I need to clean my garage....I am overwhelmed.
I have so much stuff and junk and useful junk... that I must take the purge to a level I have never been to. It is scary.....
Like many 'project people', I collect 'good' or useful junk & projects & material and stuff & it never goes away, it just GROWS.
After many years, and as I change and age; it no longer makes sense anymore. .....But most of my stuff isn't 'trash', it's too good to throw away; but 'too much is too much'.
Any ideas or encouraging words how to do the "purge"? (A fire would be nice relief, but maybe 'over the top')

__________________

"Our Lady of Blessed Acceleration...
don't Fail Us Now"

Buy a farm with lots of big barns.

.

Someone else will buy it. Someone else needs an extra project or two or three or four.

__________________
daw_two
Germantown, TN

Links:
Sold last car --- 05/2012 1984 300D Light Ivory, Red interior
No longer selling Cluster Needles Paint
No longer selling New Old Stock (NOS) parts

Past:
3/2008 1986 300SDL "Coda"
04/2010 1965 190D(c) "Ben"
& many more

I did that Roy ! but then you end up just getting bigger & bigger farms & building more barns & sheds.

__________________
Grumpy Old Diesel Owners Club group

I no longer question authority, I annoy authority. More effect, less effort....

1967 230-6 auto parts car. rust bucket.
1980 300D now parts car 800k miles
1984 300D 500k miles
1987 250td 160k miles English import
2001 jeep turbo diesel 130k miles
1998 jeep tdi ~ followed me home. Needs a turbo.
1968 Ford F750 truck. 6-354 diesel conversion.
Other toys ~J.D.,Cat & GM ~ mainly earth moving

I built more storage space. Then when on the way home from town after purchasing something with a special trip for it. Remembered that I already owned it in storage.

So since then built no more storage capacity. It gets pretty bad when you forget you already own something or other. The other issue is finding something you know you own and need at the moment amoungst everything else.

Strangely enough my wife can usually tell me where it might be found. Organization does not totally help either as there are just too many catagories of stuff. As for tools and simular items not used very frequently . If my son in law might have borrowed it and not returned it. Is usually an unknown as I search for some seldom used tool or item.

Often times I can find the tool (or whatever I am looking for) quicker at the store than I can in my storage shed....

__________________
On some nights I still believe that a car with the fuel gauge on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. - HST

1983 300SD - 305000
1984 Toyota Landcruiser - 190000
1994 GMC Jimmy - 203000

https://media.giphy.com/media/X3nnss8PAj5aU/giphy.gif

I know the feeling and don't even have a garage! Group them by specific project - the ones that you simply do not have time for or will "get to someday" you're probably better off selling.

__________________
TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

I started my purge with e-bay mode. Kept me busy for about a year selling stuff.
Then I went into the recycle mode. Just finished that. Only made $132, but got rid of a lot of junk.
I'm going to go into yard sale mode soon and hopefully my wife will let me get rid of a lot of children's items. She is so sentimental, it's hard for her to let something go.
After that there will be purple heart/salvation army mode.
After that all that's left is burn barrel mode

So after 3 years I'll be finished. Hopefully.

I know what you mean. I'm sort of in the same boat, but with much less stuff because I've only had a few years in a house to accumulate stuff. I'd suggest a donatoin of all the "valuable" or useful stuf to your favourite charity - namely me
But my wife would flip out

- Peter.

__________________
2021 Chevrolet Spark
Formerly...
2000 GMC Sonoma
1981 240D 4spd stick. 347000 miles. Deceased Feb 14 2021
2002 Kia Rio. Worst crap on four wheels
1981 240D 4spd stick. 389000 miles.
1984 123 200
1979 116 280S
1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1971 108 280S

The Freecycle Network is a good resource as well. Then the stuff won't end up in a landfill.

But be careful, you may acquire another project if you poke around there!

Hi, Ken.

Ever watch that hoarder's show on TV?

My first suggestion is that you need to clear out all at once. None of this "little by little" or a box/crate at a time. The visual and viceral reward of regaining space, clearing and cleaning, is a positive reaction that takes the psychological sting out of the separartion anxiety.

Second, ask yourself, how much has any of the stuff actually benefitted you or your family? When you start looking at "worth" instead of merely possessing something, it's easier to pull the trigger on getting rid of it.

The stuff rarely has any benefit anymore; except when I am doing a repair around the house or car and I have "just the thing" in my collection of stuff. So i spend a bunch of time looking for "just the right thing" only because I know I have it. So it really has a negative effect on me and my family. .... Honestly, Now it is all like an Albatross around the neck.
Thinking of "selling off stuff" is just another "project" to add to the list of "cleaning the garage" so I need to "keep the stuff that has value".... so I get into a roundabout sense of logic, chasing my own butt.
I have to break out of the trap and get into a Zen like state of cleansing. Ommm...Ommm...Ommm

__________________

"Our Lady of Blessed Acceleration...
don't Fail Us Now"

Two warnings. Cleaning out stuff may just free up space to insert new junk. So a mindset change is also required. Also deals you cannot seem to pass by are another liability as you now have the space again.

Also what really is the sense of owning unusable on non navigatable garage space because of the amount of stuff it contains?

I too have to get at this as well. Selling on ebay etc might be the best methology at least in the usa of getting at least some return from the stuff. Once paid for you are pretty well forced to ship or deliver it.

I have stopped buying up real deals on building supplies in the last few years as well. Offer me 100+ sheets of 3/4 inch plywood for say three dollars a sheet and I am still doomed it seems though. I will find temporary space for it somewhere.

We became far too materialistic as a society is another factor. Last week my wife wanted a replacement fridge for example. We got one but my primary concern was to get the old one sold and gone before it started to just sit around. A neighbour purchased it as there was nothing really wrong with it. Far too good to junk was the issue.

My observation, clearing out your garage by selling on eBay or Craigslist . . . is a lot like trying to loose weight by only ordering a diet soda at Cheesecake Factory.

Hope ya got a pickup. I had to break down and get one to take care of this problem too, and am actually considering putting the pretty little benz up for sale too-getting serious about cars I dont need, still--when I drive it--I think, what the hell-so ill keep it and one of the early XXXXX XXx XX. Im still getting rid of two other cds sitting around--one im hauling to the scales with my new to me pickup--instead of just calling someone and getting nothing--I can get $at least 150 for the shell.

Oh and if you decide to try freecycle--set up a disposable email box just for it--or else you will be flooded all the time.