packing for the exodus!

[vdubnut62]

Seriously Bob, get some airbags from a freight company or at least a bunch of old tractor/ truck inner tubes and inflate then all around that car...
or it WILL move around in there.
Watch it like a hawk too! Some Bastard stole all the trim  and rear bumper from my 57 last week..... in a garage less than 100 feet from my Mom's house.
If I had caught them I would have made good use of the JD backhoe and the old abandoned strip mine up at the farm.
1957 vintage polished stainless is getting hard to come by, and the repro shit is just that.
Ron

[mobile_bob]

the container has these neat chain binder hook points every 4 foot or so about 6inches off the floor, i figure to use load binders
and tie off the the 4 corners of the frame, that car won't move an inch as far as i can tell.  until i saw those connect point i was a bit concerned
how i was going to secure the car so that it didn't get beat to hell on the trip.

i digress

this moving project has turned into a project from hell, never has it become more clear to me that i have a serious problem with hording

i am not making a joke here, i seriously have a problem!

i have no fewer than 7 bench vises? what the hell is that about? how many vises does a guy need? really?

the broker told me my weight limit is 43k lbs in the can, reason being legal weight to transport via truck to the rail head and from to the destination

i am very concerned now that 43k lbs may not be enough! i am serious!

another example of what decisions i have made for this move

i found on a shelf a delco dc reversible motor, with a pulley mounted on it, i found it in '81 in a salvage pile and have moved it no less than 7 times since then.   here i am with it in my hands, an open box to either pack it in on my left and the scrap iron pile on my right...

which direction did i go with it?

yes i packed it for move number 8!  what the hell is wrong with me!  if i haven't found a use for it in 30 years what the hell makes me think i will find a use for it in the next 30? i will likely be dead by then anyway.

the man who dies with the most toys wins?  does that hold true of fine junk as well?

if so i think i am well on the way to winning!

if i had better sense, i would have just called an auction company and had them come pick it all up, and given them an address to send the check to, close my eyes and just let it go!

if anyone experiences a climate shift, it isn't because of AGW,  its because of BMI (bob moving iron) which in turn i am convinced probably will shift the earth on its axis,, i know it has shifted me on my axis!

i am thinking maybe after the move i will become a powerseller on ebay, i got enough stuff to sell that i probably won't ever have to go to work again!  at least at a regular job.

i gotta go know and look up the number and get an appointment with my shrink, i think i am well past due for a session or 20!



bob g

[BioHazard]

i have no fewer than 7 bench vises? what the hell is that about? how many vises does a guy need? really?

I started to realize I had a problem with electric drills. 8 or 9 now I think. Why?! I'm not even sure where they all came from.

You know that show "american pickers" where they go and dig through peoples old barns and stuff? I would love to come up and look through your garage with a few C-notes in hand! When I die somebody is sure going to inherit a lot of random shit, I hope they know how to value it correctly. I should make a will specifying my entire life's collection be appraised by a third party before anything happens to it after I'm gone!  I bet they'll never figure out what that thing is in the corner of the barn, on the shelf.......

But hell, there's worse things for a guy to do with his time. A friend of mine was an experienced mechanic and car painter, he did some amazing $12,000+ paint jobs. (a '57 Chevy was especially nice) He had his own shop, his own house, and a lot of nice stuff. At age 50 the wife left, and he ended up doing meth. Lost everything he had. Everything. I'm not sure if he's still in jail or not. Last time I saw him he was jacked up and in a "hot" Escalade at 3:00AM. It was really sad to see the downfall. He was a very nice guy. Even under the influence of drugs he did a lot to help me out.

Just be glad you're addicted to IRON and not white powder! (and not so much copper, thats one of the reasons he went away... )

[injin man]

Bob

Many of us 50 and up were raised during a dark time as children,
things were not certain. Hanging on to things was part of the game
as your parents were likely to have endured the Depression, and old
habits die hard sometimes. I 'collect' some things and 'hoard' others.
Having too many tools is not exactly hoarding, I probably have 5 vises

I would have to sell a bunch of stuff rather than move it again, that doesn't
mean the things I have aren't all worth having, I'd just have to chose what
to keep. We live in time where you can get things delivered at the click of a
Mouse, so let the stuff go, it's not worth the head ache.

[billswan]

well if you must take it all with and it wont fit in the van just rent one of those storage lockers for a 1/2 year.  And figure on coming back and renting a uhaul for the trip back to the center of the universe.

7 vises do not sound like to many for an established expert to me now if you would have said 10 well.......

By the way I think injin man has it right about parents that endured the depression and there children.

