Food for thought?
My then nearly 70 year old brother-in-law collapsed and died two years ago. He was a man who was brought up in extreme poverty and could not abide waste. To have to pay good money on something when it could be avoided if he had the equivalent in his garage was anathema to him.
He was a very practical man, much like all your good-selves, and had a great deal of experience with stripping down car and lorry engines and repairing them on the road-side. He was so innovative that he could have dined out with the like of you on his stories.
I think he must have invented the phrase ' you never know when it might come in handy'.
While he lived there was no problem. When my sister was widowed it became her problem because she was the one that had to clear a large garage literally stocked from floor to ceiling and wall to wall with 'stuff'; plus a loft similarly encumbered. It meant that she couldn't put her house on the market and downsize (to use the vernacular) unless and until she had sorted, categorized, valued and sold or disposed of the 'stuff'.
The garage alone yielded -
5 defunct washing machine
13 (this is not a typo) assorted types and sizes of lawn mowers
5 wooden chests of various sizes and from good to crap condition
10 socket sets ranging from small to horrendously huge. The huge one must have fallen of the back of the Euruostar. Honest, each socket weight a ton.
Myriad car parts
2 rusty and unusable bicycles of vintage appearance
Too many tools to categorise
1 unused - thank God - portable toilet
Sundry bails, books, bins and bottles; the last of these were filled with unimaginable cocktails of unknown fluids. No, not booze, he didn't drink.
Shelving - wooden, aluminium and rusty.
Fishing rods
Smaller things in larger things and so on, ad infinitum
1 rocking house, sans hair and stirrups
5 very large tarpaulins
Chains and ropes and planes - only kidding about the planes, they were toy ones. Incidentally, some of the chains were large enough to hold the QE2 at anchor in a gale
Jars, tins and boxes of every nail, screw, nut and bolt in every conceivable size known to man.
and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on,
and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on
That then left the loft to be cleared and then, of course, the house. Last but not least the 3 cars on the drive that had to be made road worthy so that they could be sold.
Whilst all this had its very funny side and we had many a chuckle over newly uncovered mysteries - why and when would he have bought such an item. More to point, why did he keep it when it wouldn't/couldn't have served any useful purpose.
Seriously, the practical and physical difficulties involved in collating, selling and disposing of so many disparate items were immense. It took several months at a time when my sister was still knocked sideways by her husband's death.
One thing we did find out was that anything left on the drive had a happy knack of being knicked which disposed of some items. Then some by-passing gypies offered to remove some for a fee. She managed to charge them for the removal instead. A jocular remark about iffy M.O.T's certainly didn't ruin her deal in this case. Then the liasing with the local Council to pick up and dispose of the washing machines and similar is a story in itself.
I suppose the secret is to jack the junk and keep the rest. Having the wisdom to know the diference I think is the key.
Which brings me to debate with myself as to whether I really, really need to keep curtains from two houses ago. And is it really necessary to store furniture in wardrobes (where else would I keep it, the garage is full!). And wearing mini skirts in the '60s is a tad different to wearing them in ones 60s. Do I really want to keep the 3 inch stilletoe shoes of my youth now that bunion time is near; and the faux fur that fit me a treat when I was two sizes smaller not only doesn't fit it doesn't even look fashionably vintage
and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on,
and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on
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