rumrunn6

sympathies. my Dad left me his enormous knife collection. entirely overwhelming. each one, he once held in hid hand & had some thoughts about it. good for you for dealing with the collection now

SJX426 

Just as we have been collecting and admiring bikes from our younger years, my dad liked to work on those tools that punch holes in paper at 100 yards from his youth. I have nearly 250 of those little organizer drawers of parts in addition to stocks, "tubes," books, magazines, and tools to support his projects, not to mention those projects that still existed when he passed. All that in addition to what he gave me before he passed.
Being very mechanical oriented, it is tough not only to deal with the accumulated bike stuff, but this other set of stuff really makes it difficult. Such a wide range of calipers and supporting consumables and specific tools. My daughter wants all of it. I don't think she know what she is asking for. The market for this stuff is very limited and not easily accessible without significant restrictions.
I was working on one of those projects that was not operable. Spent time root causing the malfunction and identified a wrong part was installed. Looked on the internet and found a replacement for over a C bill. Small part and i guess very rare or difficult to acquire. Looked through the drawers and found the same part only modified to have the feature that was missing. Cleaned it up and installed it, success! There were 3 other parts, unmodified, in the same drawer.

The bike stuff is a bit easier to consider. I have started a stack of stuff to offer but it is work. I would rather repair three sewups waiting for my attention! Then with the newly acquired truing stand, I want to check every wheel! With the successful straightening of the Bianchi, the Pinarello can now be addressed. It is a 2 mm off center in the back. Enough to force an offset of the rim to center the tire.

xiaoman1 

I am not there yet, I would chat with Mad Honk , he seems to have found the "golden" ticket.....It also helps to have the War Department advising>
Best, Ben

TugaDude

I feel 'ya! But please don't rid yourself of the catalogs by trashing them! There are online resources such as velobase.com that might want them. They serve as a "go to" for component identification but they also have a section with catalogs. I'm sure they would appreciate having them. And there may be other websites to consider. On a personal note, my older brother passed recently (two weeks) and was a genuine hoarder. The mess he left for the family to clean up is reprehensible. I tried, but he refused to accept any help.

Here's an idea, and something I have considered doing. Sell off all of your "extra" stuff and invest it in something that you ordinarily would not buy for yourself. For example, maybe you've always wanted a custom bike frame but wouldn't commit to it. Maybe one bike is all you "need" now, but you can make it a really special one! Just a thought. And of course it doesn't have to be bike-related. Maybe it is that luxury watch you've pined over? It will be a lot easier to sell off a watch, or better yet, pass it down in the family to remember you by.

DMC707 

I have Chronicled on here in the forum the tale of a break-in I had at my warehouse 2 weeks ago And I’m afraid it is flipped my mind set much closer to this also

Wildwood

Letting go = state of mind.
How to change = ?

Letting go = you won't lose your mind.
How to change = Just do it.
I'm N-10 in last 90+days.

On the positive side, in the process of downsizing, you will likely run across a bargain deal on something you have never ridden, in your exact size. Just do it.

RustyJames 

I have hit max capacity and in my circumstance, here’s what I plan on doing;
- Bikes that I dragged home out of sympathy that were minutes away from being recycled will go first. I have revived these machines and made them useful so hopefully someone will get some joy out of them.
- Parts - if they don’t fit my current ethos/zeitgeist/whatever they will go. I have some fancier parts that fall into this category since they will forever out perform me.
- Complete bikes that are nice but I don’t use. I have a very nice modern-ish road bike that functions perfectly but it will go.

I figure this will get rid of about half my stuff and make it apparent what needs to go next.

What won’t go;
- unfinished projects. This stuff may fall into one of the above categories. It may go away after completion. We’ll see.

The tough choices;
- Sentimental stuff. The bikes I have ridden around with my son, the road bike my best friend sold me, etc.
- The “will I ever find another” bikes. My Legnanos and my Strawberry come to mind.

