This is your sign to never throw away anything. Ever.

Here's one. Not a record in this crowd but something. 

Back in the day, you had to actually pick up the phone and call a store to buy a camera.

To improve the odds that you'd call, the camera shops often advertised a "kit" package for each camera.

"Free 25-piece accessory kit!" the ad would say. 

The reality is that you got like 20 pieces of lens tissue, a 12-exposure roll of film and some little stuff like that.

One of my cameras came with a kit that included a tripod.

A professional, full-size tripod?

No, dummy, this little pocket-sized model.

I recently came across it while going through some film camera stuff. Let's date it as second half of the '90s.

Works fine for holding a fill light. I also picked up a mount so it can hold my phone. 

My buddy has a large shop with shelves on every wall as well a ton of room in the rafters. As a fabricator the stuff comes in handy because his main business is one offs.

 As for the rest of us; the time you spend dealing with all the stuff is way more than just buying what you need.

As for the money; time is money and the money you saved usually doesn't offset the time you spent rummaging around.

I'm off for the next 9 days. One of those days will be spent purging the last of the stuff in my garage.

It's not old it's vintage. I went to a vintage shop the other day at it was like walking through my childhood. 

Earlier this year there was a long thread about decluttering for the sake of your family and space.  Now we have this thread.  What do I do with my old car parts now?  

I've literally sold (for pennies on the dollar) 4 BMW M42 engines over the years, plus related driveshafts, shifters, etc. (when I swapped the rally car to M50 and didn't need all the M42 spares).

I also sold a rust-free e30 shell for $500 a few years back.

Go figure my current project e30 (less than 2 years later), First I paid $700 for it (a total rustbucket) , then I decided to put an M42 in it....so I had to go buy all that stuff again probably for twice what I sold it for (and am still looking for some parts). 

I literally had all the parts to build a nicer e30, for practically free, 2-3 years ago and sold all of it, thinking I wouldn't do another e30 project. Go figure. 

-break-

meanwhile, I still have boxes in my shed with random parts from cars I haven't owned for a decade.  :/

In reply to Tom1200 :

When you build most of your things afterhours, and shops and stores are closed, no, no it isn't. Looking for a half hour trumps waiting more than half a day to do the same.

AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) said:

Earlier this year there was a long thread about decluttering for the sake of your family and space.  Now we have this thread.  What do I do with my old car parts now?  

Do what you want. Only you get to decide.

AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) said:

Earlier this year there was a long thread about decluttering for the sake of your family and space.  Now we have this thread.  What do I do with my old car parts now?  

Pick the most potentially useful subset of stuff to keep and organize it perfectly so it's all identified and can be easily gone through when looking for something (or if someone else has to deal with it)? 

In this thread: hoarders grasping at straws. ;)

I still have parts in my horse barn for cars I at the time thought I wanted to own.  Now I don't remember what the car was. But I won't toss the stainless steel exhaust system from a now unknown car as I may need it for a future unknown car.  It would make nice wall art. It has all the 90s blueing and gold at the welds and a exhaust tips.  Kind of looks painted on.  LOL. 

David S. Wallens said:

Colin Wood said:

For me, it's less about actual stuff and more about the boxes stuff comes in.

Do I need to keep the box for the smart thermometer? I might if we get a new house.

Saving boxes is a whole 'nother story.

I mean, it's a really good box. 

I've run a part time business for near 20 years, and don't know how many hundreds of packages I've shipped, but I've never paid for a box. The only packaging material I've ever paid for is tape. PW calls me a garbage picker, I tell her I was recycling long before it was cool.

Now bags, that's a whole 'nother story. A lot of the industrial supplies that come into the shop at work come in really heavy duty zip lock type bags. I bring them home and have them all organized by size.

The young guys think I'm nuts. But I'm the one with the sweet bag collection.

accordionfolder said:

In this thread: hoarders grasping at straws. ;)

We'll remember when you desperately need one of our parts.

I keep oddly shaped boxes because they're extremely useful when I need to ship something.  When I had the corrado, a car that's not supported well by VW any longer, I had racks of parts in my basement for it.  I felt very happy when I sold the car and almost all the parts.  I just don't have the hoarder mentality.

In reply to Colin Wood :

Growing up my dad was a Methodist pastor and later joined the Army as a Chaplain, we moved a lot.  My parents kept boxes for the fragile/ expensive stuff, the thought being it was designed to get the "thing" from the factory to the store so it should be able to get it to the new house.  I still do this, even though we have not moved in a long time. 

What about boxes from phones, computers and other electronics? Keep or save? 

In reply to David S. Wallens :

Do you think it will take a dump on you in the next year? Is it suspect? Keep it.

If its lasted longer, odds are you won't be able to return it anyway. Bin em.

Today I used the 25+ year old convertible top bleeding hose assembly for my '69 Olds to fix my basement heater. I needed a 3/8" hose to route the condensate pump into a bucket because the existing condensate hose is a popsicle and shutting off the system. I have never used the bleeding hose assembly, it came with the car. I've toted it everywhere I lived in its own container. And today it proved useful.

My garage full of crap proves I'm already doomed.

In reply to Datsun310Guy :

Is that a stamp wetter?

In reply to earlybroncoguy1 :

yes it is. Mrs Heretic still uses hers from the 70s.

In reply to Appleseed :

Lol, I'm just messing - everyone comes to me in my circle for Miata parts. My attic is a wonderful place! 

earlybroncoguy1 said:

In reply to Datsun310Guy :

Is that a stamp wetter?

Yes or envelopes.