# You might need that one day.....hoarding. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 5, 2012, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-might-need-that-one-day-hoarding/627280 "2012-07-05T06:24:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-might-need-that-one-day-hoarding/627280/101 "2012-07-10T20:10:18Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > But what _else_ are you supposed to do with it, if you have a 20-year-old copy of a gynecological textbook in Spanish that you no longer want? I sold my copy of my evil thermodynamics textbook (bad book, bad class) to Half Price Books for the same reason. I can’t think of any reason why anyone else would want it, but I wanted it out of the house, and Half Price Books can recycle it. Throw it out (or, rather, recycle it in the proper bin). I love books but don’t believe every single book ever should be lept somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![buckgully](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb9ed0/32.png) [@buckgully](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buckgully)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2012, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-might-need-that-one-day-hoarding/627280/102 "2012-07-11T00:44:02Z")
This thread reminds me that the scrap metal guys are going to be in my neighborhood tomorrow and the scrapyard I’ve been amassing must go to the curb. I was intending to use it for welding practice, but never got around to cutting things up. Also, the pump from the old hot tub. No idea what the hell I was going to do with that. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2012, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-might-need-that-one-day-hoarding/627280/103 "2012-07-11T02:11:21Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > .. So much so that she regularly tries to get me to throw away my potentially useful computer cables… My husband is one of your crowd. Every time he upgrades his computer, he ends up with a pile of cables which he needs to keep ‘just in case’. It got so that I couldn’t close the drawer they were kept in, so he got the ultimatum. In the end, he threw the lot out because he had no idea what cable was for what purpose. ---
**Author:** ![troubledwater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f4b2a3/32.png) [@troubledwater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/troubledwater)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2012, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-might-need-that-one-day-hoarding/627280/104 "2012-07-11T02:33:46Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > Oh, I can understand this. I did take a couple of library science classes (many years ago), and culling the collection was one of the topics that was lightly touched in 101 (I assume that more advanced classes would cover it in more detail). I’m addressing the people who think that if they donate books to the library, that those books will still be available to them whenever they want to read those books again. Just for the record - I don’t donate expecting that that particular library will have that particular book available to me at some unknown future time. I do it because I know they use the donations for book sales to raise funds to buy the items they **do** want, and the odds seem high that I can obtain the book somehow, somewhere, should I ever decide I want to read _A Tale of Two Cities_ again. In the meantime, it isn’t cluttering up my house. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2012, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-might-need-that-one-day-hoarding/627280/105 "2012-07-11T12:35:46Z")
> [@jabiru](#): > > My husband is one of your crowd. Every time he upgrades his computer, he ends up with a pile of cables which he needs to keep ‘just in case’. It got so that I couldn’t close the drawer they were kept in, so he got the ultimatum. In the end, he threw the lot out because he had no idea what cable was for what purpose. I don’t keep all of them, just _some_ of them. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2012, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-might-need-that-one-day-hoarding/627280/106 "2012-07-11T15:04:31Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > Throw it out (or, rather, recycle it in the proper bin). I love books but don’t believe every single book ever should be lept somewhere. Some of us find that hard to do. Half Price Books provides a good service for people like that. They presumably recycle the books they don’t want, but I can tell myself that they’re going to resell every book I sell to them. It’s not the same psychologically as throwing the book in the recycle bin myself. It gives me a mental out, kind of like giving one member of a firing squad a blank round. ---
**Author:** ![perfectparanoia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@perfectparanoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/perfectparanoia)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2012, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-might-need-that-one-day-hoarding/627280/107 "2012-07-11T15:36:53Z")
> [@jabiru](#): > > My husband is one of your crowd. Every time he upgrades his computer, he ends up with a pile of cables which he needs to keep ‘just in case’. It got so that I couldn’t close the drawer they were kept in, so he got the ultimatum. In the end, he threw the lot out because he had no idea what cable was for what purpose. I used a great deal of patience with my husband in this regard. I took the ‘cable ball’ (seriously they were so tangled they all came out of the bin together), carefully seperated each cable, asked what it was for, coiled it up properly and put a zip tie on it to keep it that way. Once they were all laid out, we discovered that there were power cords for things we no longer owned, five printer cables, etc. He got rid of a bunch of them and now (since they are organized and coiled) we can actually find one when we need it. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2012, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-might-need-that-one-day-hoarding/627280/108 "2012-07-11T16:58:32Z")
> [@troubledwater](#): > > Just for the record - I don’t donate expecting that that particular library will have that particular book available to me at some unknown future time. I do it because I know they use the donations for book sales to raise funds to buy the items they **do** want, and the odds seem high that I can obtain the book somehow, somewhere, should I ever decide I want to read _A Tale of Two Cities_ again. In the meantime, it isn’t cluttering up my house. When it’s something like a Dickens novel, yes, you can probably get it again. I read science fiction and fantasy, though, and in most cases, once a book or magazine passes out of my hands it’s going to be very hard to find it again. It’s somewhat easier nowadays, with the internet, but still a great many books have been recycled or thrown away, and they are unlikely to be printed again. ---
