Pops was all apologetic that our stuff got wet, but most of it turned out to be dry or salvageable. I took this as a wonderful opportunity to get rid of years worth of junk. My brother and wheeled two 90 gallon trash cans into the house and went to work. Occasionally one of us would laugh as we savored a precious memory, but for the most part everything went in a pail. The bins were overflowing in under two hours. We also filled up a smaller bin with electronics and took them to work (they have an electronic waste drop off).
What's left at my parents:
-my yellow stuffed bear (yellow bear, you rock)
-a small drawer full of sentimental electronics (minidiscs are the future :)
-a briefcase full of scouting stuff
-the solar robot I built in high school (I yoinked the panels years ago... they're sitting on my porch now)
-a small box of sentimentals
-a few year books
-high school and college diplomas
That's it.
In all, I imagine I threw out 400 pounds of junk. Now that's weight loss!
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At least once a day, I stop by the electronic recycling bins at work and grab neat things. My employer has an open policy that if you can use something and don't and won't sell it, you can grab it. This is great because we make some pretty awesome equipment and often times a group will throw away said awesome instrument when the next model ships... since none of my projects require the cutting edge, I've picked up an impressive rack of stuff at work... probably close to $50,000 in hardware at full price (I have no intention of selling anything, just trying to provide context). I've also picked up a lot of junk.
Last time I relocated, I moved into a larger desk with more shelving, so I just piled everything on a cart and wheeled it over to my new desk. When I moved this week, I moved into a smaller desk with a great window view up on the 8th floor (sweet). After dropping all the boxes off, I had no desk space... couldn't even set up my computer. Following hot on the heels of my recent childhood clutter removal, I grabbed a 250 gallon (33.4 cubic feet) recycling bin and then proceeded to fill it up in under 3 hours.
I literally had over 100 of some cables... 5 of a particular instruments, 30 of another, thousands of feet of cable, every type of thermocouple, dozens of DAQ boards, too many power cords, USB cables, firewire cables and DAQ cables to list, etc. Trash!
I wheeled the overflowing bin down to the ewaste bin and while I was down there found a 20" touch panel LCD with a blown out power supply, no enclosure, but otherwise in good shape... I wheeled a second bin and the screen back up to my desk, threw out the old CRT I had used on a test computer and rigged up the new LCD such that it's hanging on my wall like a picture frame.
I filled the second bin halfway full, this time focusing on hardware that didn't work 100%. As a service to other scroungers, I noticeably break hardware I know has problems to prevent a repetitive cycle of find and pitch. My two favorite 'this is broken' indicators are to crush the connectors with pliers and/or hammer the largest chip. Anything that passes my cursory tests gets a 'recycles treasure' sharpie brand and a sticker with my name on it... much of my non-accuracy-critical hardware bears said brand.
I did keep a lot of hardware, but not a lot of duplicity.
In all, I imagine I threw out 1000 pounds of junk. No joke. Half a ton. Good thing the bins are designed for that.
...
With those two victories under my belt, I placed all the junk I had spread across the house into my room. I'll repeat a similar exercise, only this time I'll probably sell most of the junk (because I can and because a lot of it is worth $$). For sure, I'll get rid of at least half of the 30 or so hard drives I have, my college fridge (which lies dormant on my floor), three laptops in various need of repair, stools, excess camping and climbing gear, a bunch of electronics, bike gear I don't use, a 0 degree sleeping bag that has no practical purpose in Texas (and is quite large to fly with), shoes, gun stuff, etc.
What does all this mean? I often savor my college days when everything I owned fit in the back of my truck (not everything, per se, but everything I wasn't storing at my pop's place). Each year I'd haul everything back home, and each fall I'd haul it all back. What a waste of time!
Paul Erdos lived a nomadic lifestyle, showing up at colleague's houses to write papers, leaving when he was done. As a constant traveller, he carried few possessions, but left a lasting impression on the hundreds of mathematicians he consorted with.
I don't expect to get rid of all possessions, but I would like to be able to fit most everything I own into a space the size of my old (and no longer owned) truck. This is going to be a tough feat because I've picked up a bed, rather large speakers and a safe, but I think it's possible... those three items fit in the conceptual truck bed, leaving little room for anything else.
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I forgot to add this picture of Agricola during our island excursion. We're heading out again beginning of June.
Classic wiring nest.
I always climb from the same end of my rope, so it wears unevenly. I cut this one down to 35 meters (tall enough for most climbs in Austin) and...
...used the worn out 25 meters to hang some swings.
I'm riding the electric bike sans the batteries right now... it still hauls a bunch, but as a 44/15 single speed it doesn't climb well under weight ;).
Mountain bike tire ballooned.