It could be worse I have a brother that is 18 years older than I and he is starting to haul all the stuff he no longer wants out of his garage and dumping it on me he knows I won't be able to throw it out either.
And if he does find a use for it he can just come out to the farm and find it. Lets see 7 small buildings full of stuff and 2 shops + 5 buildings of farm stuff on 4 separate farm yards + the stuff in the grove.................................. Bob if you can get most of your stuff into 1 van or even if it takes 2 vans I am not to sure it is hording quite yet.........

Billswan
Oops i forgot to mention those cars out in the grove stuffed full of stuff.........................

[mike90045]

depending on what the floor of the container is made of, you may want to beef it up in the area of the tire contact - just so they won't punch through when the 18 wheeler bounces up a driveway for fuel.  Same for the 4 tie down corners, don't want to tear those off the inside of the container. split the load over 8 points. Maybe a couple tractor innertubes UNDER the vehicle.

[flywheel]

Bob g

Don't look at your situation as being a hoarder, you are just like the rest of us.  Look at it as being well prepared for whatever in the future.
                                       flywheel

[dieselgman]

Assuming tie downs are of proper reinforcement, do not allow the vehicle to flex on its suspension but rather cinch down tight on jack stands or wooden supports. I have hauled vehicles in standard semi trailers before... best results are obtained if the vehicle cannot move at all in any direction!
We assume a road-ready container will not have much rust or problem with its structure and they are built to take much abuse. Putting them on and off of the ships are much worse than any US highway road-trip is likely to experience.

Hope all goes well with your move, load restrictions and all!

dieselgman

[DanG]

G'dads 25x40 building stuffed w/ no aisle except front 10 feet - I filled 20 cu yd dumpster and then a 1200 lot auction later I was seriously grieving all the things that walked off that day, though I swear I saw my dear departed Grandfather being escorted among the crowd so I'm guessing I made the correct choice... Use it or loose it or the landslide will bring you down!

[Apogee]

What if you just simply LIKE your stuff?

That's where I'm at.  I may not have a use for it today, but somewhere down the road it might be the perfect item.

Gives me comfort just knowing it's there and I'm covered if I happen to need it.

Now locating it is another story.

LOL!

Steve

[AdeV]

I am also at a bit of a junction at the moment - I am having to downsize my workshop to less than 1/2 size, and I have to decide what stays & what goes.... Sadly, the biggest toys are the losers (the racing car & coach transporter are going); the truck I can still keep here so I'll hang onto that for a while, but I have to figure out how to store what currently takes up 4000sq/ft, into about 1200sq/ft.... I'm thinking multi-storey here, set up a bunch of scaffolding in the corner & put the stuff up like shelves; the less likely it is to be used, the higher it goes...

Bob, you think 7 vices is bad? I just did a quick inventory, and I have 11 vehicles here, of which 6 are capable of moving under their own steam. One even has no wheels on it! I currently have 5 CS engines (2 are not mine & are just here temporarily), with a JP4 yet to arrive. Oh, and I just bought another car as well! Mind you, I do plan to offload 4 of my current vehicles in fairly short order, and I did count my daily driver in that list. Still, to paraphrase, just how many vehicles does one man need?

I have about 8 or maybe 9 complete engines, some in bits, some not, and a variety of gearboxes.... I've got an old Ford 2.8i + 5 speed gearbox which was removed from a car in 1998, which has been loitering in various corners ever since!

I daren't count the vices.... but I'd be amazed if there were less than 10.

The other thing is... I'm not 40 yet. So gawd knows how bad it'll be if I do actually get to emigrate to a giant plot of land in sunny Southern Europe.... I'll probably end up with my own private scrap yard!

[vdubnut62]

Reading all these posts, then walking out and looking about...hmm, I'm beginning to see a pattern here.
Stuff, stuff everywhere and not a thing to throw away. Thank God my Wife is a patient woman.
Ron

[bschwartz]

........... Hello, my name is Brett......... I too am a hoarder......   
2 - diesel Chevy Suburbans
2 - diesel 80's Mercedes
1 - Jeep Grand Cherokee
1 - Jeep CJ-7
1 - Mazda miata

and a bunch of other stuff................

[rl71459]

I feel right at home here.... maybe it's my inner slob.   

[LowGear]

Repent brothers,

There is a way to wide trails in your storage areas.  When I find the book that was telling me how I'll share it here first thing.

Crap, crap, and more crap!  Why can't I throw just one garbage bag of it away a month.  It is a disease.  I'm tired of it.  Maybe if I had all that neat stuff like Suburbans and Mercs and a Cherokee (have you driven any of them in the last 12 months?) it would be different but I've got 12 cubic feet of electrical wire remnants for Gosh Sakes.  And that might be the good stuff.

Good luck.

Casey