The “Immediate Use” rule

Been wanting to get rid of the neighbors pesky little dog for awhile and your mentioning of salvaging that old ice chest gives me some ideas. Mmmm Hmmm. Yesssss. Maybe a little duct tape too. Could also use one for body parts as well.

-- Bob Vila would be so proud of you!

I am also a horder of what if I can use it bit n pieces – I usually find a use for it sometime

Here is what was outside my front door this morning!

-8°C

-- Tony - All things are possible, just some things are more difficult than others! - SKYPE: Heron2005 (http://www.poydatjatuolit.fi)

Blake – as always, very insightful. Just sitting here at work (hmmm, probably shouldn’t be reading LJ, now, should I?) I can think of a couple of items, including an extra TS fence and two(!) miter gauges, that should just go on to their reward. In a shop the size of mine, those represent some significant fraction of the storage space!

-- Nils Davis, Menlo Park, CA

You’re right. You’re right. I know.

But, if you’re a limited and half-way organized pack rat, (a box of plumbing stuff – a box of electrical stuff – box of heavy electrical cords – machine screws together, wood screws of general size together, etc.) instead of a “throw it in a pile” pack rat or “coffee cans full of every type of screw, bolt or nut” (like my Dad was) . . . . every once in a while you get the supreme satisfaction of moving ahead with a project out of your “might come in handy someday” stuff instead of waiting two weeks for mail order to arrive or burning 150 miles worth of gas to the woodworking store and back.

My greatest time saving success along this line was long ago removing from a re-purposed bed head board the four embedded metal pins on which the bed rails hang . In my projects section I show a restored head and footboard. I was able to go to my hardware cabinet and replace the missing pins with the ones I had saved. I made four others by cutting the smooth section from saved carriage bolts.

I think we agree on the basic point though. All things in moderation. There’s some c**p you will probably never use and it only gets in the way of finding the stuff you will use. My greatest weakness along this line though is throwing away even the smallest scrap of hardwood. What if I want to turn some knobs or carve a chess set?

-- Paul, Texas

So true. I have to be one of the worlds worst pack-rats. I gotta toss out “stuff”! Too many years of a bad habit. Maybe this spring.

-- http://www.grandprairiewoodworks.com

But Blake, I have more than 2160 cubic feet to fill up above my shop!

All the stuff there came with me in my move from California. So I still have years and years of packing stuff
away before I need to think about getting rid of anything.

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

I wish we all had your problem, Gary… Too much space ;)

By the way, WOOD DOESN’T COUNT in the I.U. rule. No way.

-- Dust collectors suck.

Blake . . . I think you and DW read from the same page. Sometimes I think if an item collects dust in the house . . . she will get rid of it. Thats why I keep moving. :-)

You did bring up some good points . . . Im gonna have to clean up my shop.

-- The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them

How about offcuts. Those are my main weakness. I have two 35gal trash cans full of maple and white oak. And plywood, when is it small enough to throw away?

-- Scott - Chico California http://chicowoodnut.home.comcast.net

I agree with you Blake, I’ll be gittin’ around to that task shortly since I built more shelf space today. I have a gangload of space now. I should have my shop dialed in by next month this time.

-- --Chuck

I’m a recovering multiple generation pack-rat. I’ve always bounced between extremes of living in a museum and a monestary. (the latter has always felt better.) A friend of mine in High School grew up with a military dad, and wasn’t allowed more than 2 boxes of possessions. I could never have done that at the time, and am now envious of such rules.

When I was an exchange student, I managed to live out of two suitcases. why did my childhood bedroom erupt to fill a 1000 SF apt, then a 2000 SF home?

I do have some plastic bins, one for plumbing, electrical, etc… those don’t seem to be a problem, but all those coffee cans and grocery bags…

Thanks for this post, I am going to take this dictum to heart. For the house AND the home. Any projects I’ve started (and don’t forsee finishing) and all those containers of assorted junk are gonna be gonzo!

re: wood. I try not to save anything under 1 BF except for hardwood that can still be put on the lathe.

-- The opposite of war isn't peace. It's creation. -- Wood T's: http://www.printfection.com/snbcreative

I agree wholeheartedly. And while I’m here, if there’s anyone out there who wants to implement Blake’s suggestion and get rid of your hand tools, shoot me an email! Come on, you know you don’t need those ol’ things. Power tools are the future – embrace it and send me those junky relics sitting at the bottom of your tool chest.

