HOW MANY OF YOU ARE SAVERS??

I used to do that, until my neighbor told me his s***box system, and it's much more organized than mine!  He calls it the Home Depot.

My father was, took me forever to get rid of his stuff after he passed.  I will not do that to my sons so for the past 3 years I have followed two rules, if something comes in at least one thing goes out AND if I not using it or have saved it for that mystery day called someday it is sold, donated or tossed.  One item must go out per day.  So far I have only regretted this standard once.

My problem with the random collection of parts is being able to find what I need when I need it.  But I also have the same problem with the big box stores - hard to find.  What few small parts they have are in individual plastic sleeves, so I can't test the fit before buying and stuff is hideously expensive - the smallest spring or screw starts at 50-75 cents each.  I've started putting my odds and ends in clear plastic organizer boxes in order to give myself a fighting chance.

I used to do that, but no more. We just moved my parents from their house of 35+ years and mother saved every unused scrap of fabric since they moved in. I will not do that to my boys, so I have the same rule as "necrails" for every item that comes in a something has to go and if something sits around for a couple weeks unused it finds a new home.

When it comes to trains, yes, I save everything that I find lying around.  I have pieces of buildings, tires, wheels, bits of locomotives, and parts of just about everything else you can imagine all saved in an organizer bin.  When I have time, I try to fix stuff if I know the part's origin.  Otherwise, if I see a piece missing from somewhere, I know to check my box.  The system works well.

In the garage, I pretty much limit it to nuts, bolts, springs, and other small hardware.  

@necrails posted:

My father was, took me forever to get rid of his stuff after he passed.  I will not do that to my sons so for the past 3 years I have followed two rules, if something comes in at least one thing goes out AND if I not using it or have saved it for that mystery day called someday it is sold, donated or tossed.  One item must go out per day.  So far I have only regretted this standard once.

I still have jars of miscellaneous hardware from my dad - he's been gone for over 50 years.  Someday I'll use it.   I do occasionally use something, but not nearly enough to justify keeping it.

Sorry, but I'm going to spend my time enjoying the hobby rather than cleaning up in advance.  It'll end up on a shelf at Goodwill someday.   People will remember me after I'm gone - boy will they!

Count me in the savers club,  @cngw .  In fact, I just bought 2 more of these storage boxes for my ever expanding  parts and supplies -

https://www.reddit.com/r/LegoS...izer_1499/?rdt=54240

Like your spring story, my parts/tool collection has saved the day on numerous occasions for train related/household appliance/ and other assorted repairs.

Swedish Death Cleaning

I have several of these boxes organized for electrical, mechanical, and scenery.I not only do it for my model railroading but in my garage for electrical, mechanical, and plumbing.They have come in very handy over the years not only for me but my train club friends and my neighbors

I’m generally a saver of useful items, especially fasteners, brackets, etc. I always go to the bolt/screw trays when I’m tinkering or fabricating something. Has saved me many trips to the hardware store and having to buy stuff.

I’ve got a few large flat file drawer units in the garage the hold train parts, misc odds and ends, and building materials.

I save sentimental things: O Gauge trains (not so much parts for them), sets of golf clubs including my fathers golf clubs (he died in 1985), guitars (I have 5 of them), numerous books I read years ago that I cherish.

Space limitations sometimes force me to save less. For instance I had a lot of 027 track and switches until recently, which was on my prior layouts before I converted to O Gauge track and switches in 1998. Arnold

You know that some of you are sick, right? You have to figure out who  you are though! I bet there are more of us out there than show up here admitting to it.

Greg ( the worst thing I have found about tossing something that I have saved forever 'just in case I need it' - is that afterward, I find I finally need it a month later!)

A 'dying' habit.  One of those things that Gen Z finds silly→stupid.  Hardly anyone left that remembers the early years...TWO world wars worth...of the last century.  You hardly ever threw anything away that was tangible in those years.  One man's 'junk'...another's (neighbor's, often) treasure.  It took many a year before I parted with those boxes of treasure from Dad's workshop.  Glass jars full of carefully sorted nuts, bolts, screws, washers, thingies, whatchamacallits, nails that needed a bit of straightening with a careful blow of a hammer (learned from The Ol' Man that it's wise to hold the nail with a set of pliars and NOT your fingers when straightening!!). 

At 80 years and counting I'm not the 'saver' that Mom and Dad...or their parents...were.  By the same token, I can't quite fathom the Gen Z neighbor's weekly mountain of trash curbside awaiting a trip to Mt. Trashmore.

The thing is...savers just KNOW that the day after you finally part with that whatsit, you'll wish you had it back...you just discovered a use for it. 

Bummer.

KD

@Mark Holmgren 110217 posted:

When it comes to trains, yes, I save everything that I find lying around.  I have pieces of buildings, tires, wheels, bits of locomotives, and parts of just about everything else you can imagine all saved in an organizer bin.  When I have time, I try to fix stuff if I know the part's origin.  Otherwise, if I see a piece missing from somewhere, I know to check my box.  The system works well.