**Author:** ![troubledwater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f4b2a3/32.png) [@troubledwater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/troubledwater)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2012, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-might-need-that-one-day-hoarding/627280/109 "2012-07-12T00:52:09Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > When it’s something like a Dickens novel, yes, you can probably get it again. I read science fiction and fantasy, though, and in most cases, once a book or magazine passes out of my hands it’s going to be very hard to find it again. It’s somewhat easier nowadays, with the internet, but still a great many books have been recycled or thrown away, and they are unlikely to be printed again. Well yeah. Charles Dickens goes. For science fiction, even Ray Bradbury goes. Fredric Brown stays! At the end of the day, that what it’s about, for me - I had to get over the generalized concept of “It’s a book, I’m keeping it” to which books are really worth keeping. Rinse, repeat for everything, really. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2012, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-might-need-that-one-day-hoarding/627280/110 "2012-07-12T00:56:41Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > I don’t keep all of them, just _some_ of them. You still need to know what use the “some” are; he never does. ---
**Author:** ![nashiitashii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7c8e57/32.png) [@nashiitashii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nashiitashii)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2012, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-might-need-that-one-day-hoarding/627280/111 "2012-07-12T10:32:46Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > And I just used my hole punch a couple of days ago. I started a new cross stitch project, and I punched holes in a couple of index cards, and sorted my floss, and put the floss in the holes. Oh, and I labeled the colors, too, with both the DMC numbers and the symbol that the project uses. Very handy. I wish I were that organized with my Massive Craft Stash, but I am married to a Chaos Muppet. Any major organization I do with it is ruined the first time he needs something from it for his own arts or crafts. > [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > But what _else_ are you supposed to do with it, if you have a 20-year-old copy of a gynecological textbook in Spanish that you no longer want? I sold my copy of my evil thermodynamics textbook (bad book, bad class) to Half Price Books for the same reason. I can’t think of any reason why anyone else would want it, but I wanted it out of the house, and Half Price Books can recycle it. Throw it away. It may sound harsh, but that’s what libraries do with books that are weeded that nobody wants from the give-away/sales carts. We don’t just hang onto them forever, hoping someone will need it once it’s two generations out of date. > [@Edward\_The\_Head](#): > > But how are you going to do that if everyone has thrown away the hole punch? If you’d read along in the sentence, you’d see I added two options there. 😛 But yes, excessive throwing away of things leads to just as many problems as hoarding all the things. ---
**Author:** ![liberty3701](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@liberty3701](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liberty3701)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2012, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-might-need-that-one-day-hoarding/627280/112 "2012-07-12T13:39:29Z")
You can also donate weird unwanted books to [the Book Thing](http://www.bookthing.org/). They’ll take anything, and people often go there specifically to get the weirdest stuff possible. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2012, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-might-need-that-one-day-hoarding/627280/113 "2012-07-12T14:09:56Z")
> [@jabiru](#): > > My husband is one of your crowd. Every time he upgrades his computer, he ends up with a pile of cables which he needs to keep ‘just in case’. It got so that I couldn’t close the drawer they were kept in, so he got the ultimatum. In the end, he threw the lot out because he had no idea what cable was for what purpose. As a computer person who also keeps all manner of “old” cables, I have to say it can actually be very useful. Not sure where your gadget’s charger is? Oh look, here’s a mini USB cable in my Cablearium. Want to move the printer and realise it’s now slightly too far from the computer for the cable to reach? How convenient, there’s a longer one in Martini’s Cable Emporium! Visiting friend wants to connect their laptop to the TV to share their holiday photos and forgot the connecting cable? There’s a pretty good likelihood Cablerama by Martini has the right one. And that’s without getting into the fact a lot of printers and AV products nowadays don’t come with the connecting cables, so having spares (if not for yourself, then for friends and family) is, IMHO, practical. ---
**Author:** ![Corcaigh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Corcaigh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corcaigh)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2012, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-might-need-that-one-day-hoarding/627280/114 "2012-07-14T00:23:30Z")
> [@nashiitashii](#): > > Did your mom do a lot of sewing? My mom did stuff like that, but she also used a lot of her collection in regular sewing projects. I seem to remember her hand making all (or most) of my clothes, I don’t remember her making anyone else’s clothes, only mine (in those days it was much cheaper to make your own clothes). I don’t remember her using her stored buttons or zips on anything though… ---
**Author:** ![Alison106](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@Alison106](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alison106)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2013, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-might-need-that-one-day-hoarding/627280/115 "2013-03-09T22:38:22Z")
That’s what my boyfriend calls it. I say it’s not a word, but I see a few people using it here. Can’t you just give the hole punch to the Goodwill, or sell it on eBay if it’s not too much trouble? It probably IS too much trouble, but I search for everything there. When my favorite cork-backed metal ruler went missing, there one was, for $1 (plus maybe $3-4 in shipping). I’m sure it’s not worth the effort to sell things for $1, but I hate to see good stuff wasted. At least donate stuff, for god’s sake, anything that’s any good at all, instead of cramming landfills with recyclable stuff. :eek: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-might-need-that-one-day-hoarding/627280.md?page=5)