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The great junk transfer is coming

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Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#431

Post by dghughes »

verve_rat wrote: post #118
nlnn wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some woodworkers still use manual drills (I own two, along with a brace and bit). They're useful for very exact/delicate work, quiet drilling, and for getting into awkward places where an electric drill doesn't fit.

Yeah, I'm just starting out in woodworking as a hobby and a brace and bit is something I'm considering putting on the wishlist. The useless tools might have been a treasure trove to the right person.

Someone in my town started a tool library. It's a collection of tools that people can borrow and then return. At the moment it's just in a storage locker. Some tools can be obscure and rarely used like a toilet wrench for the "spud nut" for the gasket that's under a toilet tank.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#432

Post by _vdpp »

calvinmorrison wrote: post #66
kayodelycaon wrote: post #4

I watched a friend have to deal with this. There’s just so much to sort through or get rid of. My grandfather left dozens of model airplanes behind. No one in the family flies them. Most of the people he used to fly them with died before he did. Fortunately, my grandmother is still alive and we’ve found people who would appreciate the planes. We could have just burned everything but we have emotional ties to these th…

If you are in a niche, plan to get rid of it BEFORE you get old. Please, there are collectors, and stuff! I just got four new to me toolboxes, from my neighbor who was a diesel mechanic. Perfectly good after a bit of sanding and oiling. They're awesome, from the 80s, well made, and they'll keep me going for a long time. My father, a prodigious collector of oddities has done several wholsale removals of collections. O…

This is sage advice for non-collectors too. My parents had the good sense to hold an estate sale before they downsized and moved in with a relative, they knew that it’s a massive burden to leave children with a house full of unwanted things and I’m grateful for their pragmatism. Of course the real treasures, things that have been in the family for generations, they held on to.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#433

Post by _vdpp »

calvinmorrison wrote: post #59
Scoundreller wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh man, stamps, for the past 10 years I’ve bought “discount” stamps off eBay. Basically buying 45cent or whatever stamps for 25 cents or less and plastering my packages like the… never mind. Obviously this is the lossy side of stamp collecting, but man, to take a haircut like that after preserving something for 20 or 30 years.

My father does this... incessantly. He has stacks of stamps he uses to send out for work and he gets them all at major discount on ebay. It turns out the post office, mostly doesn't actually care to count up the 1 and 2 cent stamps. There's a group of hobbyists committing felonies out there making their own stamps and sending them out. The post office doesn't notice. One sillier trick was, forget a stamp, it'll get r…

“Mail hacking” was a thing. I forget the name they gave it but read an article in 2600 or Phrack some time ago that talked about some of the tricks like the one you mentioned. The only other one I remember was to put a smear of Vaseline in the corner where stamps normally go. It was enough to trick the sorting machine.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#434

Post by dhosek »

cwingrav wrote: post #244
dhosek wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel a bit that way about my life’s accumulation of books. I suspect that the vast majority will end up getting donated to the library book sale after I die (plenty of worn and ancient paperbacks). I have made a point of pre-segregating the books that will likely have a notable resale value, but those are not many. Perhaps when I’m older but not too old I may spend some time trying to connect some of the specialize…

I bought a used book online, and it had a person's last name and a book club in it. I was able to trace it back to a woman in the Carolinas that died without family. Her obituary gave a bit of her life story and I treasure the book all the more because I know a bit about the woman and how she loved reading and gardening (it was a gardening book). Somethings do get passed on.

I have a book which has some diary entries written at the ends of chapters. It seems that the diarist's wife wanted them to move from the farm they lived on and the diarist was reluctant to do so but was going to acquiesce out of love for his wife.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#435

Post by mensetmanusman »

debbiedowner wrote: post #82
robocat wrote: post #70

Cleaning up after your parents is a gift you give to them: look at it like them paying it forward for all the times the cleaned up after you as a child. Psychologically, mentally, and physically, parents can have difficulty tidying up their stuff. My friend’s parents came from very poor backgrounds and had a lot of trash. The father had a shed full of stuff that was useful to him - he knew what was in it and how to u…

What are some examples of the obsolete tools? I can imagine a manual hand drill...

My favorite: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planimeter

Found one of these cleaning an old science lab, was very confused by what it was initially.

Wonder what tools will look like in 1k years…

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#436

Post by driverdan »

lobocinza wrote: post #397
driverdan wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been doing this with my parents, but for stuff I want. They have a lot of old computer stuff that they don't need. I've been taking some of it each time I visit. It helps them declutter and lets me make sure they don't throw any of it away. I can always dispose of it later if I decide it's not useful.

> I can always dispose of it later if I decide it's not useful. I bet they though the same.

Maybe but this is different. Computers are a hobby for me and this is hardware and software I used growing up. It's not like I'm taking stuff I have no interest in.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#437

Post by rumblestrut »

robocat wrote: post #70

Cleaning up after your parents is a gift you give to them: look at it like them paying it forward for all the times the cleaned up after you as a child. Psychologically, mentally, and physically, parents can have difficulty tidying up their stuff. My friend’s parents came from very poor backgrounds and had a lot of trash. The father had a shed full of stuff that was useful to him - he knew what was in it and how to u…

I’ve done this twice for parents in this year alone.

Yeah, sure, it’s a gift I can give. But also, it took valuable time away from other care I could have given, not to mention the time it took away from my own family and work.

Overall, it’s a consumption problem that everyone should address routinely. We as a society would benefit from editing our own lives from time to time, and make this burden less for all parties involved.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#438

Post by MerelyMortal »

ghaff wrote: post #415

>An exponential growth in storage lockers that are never emptied. Based on a couple of relatively recent experiences, you probably shouldn't get a storage locker unless it's to bridge some specific short-term need. Otherwise, you're paying monthly rent, mostly kicking the can down the road, and potentially creating an unnecessary chore when someone--who may not even live locally--has to clean out the unit.

Assuming they even know about the locker in time to go through it before the payments lapse and it goes to auction.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#439

Post by MerelyMortal »

MandieD wrote: post #178
AnimalMuppet wrote: post #85

My dad was born at the beginning of the Great Depression. He told me once about being unable to buy thread, not because they didn't have the money, but because there was no thread to buy - all the thread factories had closed. You had to re-use thread. Now imagine that that was all you had known for your entire life up to that point. And you had no idea that it would ever be different. That would shape you. My dad was…

I wonder what effect the narrow, intermittent shortages of the past 2+ years is going to have on what had been the minimalizing generations. Before 2020: having more than a few rolls of toilet paper and an extra bottle of cooking and olive oil seemed excessive - I have three grocery stores within walking distance! Now: we always have two month's worth of toilet paper, and are currently glad that we started stocking c…

I wonder how the next 10 years is going to effect people.

Our supply chain is crazy complex, and things won't get better as companies shut down due to the economies.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#440

Post by MerelyMortal »

possiblydrunk wrote: post #342

One of the hardest things in life is knowing when to cash in your chips. Most wait too long.

My dad collects things that only people his age collect. I've told him that my and my siblings don't want them when he dies, and they're only valuable while other people his age are still alive, thus if he wants to extract value from them, he needs to sell them immediately yesterday. He's a hoarder though, so someone lucky will buy the very valuable things today for a fraction of a penny on the dollar five years from now, assuming I can find a buyer if the economy is in a depression.
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