In the end, the bikes and parts have no emotion so the problem lies with me and getting over THAT is the difficult part.

squirtdad

I don't have tons if bikes, but have tons of stuff

I am trying to get garage better organized, both for visual health and in order to find tools, of course that just backfired when I couldn't find a pipe cutter and finally found it in the neat new tool box I organized it in.

my approach, is to empty drawers/boxes etc and work on organizing into tool boxe, organizers and ruthlessly get rid of little stuff like all the scews and nails left in the bottom of a drawer

step 2 is to eliminate duplication. i.e do I need 1) cheap old corded drill 2) less cheap old corded drill and c) nice new cordless 18 v milwaukee. same with skil saws

step 3 look at stuff and realize that i can go get a new pieceof pvc pipe if needed so get rid of bits and pieces that have 20 years of dust

for bike stuff, some things will be kept like suntour derailers and shifters just in case for a build, but more and more stuff goes to my local bike charity

this be challenged soon when a new bike comes in

blacknbluebikes 

Once you've been on the "clean out crew" for a house of an older relative, you will know that particular hell you bequeath upon your survivors. And they shall surely and completely fail to appreciate that 1968 Campy rear derailleur still in the box. The only remaining question then shall be whether your accumulated flotsam will fit in one garbage can or more than one garbage can.

nlerner

I was telling my wife about this thread yestErday, and she said she has the name of the junk out place (which she used to clean out my mother-in-law’s house after her death) ready to go.

non-fixie 

As long as the survivors perceive your legacy as garbage, it is not much of a problem. Neither for you nor for them.

It's when they share your love of "nice things" that things will get more difficult.

I've just cleaned out my parents' place, and a lot of their "nice things" have come home with me. I guess it's hereditary.

cyclophilia 

Some of us actively collect old catalogues, cycling and other. Please offer them where someone with interest can adopt them from you, when you are ready to part with the catalogues.

jdawginsc 

This is where I am at. Well said NF.

That and SD above about organization. It will tell me my max.

And Rusty James’ system is exactly where I am at. My collecting is not too terrible. It is when I bought $4000 worth of bikes and parts when doing the student giveaway during COVID. I overbought my capacity to rehab enough (to date I have given 28 bikes but have some more to go...I have some to new teachers to speed it up as well).

When I retire I will lotttttttttts of projects to have fun with for awhile. I’m stocked.

My biggest problem is all of them have names.

RustyJames 

I cleaned out Dad’s place after he passed and it was a chore. My moms place is much smaller and she has nothing of interest to me. (Geez, I sound cold).

I don’t want to burden my son with a bunch of my crap he is indifferent to. Been there.

DiegoFrogs

Move often, and to a smaller and smaller place each time. Bonus points if customs and oceanic boat trips are involved each time.

I've gotten rid of a lot of stuff that I was briefly upset about and soon regretted, but never replaced... I had a Feedback Sports repair stand that I really liked. I took it with me to Sweden in the original bag, as the forwarder in that move would allow that as an item to be put into my "giant box on a pallet," all paid by the new employer. Upon returning to the USA, the procedure was different, at my expense, and I didn't have a spare telescope or golf club box when the forwarder told me they'd only take things in sealed cardboard boxes. I tried to sell it, but ended up leaving it with my neighbors.

Domestic moves are great opportunities, too. Digitize anything that can be digitized. A few weeks before I moved to Sweden, I got a bunch of beers and my music collection, and got out my laptop with a CD drive to put all those cherished treasures in a smaller, lightweight footprint I could listen to on my phone.

The Golden Boy 

No ****- any time I have a reasonable urge to toss a something I sort of don't want to get rid of, but know I'll NEVER use I think of this... 30 years ago I had a pair of flip flops, crappy PX special flip flops. I moved to Panama, and I couldn't find one of the flip flops... I bought a new set, I just tucked it away, knowing I'd find the other one in a day or so... After about a year and a half I threw it out- I think I'd been home twice- that other flip flop was lost. The next time I went home- there it was. I seriously think about a pair of $1.99 flip flops like it's some sort of life lesson.