;^)

-- Eric at http://adventuresinwoodworking.com

Funny Eric. Funny.

;)

-- The opposite of war isn't peace. It's creation. -- Wood T's: http://www.printfection.com/snbcreative

I’m glad you threw in that wood rule Blake. I was wondering what I was going to do with all that 30 yr old cherry and walnut and 3 yr old cherry. etc.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

My family has the packrat gene and we were just discussing this at our last bonfire breakfast!

My aunt is know to have “everything” and people from her church, whenever in need of something, say “Hey, ask you-know-who. She’ll have it!” OR “This isn’t good for anything. I’ll give it to so-and-so. She’ll want it.” So all the “non-packrats” do all their storing at my aunt’s place and they know where to go when they want something.

Another point made was that all these antique collectors wouldn’t have had anything to collect if it wasn’t for the packrats of days gone by. We are saving the treasures for the next generations to discover.

Long live the packrats!!!

And here is a picture taken from my front door last week. Notice that there are no palm trees.

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Well, I am glad you wrote in the exception for wood. I can’t seem to get rid of the tiniest scrap of wood. I sure could gain some space if I applied the rest of the rule, however.

-- Maplewood, MN

MsDebbieP, That photo is gorgeous! When can I come visit!?

About wood, I did actually implement the I.U. rule on a barrel of (mostly) softwood cut-offs that were actually left-overs I took from my Dad’s shed. They were mostly pieces of randomly shaped trim boards and the like from 1 to 6 ft long. Probably over 50 lbs worth. But it sat in my shop for years, and I rarely picked through it. It finally became firewood kindling.

I also keep a 5 gallon bucket in the shop just for small, clean (unpainted/unglued) cut-offs for the fireplace. Then once in a while, on a special occasion, I have a very expensive “exotic fire.” I actually enjoy throwing in cut-offs that remind me of the projects that they were from.

-- Dust collectors suck.

any time, Blake any time :)

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

MsDebbieP Where is the willow?

-- No piece is cut too short. It was meant for a smaller project.

willows are long gone.
They are beautiful trees (and beautiful wood) but they wreaked havoc with our septic system – roots right through the cement and the plastic pipes and clogged the entire system.

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Blake, Excellant points. I am still going through my home shop and storage. My family has a major collecting gene. So All those collections keep ending up here for some reason. FreeCycle.org has com in great handy over the past several years. My wife and I have purged many a thing to people that can really use it.

When I started my job I have now one of the first projects was to organize the shop, I asked the employee who has been there 18 years now “What is this and why do we have it” his response was “Oh we used to use that to be able to fix something” that something has not been in the shop in 5 years.. We are making good progress still on purging that shop.

CtL

-- Chris L. "Don't Dream it, Be it."

My name is Greg and I’m a pack rat….
It has actually paid off on occation, but not often enough. I now have a major space issue. For some strange reason, I can’t seem to get rid of those big cardboard boxes, you know the ones that appliances come in. My Dad use to use those under the cars in the garage. Now thanks to him, I can’t seem to let go of them. (I think they may actually be cloning themselves)

When we had the house built, they were going to put a railing between the kitchen and the family room. I told them to just put in the garage. After about 6 years (I was just making sure the wood was properly dried) I built a plant stand out of the newel post and some scrap oak I had laying around. Turned out pretty well.

Now this is in direct conflict with my ablity to keep a pencil. For some reason, I can bring a dozen pencils into the shop and within three hours, they are all missing. My tape measures and screw drivers are starting to do the same thing.

-- Greg - Charles Town, WV

Thanks Blake,

I have a place for all things, but don’t have space for the stuff I really use every day. When I run across the stuff that I don’t use, I think, I should do something about it, but never have to time to really sort to get rid of them.

I think if I am to get serious about woodworking, I need to get rid of the unused stuff to make room to store those tools I will use and to create workspace.

This is sounding like a New Year’s Resolution. Yips!

Dalec

my Mom is a packrat (been that way as far back as I can remember). She has everything and anything. If you need it. She has it. She lives in a trailer house and you’d never know that she has “stuff”. Everything is organized and packed away AND when you ask for something she can go right to it!

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Way to represent, Deb!

-- Dust collectors suck.

:) my packratting hero :)

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)