Pack Rat or Homesteader

[humbug]

Today, I tackled the ever dreaded annual cleaning of the storage shed...I really wanted to play in the garden, but that is reward for cleaning the storage shed. So I rolled up my sleeves and dove in.

Homesteading requires a lot of stuff. But I think sometimes I may cross the line and become a pack rat, for instance:

Do I really need four tents? I have a four man backpacking tent (used it when I used to backpack with my sons) I have a two man backing tent ( really only fits one person comfortably) and two cabin tents. One I have had for years, and one of my friends gave me one that she had only used once on a camping trip with her son..it was practically new..I couldn't turn it down !! ::)

I inherited (sort of ..long story) about 30 cans of miscellaneous homestead hardware. Nuts and bolts, nails, pipe fittings, wiring, staples, You know the type of things...things you need from time to time to build, fix and repair. I can't get rid of them can I? (keep in mind I live 40 miles from the hardware store.)

Then there is the box of miscellaneous auto filters, spark plugs, headlights, and break cylinders (I think ??? ) They were for vehicles I have had in the past. But come on.. they are brand new, still in the box.

Then you have the over twenty cases of canning jars that are stored along with the two pressure canners, squeezo strainer, apple peeler , bottle cap-per, Cherry pitter and boiling water bath canner. These are definitely in the keeping range.

The table top swamp cooler that I only used the first year I was divorced while I lived in a travel trailer. It is almost still new. And the ten inch box fan..it will eventually go into a greenhouse.

OK the perfectly good porcelain bathroom sink, was up for debate all day, but it would go perfectly in the bathroom in a cabin on the 40 acres, so after tossing into the back of the truck to take to the dumpster I retrieved it and tucked it safely away.

I probably don't need three hand saws, but you never know right? Or the assortment of chisels and files or four squares....And no...I will probably never use the coyote traps, and will probably never ice skate again but they don't take up much room hanging on the wall.

My storage shed is still pretty full..I won't go into the gardening and camping stuff...But I did fill up the back of my pickup..so thats a good thing ...right.


Please tell me I am not a pack rack :-/ :-/ :-/

[wy0mn]

lol, I love it!
I was a pack-rat for years, only losing stuff when we moved. A UHaul limits the amount of stuff that can follow one from state to state.
Now the primary thing I have difficulty parting with are bicycle components. They are potentially useful, as I keep telling my wife when she trips over an unusually toothed sprocket from a foreign made velocipede.
Sometime before they rust into the sod, they could become an exercise bike, a stationary generator, the powerhouse for a grindstone, another donkey cart... the permutations are endless.
As I've always heard, "I'd rather have something and not need it, than need it and not have it!"

[sbemt456]

NO you are not a packrat, just a savy homesteader! At least that is the story I give my hubby when he says he cant find things in my outbuilding. My dad, God rest his soul, saved everything, new and broke, and on a farm during the depression era, I am sure he used all the things and tools that he kept. Well we still have them. All of the things that a lot of people call junk. But aint narry bit a their business. Its your stuff you can keep it if you want to.

[bookwormom]

well you know, it might come in handy some day.

You are as bad a pack rat as my husband. When he needs something he asks me where it is.
Can you get the garden done first and wait until yardsale weather and see if you can't sell some of the stuff? My heart cringes at the thought of taking perfectly good stuff to the dump. Good luck

[Deberosa]

I am attempting to get a system to my stuff because there is getting to be so much of it! *How can you pass up a whole bag of hinges at a yard sale for a dollar? *Or jacks, you can always use jacks! *Or hammers, or.... *You get the idea. *Well a couple of weeks ago I started. *I had 5 huge cardboard boxes and started picking stuff up and putting it into categories. *Tools, fencing, fasteners and bits/blades, irrigation, garden, etc...

So far I have the boxes full. ;-). *I want to get totes and then go through each box. *I put up lots of shelves in the garage for the totes. *Plus getting stuff to the pump house for the garden, to the barn for the fencing, etc. *

I have half the garage sorted - still need to do the pumphouse and barn and woodshed!!! *I really think I need to get one of those big shipping containers to hold the stuff dry and away from mice and such, but I am not getting rid of it! *

[flatwater]

Humbug , you say pack Rat like it's a bad word? I have one living at my cabin now and it's a race to see who brings in the most stuff , me or him. I can relate to the bag of hinges for a dollar also. I finally had to make up a rule for myself to keep things under control. After three years and I haven't used any of those hinges I keep the best and have a yard sale or give the rest away. I would like to offer some of my stuff to other like minded pack rats but we live to far apart.
Flatwater

[dreams_in_color]

I told my husband that I know why he does not want me to drive a pickup full time. He knows our 7 acres would soon be full of stuff I pick up. Yesterday it was two doors. Hey they were nice big exterior doors. The fact that we have no use for them at this time does not make a difference.

I am a pack rat at heart.

[Florida_boy]

He who dies with the most stuff wins, right?

[MooseToo]

i keep all that stuff also, but, i sometimes think that if my homestead is a success and gets passed down from generation to generation as i dream of, and, if all those down the line share my feelings, eventually someone will own one hell of a junkyard -

[tufhelp]

That blurry line between plain old clutter and savable “junk” is what has me buried way past the axels with stuff I can’t part with – even though I know I must do SOMETHING!

It now comes down to a cubic foot footprint – we can’t possibly jam much more stuff into this place… For instance, about 15 years ago when I was active in graphics production as a side line – in the last hoorah of “manual” production I constructed a 2’x 4’ light table for working on paste-ups and offset negatives etc. It still is taking up a little more that a cubic yards of valuable storage space – having morphed into a horizontal surface, unused for its intended purpose for well over 10 years – Can I bring myself to sell/give it away? Nope, my inner voice says, what if somebody wants to revive the now arcane manual method of back lit graphics prep?

The other day at a rummage sale by the local garden club, we happened to be there when they called it quits and said to those of us pawing through the treasures that we could have whatever we wanted for free… I’m both happy and sad to say that we walked out of their with three boxes full of stuff we would not have considered paying for, but for free, now that is the pack rat’s dream come true!

We are trying to get a handle on this monster we have created, but it is a tough and thankless job – and inevitably, 10 minutes after disposing of something on Freecycle, we need it…

[flatwater]

Some would call it E.C.D. = exccesive compulsive disorder. Those people just don't know how to be frugal , I think their nuts myself.
Flatwater