Letting go of "stuff"

[CowboyTim]

Ever look around and realize that you have a whole assortment of parts, optics, tools, ect that you are never ever going to actually use or need?

Looked around about 2 weeks ago and said the heck with it, going to clear out a bunch of it on Ebay and use the cash to complete a couple projects that have been just kinda festering.

 

[Shawn Dodson]

I have totes full of miscellaneous parts and pieces that "I might be able to use someday".

The clutter drives my wife crazy.

I'd sell it at a garage sale, but I don't want anybody to know I have guns in my house. E-Bay is just too much of a PITA to photograph, list, and ship.

 

[horsemen61]

I’m not ready to part with it but yes

 

[Miami_JBT]

I have a ton of stuff. In the end, half the fun is hunting down all the accessories, parts, etc. And in the end, I'll be selling it all at some point in the future. But the future ain't here yet.

 

[Armored farmer]

Im working on NOT being a hoarder of used cra*....er.....stuff.
I think i am by nature. ..?
If i need a part, I often go scratching off to town to get it....without even looking at my used part stockpile.

 

[jmorris]

No, I'm still trying to figure out what I am going to do with the generations of stuff my elders saved for me.

Seems like the best way for me to find a use for something is to get rid of it. Almost instantly a use will pop up, if I still had it.

 

[Varminterror]

I have come into an era where I despise clutter, so I built a lot of organizational paradigms in my life over the last ~10yrs. When something earns a spot in my life, it earns a literal spot in my world. I don't have a few aspects quite figured out (like screws/bolts/hardware in the garage, that shelf is a train wreck, and some paperwork which ends up without sufficient volume to be filed - but is sufficiently important to save), but by and large, when something earns an ascribed value in my life, it earns a place to live. And then the second layer of that particular onion is then to minimize the storage mechanisms to not allow excess. So when I found myself a few weeks ago with simply too many shooting bags, a handful were kicked off of the shelf, and within short order, they won't be in my world any longer - whether that means partial recapitalization via private sale or simply finding their way to the big blue bin beside the garage.

 

[Lo-Profile]

Selling on eBay is a PITA anymore.

I quit a could years ago when having PayPal wasn't good for them and they "required" bank info.

 

[FullClip]

Yup....I've got waaaay too much stuff accumulated. But ain't getting rid of it just yet. It's fairly well organized and if I start looking for something specific, I can usually find it pretty quickly.

 

[Hookeye]

My dad had a bunch of stuff.
Not worth the time/ effort to mess with half of it.
Sold for estate in lots to retired guys.

 

[Hookeye]

Ive tossed or sold stuff I ended up needing down the road. Oh well. I hate clutter so run things lean

 

[Walkalong]

Seems like the best way for me to find a use for something is to get rid of it

Amen to that!

 

[adcoch1]

I periodically sell off or dump stuff I don't need, PIF, sell, giveaway, then toss in the trash. I always try and organize, but I'm such a tinkerer that it never fully stays that way. But I really enjoy hooking people up with random parts that they couldn't locate and I happened to have.

 

[Barnfixer]

I’m in the process of cleaning house of scopes, holsters, grips & hunting clothes. Of course the proceeds will go to scopes, holsters, grips and hunting clothes.

 

[JDeere]

Selling on eBay is a PITA anymore.

This...I sold a lot of excess stuff on eBay years ago but what they require these days is a pain. I do have a lot of stuff I need to get rid of. I really hate to leave it for the wife to deal with if I go first.

 

[PapaG]

I am not a hoarder! I prefer the term, "uncontrolled accumulator". How else could you explain seven lube-sizers, eighty moulds, and probably a dozen presses. Haven't cast a bullet in eight years.

 

[jmorris]

I am not a hoarder! I prefer the term, "uncontrolled accumulator".

How about recycler. A lot of the stuff I make started life as something else or "drop" from paying jobs.

I used drop from a bridge construction job to make my bullet trap at home.





And what was left over from that for another smaller one.



Gathered up a bunch of little pieces.



And some 6 x 6 x .375 angle.



And make something useful to me out of all of it.



Once you have the ability to create things, having things to create them out of becomes important or at the least lead to significant cost savings.

I'm not sure what they go for now but the magma master caster cost more than I wanted to spend and manual, so I made my automated version I have with stuff Mrs. Morris calls "junk". The $65 mold was the most expensive part.





I don't even throw away old window motors or flex plates, because I have made auto resetting targets using them and they are a lot cheaper when someone else is throwing them away.



I enjoy the mental exercise actually, I can envision what I want, think about what I have that could be useful, where it is located and create it.

 

[taliv]

that used to be what gunshows were for. take a load of stuff you don't want anymore. make gunshows great again

 

[sqlbullet]

Just on my desk right now: AR-15 rear sight, FAL barrel section, RCBS case deburring tool, pack of 1911 barrel links, four Delta Elite grip medallions, two sets of partially finished handgun grip panels, Lee case holder button and lock stud for 308, a dozen or so random cartridges, a brass rod I bought to test turning my own copper solids for some test or other I had in mind 5-6 years ago, a pocketsmith 1911 multi-tool, two different 1911 rear sights, a package of fiber optic rod, 13 small primer 45 ACP brass, and that is before I move anything, and is just the "gun" stuff. I might have an issue.

 

[lightman]

I started thinning down my stuff back before Obama's first term. I have a friend with an FFL that sold several guns on GunBroker for me for a very reasonable fee. Then me and another buddy got a couple of tables at a local gunshow to sell the other stuff. Then I did the same thing right before Biden was elected. Why those particular dates? I expected having a Democrat elected would cause a buying panic and drive up prices and it did.

Me and the same buddy have a couple of tables reserved at another local show next month.

I will need to do something with my brass and lead stashes sooner or later. Hard to let go of stuff!

 

[Walkalong]

I used drop from a bridge construction job

That's a really big "drop" for most of us.

 

[Walkalong]

I enjoy the mental exercise actually, I can envision what I want, think about what I have that could be useful, where it is located and create it.

I'm nowhere near your level, but I too really enjoy making stuff from "nothing", except of course scraps of this and that I have drug home or saved.

 

[Ks5shooter]

Im working on NOT being a hoarder of used cra*....er.....stuff.
I think i am by nature. ..?
If i need a part, I often go scratching off to town to get it....without even looking at my used part stockpile.

As farmer as well as Armored farmer its in your blood to save stuff.And as Armored will agree eventually you will need/use what you have around.Saved my hide more than once. On the gun end of hoarding not so much,only now and then.

 

[jmorris]

That's a really big "drop" for most of us.

Yeah, big jobs have larger drops. I use nut and bolt bins for smaller drops. If you have to dig, lots of times you might as well not have it, they let me see what I need at a glance.



Need a little hunk of aluminum to help get a suppressor apart without marring it, no need to grab a 20ft stick of something, if you have little bits handy.



No telling how many projects that bin alone has helped out and keeps me out of the 40 ft containers.

 

[CowboyTim]

So far so good, stuff seems to be selling fairly well, although some of the less mainstream cartridge stuff may be a hard sell.