# Are you a packrat?



## Seneca (Nov 16, 2012)

I am...guilty as sin...a packrat through and through

I see the difference between packrats and preppers, in that prepping is specific and goal oriented while packratting is a more generalized activity and open to non emergency types of things...

I'm also begining to think that some of us are who do well at prepping are also successful as packrats. A packrat as you know, has a knack for picking out useful items and then tucking them away for future use...

How many times have you bought something in the absence of immediate need or something you knew you wouldn't use right away, but knew it would come in handy later on. If you say quite often then chances are you are a packrat too...and probably very successful at prepping as well...


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## CoastalGardens (Jan 1, 2013)

Seneca said:


> I am...guilty as sin...a packrat through and through
> 
> I see the difference between packrats and preppers, in that prepping is specific and goal oriented while packratting is a more generalized activity and open to non emergency types of things...
> 
> ...


Although some of what you said is true, I'm related to some heavy duty packrats... and found quite a bit of what they collected was NOT useful- knick-knacks, household type 'fun' stuff, tons of kitchen appliances, etc. There was very little I would have found as helpful in an emergency. Maybe you're just a good prepper-type packrat.


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## Deebo (Oct 27, 2012)

How many times have you bought something in the absence of immediate need or something you knew you wouldn't use right away, but knew it would come in handy later on. If you say quite often then chances are you are a packrat too...and probably very successful at prepping as well...
My weakness is a discount. If I see something "marked down" drastickly, like half off, I usually purchase it, If I can justify it to myself, like the dollar store candles after Christmas for 90% off, or the 5 bottles of bug spray at 0.35 each, I have the room to store such things, so I spend a little too much on little little items, but, long story short, I guess Im a packrat, becouse after living in an apartment for years, I now have a small house with and acre of ground with a storage shed, so yes, I packrat all kinds of stuff.
My job at a busy production company has alot of "safety issues" like a drill press with a broken safety switch, or a bandsaw that is deemed unsafe by work standfards, so I haul it off to "the farm" and use it or store it, and eventually, someone needs a part or I modify it into something else.


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## shotlady (Aug 30, 2012)

no im a minimalist. i have nothing that i dont use. i could pack my house in 3-4 hours ifn i needed to move. last time i moved i left everything and bought all new stuff. just had my car full. more expensive to move it than its worth. the only thing i over indulge on is my hobbies, bikes, guns. but i use everything. i like my house, clean and orderly so i can enjoy the colors and my artwork.
growing up in fosterhomes, i never realized how important your home is. to have it in order, to be a place you enjoy and take respice, a place to regroup, a place to be safe, marinate and scratch al day ifn youd like. I enjoy keeping my house, its an honor to be trusted with so much. its the first thing i do on the weekends, clean up, then the rest of my time can be spent palying, doing nothing, roadtripping, marinating. i like my shit together


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## Watercanlady (Jul 23, 2012)

I am very OCD about my house being immaculate. Yes I have a couple years worth of preps but they are VERY neatly stored. My canned goods are all in Alpabetical order. Even the items in my attic are in color coordinated containers. My mother on the other hand is a huge pack rat. It is unbearable for me but she knows everything she has and where it is. I just cannot take the clutter.


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## Verteidiger (Nov 16, 2012)

Yeah, I am a pack rat, I admit it. I have it all very organized, so my wife does not get upset, because she likes a clean house, too. 

I keep most of my stuff out in the garage or storage sheds, or in my man cave/gun room/big dog hangout room.

Secret to a happy marriage -- two televisions, and separate rooms for your "hobbies"!


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## rice paddy daddy (Jul 17, 2012)

I save screws, nuts, bolts left over from projects; scraps and end-drops of lumber/plywood that look big enough; an old wheelbarrow inner tube may come in handy some day; various lengths of PVC pipe (the glue is always hard the next time I try to use it, though); old lawn mower and circular saw blades for the knife projects I never seem to get around to; empty cartridge brass in probably 10 different calibers that I've been saving for 35 years for when I get around to re-loading; various hinges and other hardware I pick up "just in case". 
Not only am I a packrat, I guess I'm a procrastinator as well. 
But when the large metric bolts that held the motor mounts on my 25 year old Chevy S-10 vibrated out and fell on the road somewhere, I had more in my shop.