In the garage, I pretty much limit it to nuts, bolts, springs, and other small hardware.  

As I identify excess train stuff if it can't be sold for $5 which makes it worth my time to ship it I donate it to the local hobby shop for their gently used section.  I figure why not let the shop get a few no cost items for the bottom line.  That section is a treasure trove of stuff and nothing lasts.  I count myself fortunate there is a shop 7 miles away and want to support it anyway I can.

@dkdkrd posted:

A 'dying' habit.  One of those things that Gen Z finds silly→stupid.  Hardly anyone left that remembers the early years...TWO world wars worth...of the last century.  You hardly ever threw anything away that was tangible in those years.  One man's 'junk'...another's (neighbor's, often) treasure.  It took many a year before I parted with those boxes of treasure from Dad's workshop.  Glass jars full of carefully sorted nuts, bolts, screws, washers, thingies, whatchamacallits, nails that needed a bit of straightening with a careful blow of a hammer (learned from The Ol' Man that it's wise to hold the nail with a set of pliars and NOT your fingers when straightening!!).

At 80 years and counting I'm not the 'saver' that Mom and Dad...or their parents...were.  By the same token, I can't quite fathom the Gen Z neighbor's weekly mountain of trash curbside awaiting a trip to Mt. Trashmore.

The thing is...savers just KNOW that the day after you finally part with that whatsit, you'll wish you had it back...you just discovered a use for it.

Bummer.

KD

I have one Millennial child and two Gen Z children, and I can say that two adult ones while not savers per say, are also not collectors.  They are more accurately described as minimalists.  They live in very small homes, don't have a lot of personal belongings, and don't feel the need to amass nearly to the level of the generations that preceded them.  Instead, they spend their disposable income on things like travel and other experiential opportunities.  It is a completely different take on the world, and in my mind a pretty healthy one.  While settled into good paying careers, they have the mobility I never had, don't carry debt, and seem overall to be much more content in life. 

Me? I'm a collector.  Yes, I do save nuts and bolts that are left over among other things.  I have mounds of trains that may see a layout one day.  I have passion for vintage electronic instruments that mostly work and fill a room.  However, I am starting too to see the value in a little more organization in a little less stuff.  The local Ace Hardware is less than a mile from home and they know me on a first name basis.  All those little parts are often available there and there is someone knowledgeable to help me find what I'm looking for. 

My bigger problem is losing tools.  The guaranteed way to find the one I lost is to purchase its replacement.

The collection of my non-train related misc. stuff (nuts, bolts, tools, etc etc) is not entirely my fault. I inherited both grandfather's collection of miscellaneous stuff, my dad's stuff, a family friend's stuff, my dad's best friend's stuff, my best friend's stuff and yet i still find myself needing to go the hardware store for something!

The train stuff is my own fault...although in my defense i was offered several small collections that were headed to the trash and we all know that is completely unacceptable - no matter how beat up the trains are.

This story tells on me a bit.  I almost swallowed my tongue when I found out my wife was preparing to take my shipping cartons, empty locomotive boxes, empty rolling stock boxes and empty accessory boxes to the cardboard recyclers.  Her defense?  Well, they are empty and just taking up space!

When we downsized 5 years ago I made 10 trips to Goodwill with a van full of donations. After that we completely filled up a 1-800-Got-Junk truck. As I watched it drive away with years of Christmas presents, college kitchenware etc I was a changed man. Now I am very hard pressed to buy anything.

From a train perspective 2024 was the year of downsizing. I sold about 40% of my trains. 2025 will be the year of making use of all the things I've kept around to use "some day". If "Some Day Never Comes" (John Fogerty reference), then it's going bye-bye.

I survived cancer recently and I am not going to saddle my family with some ginormous mess they have to deal with.

There is a difference between a saver and a hoarder.  I was raised by parents that were adults during the Great Depression, that set the stage for what is important and what is not, to fix before replacing, make it last.  To this day, if something breaks that I cannot fix, I salvage things like switches, nuts, bolts and screws, the line cord, and dispose of the rest.  I will tell you how a junkyard starts.  When first married, my wife and I were restoring an old 1950's travel trailer to live in while we built our house.  I needed something to make a shower pan out of, went to the local junk yard and found the perfect thing, a large, square, restaurant stainless steel hot bar serving pan.  After I dug it out of the mud, grass, and poison ivy, from under the stack of 5 rusting government surplus desks and brought it from the back of the 10 acres of junk ,  I asked the woman at the house in front, (they lived on the property) how much for it?  Her answer defined to me, how to start a junk yard.  She said,  "My husband is not home right now, I don't know how much he would want for that, he might have a use for it."    So, all of us that keep something because we might have a use for it, be careful, or have a lot of land.

Half and half.   I made pass 1 thru my garage since I had lost it to saving something I might need.   I can get a car in now.  But pass 2 is getting rid of more.     The formual.   Take away the cost per square foot of storage per year then add money saved by having the part vs. going to the store =  value.  I'm finding there isn't enough economic value keeping many things.   My mother was from the depression era, hard to throw anything out.  Luckily she cleaned house 10 years before her death.   

