and compulsive hoarding syndrome, may be a symptom of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). But many people who hoard don't have other OCD-related symptoms.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsive_hoarding

"Compulsive hoarding (or pathological collecting) is a pattern of behavior that is characterized by the excessive acquisition of and inability or unwillingness to discard large quantities of objects that would seemingly qualify as useless or without value."

[Bob T]

Yah. Like the mid/late 50's guy a few doors down with his mothers old toyota with verdigris and 4 flat tyres still in his driveway 8 or so years after she had died. Or the hillman hunter car in his garage buried under all the newspapers that are stacked around the walls and on the car that you catch a glimpse of when the door goes up as you walk the dog past.
Those people you sometimes see on reality tv that can only open their front doors 1/2 way 'cause of all the stuff stacked in the hall, well, thats him. I dont know how his chinese import wife can stand it 
Pleasant enough chap in conversation but there's strange going on under the surface...

[Cooter]

For the same reason anybody "Collects" stuff.....For the inevidable time when we 'might' need it.

[Ghoste]

Yep, we used to collect food and hoard it for "just in case" and now we have lots of food so we collect stuff instead.

[440]

Ok, so how many of us here have accumulated a vast amount of car stuff whether we hoard it or not?

[Ghoste]

I definitely have some stuff I don't and will not likely ever use. 

[triple_green]

My 75 YO father in law has 20 derilict cars on his lot as well of piles of used construction garbage. Most the cars have not moved for 20 years. The 2nd story of his house is so crammed full of stuff that you can't even walk around in it.

They have one car that runs all the time 2002 altima, and that is the car I bought my mother in law before they got married 5 years ago.

When they go, the kids are going to have a huge mess to clean up.....

And unfortunately non of the cars are collectible Mopars. He likes VW campervans and rabbit convertibles....

[Todd Wilson]

Its not crap its stuff!  And he who has the most stuff at the end of the game wins!


Todd

[Ghoste]

The campervans have a cult following so at least if the expectations of value are realisitic they should have no trouble moving them.  Even as parts cars.  The Rabbits have a cult too somewhat so at least the cars should disappear.

[bakerhillpins]

Its not crap its stuff!  And he who has the most stuff at the end of the game wins!


Todd

Yep, somewhere, deep inside all of us is the need to die with the most stuff. Like somehow that makes us better than the other guy.


BUT - remember this... If it were not for this compulsive behavior none of us, and I repeat, none of us would have these cars to own because they would have all gone to the crusher when folks were "done" with them.

All hail hoarding!   

[Indygenerallee]

I did until a few years ago, I had 2 buildings full, one day I told myself WTF am I doing!? I will never be able to ever use these parts!! Sold all of it or scrapped it!!! Even down to my cars I want to be down to just my 69 Daytona clone and thats it!!!

[GOTWING]

I'm not that guy , but my brother and father ARE !   I like a clean neat garage with my cars and no clutter and junk in the way.

[cdr]

I'm not that guy , but my brother and father ARE !   I like a clean neat garage with my cars and no clutter and junk in the way.

then it would probably be a good idea to not go in my garage lol

[Rolling_Thunder]

I only hoard stuff that I can 1) afford   2) have a place for   3) probably turn a profit if I sold...     

I bought a second six pack set up...   why?  it was a good price.  Do I plan on building a 440 for my convertible? Nope...       I just like having some cool stuff here and there...       It was a decent buy and if I sold it I won't loose money...   so why not? 

[Old Moparz]

When I was in the planning stages of my garage I had a lot of stuff that needed to be in the garage. I assumed that the basement, shed, attic & a few other nooks & crannies in the house would get freed up & become more usable. It did for a while, but my wife & I are the type that hate to throw away things that are still good or could be used by others. The garage filled up fast & the old cliche, "It can never be built too big" was true.

It got worse after my Mother closed her business & I ended up taking things from her warehouse that I "thought" I could use. When she sold her house, I ended up with more stuff. When my Mother in law's house was sold several years after she died, more stuff found it's way to our house. The same thing happened when My Mother died & I cleaned out her apartment. It's amazing what anyone saves & puts some kind of value to.

It didn't help that my wife & I liked going to auctions or swap meets & decide that certain things we saw would be cool to have. The cars are kind of the same problem, & with spare parts saved "just in case" something happens to one, they take up a lot of space. I started to sell off things I knew I didn't need or would ever use, or duplicates & triplicates that weren't as nice as the ones I would save. When something is dirt cheap it's tough to pass on it as a spare, but I've learned to avoid it.

One thing became clear after clearing out the crap in our parents' houses. There's no way I want to leave piles of my stuff for my daughter to deal with after I'm gone. The stuff took a long time to accumulate so it's going to take a long time to get rid of. Craigslist & Freecycle have been a big help in offering up free, or cheap items. This will allow other people to gather more than they need so they can prepare themselves to be the star on the next episode of Hoarders.

[charger490]

i got rid of all of them .gave them to the boy scouts and a horse farm.

[bill440rt]

Can't say I have a lot of "useless junk", but I have accumulated a LOT of stuff. My wife thinks I'm a pack rat because I don't like to throw anything away (she's probably right).
Sometimes it's just car parts, tools, toys, etc. Someday it will be time to thin out the diecast collection & stockpile of old car magazines.

"Have you never noticed that all your stuff is STUFF, and everyone else's stuff is SHIT??"

[myk]

Like the regional director of my company says: if you haven't touched, seen, listened to or otherwise interacted with or at least thought of something within the last 30 days it's just taking up space.  Look at it this way guys: if you want to know what you truly need to have in your life imagine that your home is on fire and you have minutes to get out.  What would you save?  For me, it'd be my Dean MAB3 guitar and the Charger's keys-that's all I need in my life, everything else is just wasted space and sentiment...