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## shotlady (Aug 30, 2012)

i have to be realisticand not let the prepperside kick in when im visiting properties. the maint men like to build empires in the shops- not take the shit home and fix it, but have it in the maint shop and sware they can use/fix it for a cousin one day. i do like a few odds and ends materials a round, but maint shoppes should be free of other peoples trash/refuse


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## shotlady (Aug 30, 2012)

growing up very poor and expendable and transient, i basically travelled with a paper bag from home to home. thats what i had... when i got divorced i started to keep cothes even after they were ruined, cause after all what would happen if i couldnt afford to do laundry? i was working 2ft jobs for 6.35 per hour and really had nothing. and i learned to take care of what i had, get rid of what i did not or could not use. i continue to do this. im very on purpose about it. i very easily feel overwhelmed with clutter and things with no purpose. and you know i just dont wanna move it.


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## Lucky Jim (Sep 2, 2012)

There seems to be a law of the universe that says if we've had junk for a long time and finally throw it out because we think we'll probably never have a need for it, we'll find we need it badly a day or two later, happens to me all the time (sniffle)


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## Seneca (Nov 16, 2012)

I try to limit my packratting ways to keeping only those things that are in good working order or useful...and I keep it organized as best I can...

I have been know to buy things when the price is right and squirrel them away, knowing full well I won't be needing it for at least a couple of years. Fitting and fixtures, hinges and hasps, tools and fasteners. If it's something that can wear out or break, chances are I have rat holed exactly what I'll need to replace or repair it.


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## kevincali (Nov 15, 2012)

I'm not sure I qualify as a pack rat?!? 

I bought new low flow toilets. I tried giving the old toilets away, but ended up busting them up with a hammer. I saved EVERYTHING from the tanks (floats, handles, flapper valves, etc) even though the new toilets use stuff that is WAY different lol. Applies to EVERYTHING though. Tune up the truck, save the old wires, plugs, etc. never know when a rat or squirrel is going to chew threw a wire and need a spare. Replace door handles on the house, but keep the old ones. You never know if you'll need them. 

But my house is clean(ish lol) and I don't have hallways or rooms packed to the ceiling with boxes of stuff. Quite the opposite  everything saved is for a purpose, and has come in handy. Remember the toilet stuff I mentioned earlier? My grandparents have the same toilet in their front bathroom. The valve was leaking out the top, and it kept running and running, raising the bill. I replaced it with one I saved from my old toilet. 

So I'm not sure I'm a pack rat? I always thought the definition of a pack rat was someone who saves everything, gathers stuff, but never uses it. Or they forget they have it, and have to go get another one. So because I keep everything useable, but eventually put everything to use (may take a while though) does that make me a pack rat?


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## rice paddy daddy (Jul 17, 2012)

My parents lived through the Great Depression and WWII. Growing up I learned to make-do and do without. We would probably be considered the working poor by today's materialistic society, but we were rich in all the things that really matter.
Out in my shop there's an old Prince Albert tobacco can filled with miscellaneous nails that came with all of Dad's tools and things that I got when he passed away 12 years ago. Whenever I use his tools he's right there with me, and that tobacco can sits, unused, in the top drawer of my tool chest. It's a reminder of my heritage, and being a sentimental old fool I treasure it.


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## ph2_usn (May 21, 2012)

rice paddy daddy said:


> My parents lived through the Great Depression and WWII. Growing up I learned to make-do and do without. We would probably be considered the working poor by today's materialistic society, but we were rich in all the things that really matter.
> Out in my shop there's an old Prince Albert tobacco can filled with miscellaneous nails that came with all of Dad's tools and things that I got when he passed away 12 years ago. Whenever I use his tools he's right there with me, and that tobacco can sits, unused, in the top drawer of my tool chest. It's a reminder of my heritage, and being a sentimental old fool I treasure it.


Are we twins of different mothers?

"Whenever I use his tools he's right there with me," There are cans (Unity brand coffee cans) of things my father put in the garage 30 years ago that are waiting for a project for us to work on.


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## Verteidiger (Nov 16, 2012)

My father (God rest his immortal soul) was the ultimate pack rat. He was born in the Great Depression, and he always saved everything. I learned so many things from him, but one of the most important was that you may not want to throw something away before thinking hard about whether it may serve some purpose some day (assuming, of course, you have space to store it in until that day eventually comes). I can't tell you how many times that approach to thinking has helped me out, when something I stashed away for that rainy day gets repurposed to fix something broken, or to keep something working that would otherwise have failed. 

