Gotta Keep That and That and That

And I Can’t Get Rid of THAT!

By Jeff Salter

Topic: If you had to get rid of most of your belongings in order to move into a smaller place, what are the things you would not be able to part with?

As others have already said this week, we have a very timely topic. Four of the five of us are within the age range where “down-sizing” is commonplace… perhaps even essential. [Of course, I realize there can be many reasons – some inter-related – (besides age) why a person needs to down-size.]

Funny thing, in my case, is that when I took an early retirement and relocated from LA to KY (2006), we actually moved from a 1400 sq. ft. house (with two-vehicle garage) to a 3000 sq. ft. house (with three-vehicle garage). Not surprisingly, we soon filled up the new place. Yep.

Some of my treasures are seen as clutter by my spouse… just as some of her treasures look a lot like clutter to me.

Yes, we do have a lot of bona fide, indisputable clutter. And yes, much could be discarded, recycled, or donated. But that requires so much time and energy — and I find I really need at least two helpers: one to assist with the lifting and sorting… and one to haul away those items that are going to trash, recycling, or donation centers. One of the biggest obstacles (to me) is to get a really good start at decluttering and find (as that day’s work shift ends) that everything is still here… just in different piles. For this to work – with me – the sorted stuff must be REMOVED by the end of that work shift… or I feel like I didn’t accomplish much besides a different arrangement of the same clutter.

Back to the topic

All that is a build-up to my response to the topic itself.

Here are the categories of items that I’m sure I could greatly reduce:

Old clothing, old footwear, old IRS tax paperwork, and stuff related to hobbies (like golf) that I used to pursue avidly but can no longer enjoy because of physical limitations.

It’s probably partly the librarian in me, but I have a vast collection of CLIPPINGS – on a wide variety of interests – and many of these could simply be recycled. With “everything” available now on the internet, at least half of my clippings could go (if I had time to sort through all those boxes). Of course, I’d keep the articles on UFOs, Loch Ness monster, Area 51, Big Foot, ancient civilizations, Stone Henge, etc. I mean, a person must have priorities!

I could recycle most of my magazines, except (of course) those about WW2.

Possessions

Most important, to me, of physical possessions are my writings, family photos, my books, a sampling of my childhood toys, my tools, and my categories of various “collections”.

With my books, there are perhaps a third that I’d really want to keep, a third that I’d easily part with, and a third that would drive me crazy trying to decide.

With my writings, I think I could finally shred and recycle all those rough drafts that I’ve scrupulously kept for decades (on the hope that my literary biographer would be ecstatic to have so much raw material demonstrating how my creative mind functioned. HA!)

With my family photos and related memorabilia, I could only get rid of actual duplicates and/or multiple poses of the same basic grouping.

With my few childhood toys, the best way to say it is: If they’ve stayed with me ‘til age 71, they’re pretty much “precious” to me still. [That said, I could probably force myself to donate a few odd pieces.] Example: those tiny metal cars that cost a nickel back in 1959 don’t have any real value… but they’re important to me because I bought them at Woolworths on our several trips to New Orleans when I had to go to an eye specialist or a radiology specialist. Just Mom and me.

With my tools, I could only divest myself of the duplicates. For example, I might have 3 or 4 of the same size of the same basic screwdriver. If push came to shove, I could whittle that down to one of each. Maybe. [Note, however, there are many different types of screwdrivers and each has as many as 4 or 5 different sizes.] As another example, I possess well over a dozen different hammers – different sizes, different weights, and different designs – and it would be tough to decide which of those were disposable (and which were essential). I mean you can’t use a rubber mallet to drive in a nail! And you shouldn’t use a 16-oz hammer head to drive a tiny finishing nail.

Now we get to my collectibles

Comic books: I own about 9 or 10 boxes full, many acquired when I was actively purchasing as an “investment” – back when the comic boom began and before the market went bust because so many (like me) had jumped in. Most of those have never been read and I could dispose of them without much agony. But it would be similar to what I said about my books: a third that I’d really want to keep, a third that I’d easily part with, and a third that would drive me crazy trying to decide.

Militaria: Now we get down to brass tacks. Let me preface this part of today’s blog by explaining that in the arena of military merchandise, there were often MULTIPLE manufacturers… and the tendency among serious collectors is to (try to) acquire one item from each different manufacturer and from each different year of the war. Here’s an example: suppose the American military establishment – in order to meet the sudden demand for war materiel – let contacts for Model 1936 canteens with nine different companies and each company put production years on their canteens. To have a complete collection, you’d need 9 companies times 5 war years = 45 different canteens. Well, obviously, that’s excessive. Yet I know of many collectors who strive for that very goal. And not just with canteens. The same situation exists for messkits, bayonets, fighting knives, etc. etc. etc. [BTW, you’ll be pleased to know that I am NOT that fanatical about my collection. First of all, it’s next to impossible to actually achieve that goal. Secondly, it can drive you crazy to be that obsessed with “completeness” in a collection. Thirdly, I don’t have the funds or the space for that many different iterations of the same basic item.]

One of my smaller WW2 displays

The actual genesis of my collection began when I was still a kid, frequenting a local hardware store which also sold “army surplus” stuff. But I really started building that collection in the 1990s after I discovered eBay. My appreciation of military history really came to life when I was able to collect some of the related items. My militaria collection includes things like helmets, uniform pieces, field gear, bayonets, canteens, messkits, and MANY other odds and ends.

I didn’t acquire those items just to possess them, however. Over a period of years, I mounted several displays (in locked cases) in the library facilities where I worked (before retirement) and here in Somerset (after relocation). These displays were typically well-received, by young and old alike.

One of my smaller WW1 displays

Over the course of acquiring a wide variety of items related to WW1, WW2, Korea, Vietnam, and the first Gulf War, I managed to come up with many duplicates. To use merely one example, note that I possess 21 American M-1 helmets (in addition to several foreign versions). If push came to shove, I guess I could survive by keeping just one from each war period… but helmets currently enjoy a lively market value… and selling those other 16 steel pots takes time, effort, astute business savvy, and a considerable amount of effort and expense for shipping. If you take my helmet example and apply it to canteens, messkits, bayonets, etc., you can see the scope / scale of my problem. For items which have intrinsic historical value AND current market value, one simply cannot just “donate” them or “sell” them for peanuts. I’ve already been selling items here and there, over the past several years, but it’s quite time-consuming. That said, it’s always rewarding in two senses: that irreplaceable historical artifacts have found a new home… and that I have new cash in my pocket as a result. If I remember correctly, one of the military blades I sold last year brought me some $230… so we’re not talking about peanuts here, folks. M-1 helmets that I may have purchased for $3 or $4 each several decades ago, are now getting $30 or $40 each (for the most ordinary ones)… and considerably more, depending on manufacturer and age and condition. Some of the older ones – particularly WW2 production – in good condition can command prices in the hundreds.

I’ve detailed a few examples simply to better explain that one cannot simply walk into the room housing my militaria collection and say, “wow, that’s a lot of old army stuff.” Not only is it irreplaceable – meaning, a finite number of items produced and MANY lost in the fog of war – but some individual pieces can be worth many hundreds of dollars while a similar LOOKING piece might be worth $25. My point? One has to know what one has, how rare it is, and how to evaluate its condition. You can’t just count and say, “oh, there’s three dozen WW2 canteens. Let’s price them at $5 each and put them in a garage sale.” Nope. That would be a travesty.

Questions:

What about YOU? What do you collect, if anything? How precious is it to you (in terms of $$ value or personal connection)? When will you begin to downsize… or have you already done so?

[JLS # 577]