My 70+ drawer 2 1/2'x5' cabinet that has all the postwar repair parts is a huge payback.   

With Train boxes, some boxes if they are new, or excellent shape and the item expensive.   The old, rodent eaten, taped up multiple times and flap or two missing go.   It is a continuing battle on modern boxes, do I really need this one?   

From auctions I end up with many redundant versions of some cars, from group buys.   I sell the extras or donate to the local Good Will type of store.

Hunting for tools is costly.  Over the years, with many hard lessons I have become finatical at putting a tool back when finished.  I can always find them and spend less time hunting.

Where to begin...how about with my wife has all of our kids baby clothes, toys, crib, high chair, etc......they are 27 and 20......I will give her credit she's selling stuff online but it's a slow process. Needless to say we have a lot of stuff. Her mother is a pack-rat too so it's genetic. Basement and attics are full.
When her grandfather died we were cleaning out his basement wood shop and my mother in law asked me if I wanted the screws. I took one look and said NO! A 7' tall double door cabinet all sorted into coffee cans....more screws, nuts, and bolts then all of us could ever use. I have enough screws (even a few loose ones) already.
Train boxes are filling my attic at the moment. They will survive one move out of our current home. After that the engine boxes will be kept and the rest tossed.
Train parts and pieces are growing as I spend more time taking them apart and repairing. I do need to get a couple small parts bins and boxes to sort stuff into.
Collecting stuff for potential scenery applications has become a bit of a problem too.....
Tools- I have a lot from my contracting days and will not part with them anytime soon.
Leftovers from home improvement/ repair projects are a perpetual problem. I hate returning stuff, so the extras wind up stuck here and there.

But all that said- our 2-car garage still has 2 cars in it so I'm not a totally lost cause.....

Bob

I am guilty of most of things savers are accused of above.  The reasons are I am frugal with my time, effort and money.  I hate to cut up an 8 ft 2x4 to get a 1 foot piece.  So I keep a few small pieces of lumber and also have a few pieces of common lumber and selection of screws, nails etc.  I also have a large selection of paint especial small jars of hobby paint used in my train building hobby.

That brings up another affection, which is spares or extra items like tools. Most of my tools were purchased used inexpensively.  I counted 80 pairs of pliers I have on the tool storage area behind my main work bench.  That did not include the pliers I have in the garage, train room, kitchen, garden shed and cars.  There are more screw drivers than pliers and many hammers, wrenches, drills. soldering irons and guns, etc.  I have spare VCR, DVD players, and repairable 1970s vintage stereo gear due they were cheap in the 2000s and I loved them and could not have afforded them when new.

Charlie

" my wife has all of our kids baby clothes, toys, crib, high chair, etc......they are 27 and 20......I will give her credit she's selling stuff online but it's a slow process."

Momma knows that one day she will/may be a grandma....and those baby items will need to be used again.

" I inherited both grandfather's collection of miscellaneous stuff, my dad's stuff, a family friend's stuff, my dad's best friend's stuff, my best friend's stuff"

And that is how it started for many of us. A shovel and a rake here and there...next thing you know, you could be a landscaper. Same with drills, saws, tools, etc, if you are male. Kitchen items, baby stuff, home decor if you are female.

" I have spare VCR, DVD players, and repairable 1970s vintage stereo gear due they were cheap in the 2000s and I loved them and could not have afforded them when new.   Of course I have, LPs, tapes and cds by the hundreds."

Sorry......no comment!!! You need an intervention. 

Greg

In addition to saving the boxes from trains and buildings which I fortunately have room for under the layout, I also save miscellaneous "trash" which I MIGHT need some day for scenery and detailing. On a cruise with friends, I collected all of their wooden coffee stirrers each morning, I save some bottle caps and the little dome shaped plastic caps that come on some milk cartons to use as roof details (some day). After Helene, we were going through wooden match sticks like crazy to light the stove (yay, gas), candles, and oil lamps, yes, I saved the used matches of course. The smartest thing that I saved was the plastic corners that came packed around the mirrors we bought. I cut one in half and placed it on a building, and it is perfect as the stair entrance found on old brick store and apt rooftops. I didn't paint it yet nor put a door on it, but I know it will be great and totally supported my theory of "this can become something else, someday". Don't even get me started on the containers of shredded dry leaves in various colors and dried out sedum plants which will become trees. My boyfriend thinks that I am a bit nuts. I can't wait to get to the scenery building to prove him wrong, lol.

Mikki

@RSJB18 posted:

But all that said- our 2-car garage still has 2 cars in it so I'm not a totally lost cause.....

Bob - I solved that problem fairly easily.  No garage, just a carport.   If I did have a garage, it would be for cars though.  I know this because my wife would require that!  This weekend I went through and organized my "collection" of nuts, bolts, screws, and washers.  It now all fits nicely into two mid-size storage bins that are about 18"x16"x5".  A lot of found treasures along the way made their way to the recycle bin while I was at it.