When he passed away, my mother said I could have anything I wanted from his garage/workshop. I have my own tools, so what I wanted was the tools he and I had used together, since I had seen those tools in his hands. I gathered up these priceless (to me) treasures and brought them home. I took the tools and sprayed them down with rust prevention chemicals to preserve them, and more than once I paused as I can upon stuff he had squirreled away that I had no idea how to use, or what they were originally for. I only tossed out the things that were of no value (sentimental or otherwise) -- for instance, he saved the little pencils you get when you play golf, so he always had a pencil in his tool tray. 

Now his tools are my most prized possession, because I cannot buy them in a store anywhere at any price. 

So, when I find myself buying some hardware or a tool that is on sale, I always think of him, because he taught me the habit of preparing for that inevitable day when you just may need them.

So, yes, I am a pack rat, and my garage resembles what my wife calls my own personal hardware store. But she is always quietly proud when I can go outside and find that part that fixes the dryer, or stops the toilet from running, or gets our machines started. 

So, here's a grateful shout out to you, Dad -- you wise old pack rat you!


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## Seneca (Nov 16, 2012)

I recently found a shop that recycles building materials and fixtures. As a packrat it was like finding holy grail. Full of used but useful items. I love places like that. 

I've squirreld away a few things for future projects. Two heavy duty clothes line cross poles, and the post mix, I need a couple of short pieces of pipe for the ground receptical, and some line, the cross poles were designed to be removeable...how cool is that...also I think line dryed clothes smell wonderful. 

Several rolls of chicken wire the coop is the works...This kind of leans towards the prepping thing, because I have this notion that sustainability is the best route to long term survivability.

I have stashed away some old garden hose and sprinklers to work on refining my garden watering system. I built one last spring and it worked yet it could have been better. This coming spring I'll redo it...new and improved.

I also pack rat wood pallets and scrap wood, I cut them down to stove sized lenghts to help heat my house in the winter. Most of the time they are free and often the inner frames are hardwood...

If you haven't guessed by now, I live in the country (rural) so unscheduled trips to town for something that costs less than the gas to get there are to be avoided. Packrat...


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## Kidzthinkimahoarder (Feb 11, 2013)

I'm not a packrat, nor a hoarder. My kids call me that because I do save things that might be of use later, and I have kept things that have belonged to my mother as a child, or my papaw who I thought hung the moon, but I'm not fanatical with it. I have one cluttered room in my house, thats cluttered because the kids will not put anything back where they found it. Which is on my cleaning list next week during spring break. (haha boys, guess what?)

We save bolts and nuts, we save several ice cream buckets or butter tubs, I save used clothing unless I find someone that needs them, then those I donate. Its a common practice to reuse many items in our house until we get the wear worn off...it took me years to get my husband to realize that we could actually beat the nails out of used lumber and reuse it. My oldest complains about that. I've told him once it comes out of his pocket book than he can build how he see's fit, until then we will do it our way. Reuse, recycle and reduce!


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## JPARIZ (Feb 25, 2013)

I like to make things I need (or want) so I save junk that can be used to make other goodies. I've made some pretty awesome things that look as if they came from a factory somewhere.


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## Seneca (Nov 16, 2012)

I saw these neat wire hoops that you stick in the ground to hold arrows, I have the spring steel wire to make them myself and will save the 4+ bucks a pop to buy them. Packratting allows me to spend my money on other survival/prepper trinkets...


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## Rigged for Quiet (Mar 3, 2013)

I'm not a packrat, I just have lotsa stuff:mrgreen: 

I learned early on from growing up in a furgal by necessity household to repurpose and save. My Dad was a genious at repurposing things and I learned a great deal from him. He seemed to always be teaching me something in every little thing he did. It was as if he knew our time together was limited and he proved to be a bit prophetic, since he passed away right before my 12th birthday.

I just turned 50, and I too have some of his tools which are amongst my most cherished possessions. Tools I watched him build a work shop with that was built mostly with discarded lumber and materials from local building or demolision sites. Once built he used other tools to build other tools. These are the tools I cherish the most.

Old Rice Paddy, you hold onto that can of nails for dear life.


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## JPARIZ (Feb 25, 2013)

kevincali said:


> I'm not sure I qualify as a pack rat?!?
> I bought new low flow toilets. I tried giving the old toilets away, but ended up busting them up with a hammer.