Ugh.

non-fixie 

Kabuki12

I haven’t been motivated to let anything go until recently. I rarely post here any more due to reasons I don’t need to go into, but basically find myself enjoying riding my bikes more than ever. That leaves less time for maintenance and cleaning multiple bikes. The problem is that I ride almost all my bikes and haven’t decided which ones will go first, probably the smaller ones . I have a couple that I love but always wish they were a few cm larger so I will most likely start there. My goal is to get down to maybe half or a third of what I have and then decide the 3-4 that will stay.

georges1

I have two bikes that I inherited from my dad, I don't know what to do with them maybe give them to one of his best friends in which I am in relationship with

TiHabanero

Oddly enough it is the bikes that are easy to let go, and in fact there are only a few frames I designed and built myself and two mass market frames that I have kept, but it is the parts, the bits and pieces that were indispensable as a mechanic are the things that are tough to release to the wild. Of course the NR, Cyclone, Crane, etc. components are planned for display, but will likely never get there.
I have random tubes from Reynolds and True Temper, fork crowns, drop outs, etc. that I am clinging to as well. I'm going to work on this, one bin at a time and take the advice put forth by other members and work through it.

seypat

Your original post reads like the end is near and you'll be going on a one way journey shortly. If so, my sympathies. If not, put some clarification there about just deciding to downsize.

bark_eater 

I'm making progress stripping bikes that will never be bikes again. Gotta start somewhere. Of course after today I need to find a bigger Suntour bin.

drlogik 

I have too many hobbies and sports and my sons only like two of them. I'm 64 about to turn 65 and still working full time. I have a lot of stuff but it isn't totally out of control but getting close.

The old bike stuff I don't have a problem getting rid of. It's my old backpacking stuff that I do. Much of it will probably go on eBay since the old "vintage" equipment is now getting sort of popular. I could never part with my Kelty Expedition (Made in America) frame pack though.

My old ski stuff is just old, it's gotta go. The Viking funeral comment comes to mind there. Tools (Lordy!), bikes (7), fly rods (7), never. They all stay.

Classtime 

My kids, take after my wife and will have no problem tossing all my stuff. In the meantime, I have room for all of it.

Catnap 

As long as I've been a collector of vintage bikes and components, I've always lived in a NYC apartment. The apartments have consistently gotten larger (and further from Manhattan) as I've aged, and now I have two floors of a Brownstone in Queens. My bike collection has accordingly grown over time, but along with that I've realized that I have a "tipping point" with material items. At times over the last decade, I have repeatedly come to the realization that hoarding parts and working on bikes was taking the place of actually riding. Each time, I have purged large amounts of my collection to "refocus" myself on what I think is most important, which is seeing the world astride my bike and spending time with riding with friends and loved ones.

Also, for me at least, having a lot of "stuff" ends up stressing me out. I have had multiple basement floods, and I also tend to move every 4-5 years. I hate having to worry about boxes of stuff being destroyed in a hurricane or water heater meltdown, or hauling all this unused stuff with me from place to place. I've also watched my parents have to clean out their parents' homes, and now they are steadily downsizing their own possessions as they are in their late 70s. When I go to bike swap meets to sell stuff, I inevitably end up talking to wild-eyed, grey bearded collectors who tell me they have so many bikes they are stacked up in their bathrooms or that they've lost track of all their stuff (but are still hungrily fondling some component while trying to convince themselves that they might need it one day). I appreciate their vast knowledge and experience, but I don't want to end up a "caretaker" for piles of bike junk, no matter how rare it is or how carefully I've packed it away.

Are there bikes and parts I regret selling? Of course. But compared to life's other calamities, it doesn't matter; it's just a hobby. Hobbies should make us happy, not anxious and regretful. Hoarding tendencies come from anxiety; anxiety over a world that's changing, people in our lives passing on or slipping away, our own lives and bodies changing in ways that are scary. We look at our hoard of things and see that they don't change - they are a constant, and we alone exert control over them. To let the things go is to acknowledge and accept the inherent changes in life, to embrace that fact and shed ourselves of the stuff that's holding us back.

As someone 20-30 years younger than most vintage bike enthusiasts, I've seen a steady increase in folks having to take a serious reappraisal of their collections as they age. When I think about how I will approach the same situation, I hope my workshop will be spartan (or maybe no workshop at all) but my mind packed full with a hoard of happy bike memories.