[John_Kunkel]

I easily succumb to the threat "If you won't take it, I'm gonna take it to the dump". Happens more often than one would imagine, that's why I have so many items that I'll never use.

[440]

Even though I don't have a lot of car stuff I'd still like to toss most of it to make room for more important things.... The few things that I have gotten rid of I usually find myself later saying I wish I kept the whoseewhatsits as I could use it now...

Interesting reading, I didn't think this thread would be this popular.  

[69rtse4spd]

Took two weeks to clean out dads barn with the  three of us doing it. Told my brothers that I need to get rid of stuff, but 11 years later still got most of it. Just like my father was, cant pass up a good deal, cause might need it someday.
Then again when I go there is going to be a lot of 1.00 tables at the auction. Then it can be someone elses good deal. 

[ChgrSteve67]

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

I think most figured the stuff we bought or collected would actually be worth something someday.

[Fred]

It seems to me it's just necessary to fill up empty space be it a shed, garage, spare room. Can't stand to see empty space go to waste. 

[69finder]

Mens' minds are wired for the PLUS ONE!

Starter PLUS ONE.  Alternator PLUS ONE!  We can't be happy till we have ONE more. 

[Ghoste]

Another of my motivations for buying excessive crap just occurred to me.  When I was around 25 a girl I mistakenly took up with convinced me to get out of cars and continue my education.  While the education was a great idea, there was no need to to drop the car hobby.  Anyway, when I went to get back into it a couple of years later all the stuff I had basically just given away was now harder to find and more expensive.  I decided to never make that mistake again.
Its easy to get rid of what you dont need and hard to replace some of it.  At a certain point it becomes a little harder to honestly justify all of it too.

[TK73]

That's all I want, that's all you need in life, is a little place for your stuff, ya know? I can see it on your table, everybody's got a little place for their stuff. This is my stuff, that's your stuff, that'll be his stuff over there. That's all you need in life, a little place for your stuff. That's all your house is: a place to keep your stuff. If you didn't have so much stuff, you wouldn't need a house. You could just walk around all the time.

A house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it. You can see that when you're taking off in an airplane. You look down, you see everybody's got a little pile of stuff. All the little piles of stuff. And when you leave your house, you gotta lock it up. Wouldn't want somebody to come by and take some of your stuff. They always take the good stuff. They never bother with that crap you're saving. All they want is the shiny stuff. That's what your house is, a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get...more stuff!

Sometimes you gotta move, gotta get a bigger house. Why? No room for your stuff anymore. Did you ever notice when you go to somebody else's house, you never quite feel a hundred percent at home? You know why? No room for your stuff. Somebody else's stuff is all over the place! And if you stay overnight, unexpectedly, they give you a little bedroom to sleep in. Bedroom they haven't used in about eleven years. Someone died in it, eleven years ago. And they haven't moved any of his stuff! Right next to the bed there's usually a dresser or a bureau of some kind, and there's NO ROOM for your stuff on it. Somebody else's shit is on the dresser.

Have you noticed that their stuff is shit and your shit is stuff? God! And you say, "Get that shit offa there and let me put my stuff down!"

Sometimes you leave your house to go on vacation. And you gotta take some of your stuff with you. Gotta take about two big suitcases full of stuff, when you go on vacation. You gotta take a smaller version of your house. It's the second version of your stuff. And you're gonna fly all the way to Honolulu. Gonna go across the continent, across half an ocean to Honolulu. You get down to the hotel room in Honolulu and you open up your suitcase and you put away all your stuff. "Here's a place here, put a little bit of stuff there, put some stuff here, put some stuff--you put your stuff there, I'll put some stuff--here's another place for stuff, look at this, I'll put some stuff here..." And even though you're far away from home, you start to get used to it, you start to feel okay, because after all, you do have some of your stuff with you. That's when your friend calls up from Maui, and says, "Hey, why don'tchya come over to Maui for the weekend and spend a couple of nights over here."

Oh, no! Now what do I pack? Right, you've gotta pack an even SMALLER version of your stuff. The third version of your house. Just enough stuff to take to Maui for a coupla days. You get over to Maui--I mean you're really getting extended now, when you think about it. You got stuff ALL the way back on the mainland, you got stuff on another island, you got stuff on this island. I mean, supply lines are getting longer and harder to maintain. You get over to your friend's house on Maui and he gives you a little place to sleep, a little bed right next to his windowsill or something. You put some of your stuff up there. You put your stuff up there. You got your Visine, you got your nail clippers, and you put everything up. It takes about an hour and a half, but after a while you finally feel okay, say, "All right, I got my nail clippers, I must be okay." That's when your friend says, "Aaaaay, I think tonight we'll go over the other side of the island, visit a pal of mine and maybe stay over."

Aww, no. NOW what do you pack? Right--you gotta pack an even SMALLER version of your stuff. The fourth version of your house. Only the stuff you know you're gonna need. Money, keys, comb, wallet, lighter, hanky, pen, smokes, rubber and change. Well, only the stuff you HOPE you're gonna need.

[69finder]

That's deep man. 

The reason we have 'stuff' is we can keep on farming and being farmed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbp6umQT58A&feature=related

[bill440rt]

TK73, awesome!! 

RIP George, one of the best EVER. 

[Dino]

It's funny but throwing away usable stuff is something I really enjoy.  Not in the moment itself but afterwards when I ask myself why I kept it all these years to begin with.  I need to do some more of that...