Busted them up? OMG! You could have made chairs for your front porch, bucket seats for your pick-up or boat. Or even a monument to Obama out of them.


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## rickkyw1720pf (Nov 17, 2012)

I have found that when I start saving everything, when I need it I can't find it anyways so I should have thrown it away in the first place and bought new instead of spending half a day looking for something I have but don't remember where I put it.


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## Seneca (Nov 16, 2012)

Organization is the key, that and there are some things that really do need to be toss out. I use the clear plastic dollar store shoe boxes to organize some things. The lids go bad and split...so I toss them. Then I take two bottoms and one become a lid...the bonus, I can stuff more odds and ends in to them...


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## Kidzthinkimahoarder (Feb 11, 2013)

We just tore down an old shed and chicken coops, that material, plus some other material that's been picked up along the way we have managed to build a 16x20 Greenhouse, 11x24 boat shed and a 4x20 boardwalk style sidewalk for nothing but the cost of the nails and labor.

We also have had in the past access to free road grader blades, which are very heavy and about 6' or 7' long, we used those for fence post for our hog pen.

I'm all about reusing/repurposing things...


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## Seneca (Nov 16, 2012)

Kidzthinkimahoarder said:


> We just tore down an old shed and chicken coops, that material, plus some other material that's been picked up along the way we have managed to build a 16x20 Greenhouse, 11x24 boat shed and a 4x20 boardwalk style sidewalk for nothing but the cost of the nails and labor.
> 
> We also have had in the past access to free road grader blades, which are very heavy and about 6' or 7' long, we used those for fence post for our hog pen.
> 
> I'm all about reusing/repurposing things...


Like wise...We're in a water co-op, and a couple of years ago they updated the system irrigation lines, I had an old hay shed with a sheet metal roof that was on the property easement and had to come down. The roof is now tacked up on poles behind my archery butts to keep stray arrows out of my neighbors pasture. The rest of it (wood) was too weathered to be of much use was cut up into stove lengths kindling and run through a wood stove. Repurpose/reuse...


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## 9UC (Dec 21, 2012)

No, definately not a packrat. Due to spending the greater majority of my "younger" adult life on active duty with the Air Force, to date, I've had someplace between 28 to 30 different residences. I learned early that unless it's a valuable heirloom, if I didn't get used in a six month period, toss it. Learned a hard lesson at the end of my first marriage, once she cleared out, I gathered up 18 yard bags of junk that she had stored it the attic and various places in the rented house we had it Holland. For most of our marriage, the current wife was nearly as bad. I finally got my gut full of her dragging in stuff faster than I could either haul it out or build storage for it. Gave her a choise, either a husband or a warehouseman, and if it was a warehouseman, I was gone.


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## Seneca (Nov 16, 2012)

I admire people who can throw stuff out...I have to deliberate a bit before I decide to toss something...when I lay down the law to the wife! I have to consider it carefully and even then! it usually comes back in unexpected ways and bites me in the ass...lol


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## 9UC (Dec 21, 2012)

Seneca said:


> I admire people who can throw stuff out...I have to deliberate a bit before I decide to toss something...when I lay down the law to the wife! I have to consider it carefully and even then! it usually comes back in unexpected ways and bites me in the ass...lol


Been there and done that with my less than benevolent attitude for piling crap up.


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## Seneca (Nov 16, 2012)

I'm eyeing a one pound coffe can that would normally hit the recycle bin and thinking about making a wind screen for a Trangia stove. I normally use a piece of aluminim foil, but have been toying with the idea of making a more permanent (as opposed to buying) wind screen. I want something that collapses or folds and can double as the pot stand. Something unique with a personal (I made this) twist to it...


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## Blademaker (Feb 22, 2013)

To a degree, yep.
But here lately, I've been on this minimalist kick. 
And much to my wife's happiness, I'm getting rid of a lotta shit,......but I'm using the $$$ to aquire more shit that will serve us well in case SHTF.


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## Seneca (Nov 16, 2012)

I'm upgrading my EDC equipment and liking it! but my minimalist chromozone has gone dormant...The closest I can get to minimalist is with a foragers bag that I'm putting together. I'm using a heavy duty canvas messengers bag (OD) and leaving the main compartment empty for forage items. That leaves the four outside pockest for take along gear...

BLACK Heavyweight CLASSIC MESSENGER BAG


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