I have a habit I guess most modelers have, not throwing anything out if it has any possible use in the future. I just finished this model (see photo) and needed something to look like dirt/cinders/ashes on the floor and ground of this burned out structure. I had a bottle of ‘dirt’ that I saved from the floor sander that my dad used to ‘level’ the asphalt?? whatever kitchen floor in our house in NY back in the late 1950’s to early 1960’s (don’t remember what year but I graduated HS in 1959?). I saved a paper bag of this stuff thinking I could use it on our American Flyer layout. Fifty some years later I finally had ‘the project’ I was saving it for. Really worked great and I still have some left for another future project.
Kind of along the lines of Earl Smallshaw’s burned down fire extinguisher company. It does happen - one of the local fire companies here nearly burned down their fire station hosting a pancake breakfast, something caught on fire in the kitchen and started to spread. No one was hurt and the alarm response time was, well, instantaneous. Good for a chuckle now, since no one got hurt. I can only imagine the comments that crew got when responding to calls afterwards.
Don’t tell anyone - I am a box saver. If something comes in a box, it gets taken to the basement and stuffed under the steps. My reasoning??? If and when I move, I can pack whatever it was back in the original box and move it. It worked for three moves, but I am running out of room for boxes. Maybe another flight of stairs…
That goes for me too! I save the boxes from cereal (great for making mock-ups and good for a multitude of other uses too!). I just started saving drink straws when I’m at restaurants (good for piping, drainage pipes, structure pillars, etc). Wooden coffee stirs are also useful for a lot of things. Just plain 'ol 20 lb. bond printer paper has many uses as well. I also go out in the fall, when plants are dormant and clip and/or gather up everything from weeds to small shrub branches for trees and weeds. There are many other things that I collect but they don’t come to mind right at the moment.
At that date, there’s a good chance that the kitchen floor was vinyl-asbestos tiles. Once glued in place, it should be perfectly safe, but I wouldn’t fluff it around too much. [swg]
I was telling my older sister about this last week and she said the same thing; It could contain asbestos! So I sealed the entire model with a flat clear spray. If I remember correctly my dad had to heat the tiles before laying them down as they were very brittle.
My wife, kids, and neighbors will attest to my being a “pack rat”. They have fun with that, but when a repair part or tool is needed, who do they come to - me. My neighbor once said - after saying his kids thought I was “Mr. Wilson” of Home Improvement - “you know, you have every tool a guy could want in your garage… but only you could find it”.
On the MR front, I definitely keep all the boxes. As I have downsized and upgraded my HO stuff over the years, the excess has been sold on Ebay. Having the boxes is a major plus in that regard.
One thing I would urge newcomer MRs on is to maintain “scrap” boxes - for excess structure parts, scratch building stuff, scenery components, etc., etc. This will prove invaluable as the MR years go by.
“Pack rat, collector, saver, thrifty, cheapskate, , any of these terms seem to fit in this column, regardless of what you call yourself be reminded of the consequences: I had to clean up a few " collectors” houses in the last few years and 2 of the worst had model trains, boxes and boxes and boxes of stuff and crap went to the dump, simply not enough time or money to sift through piles of material, there was that much junk, sure a few things were saved but most was in the dumpster, we tried to let people know of the disposition, no one showed up and it had to be gone in a very short time.
So if you are plotting revenge on your family (and it sounds like you are) keep “collecting” more stuff. as George Carlin said, "getrid of stuff so you can get more stuff" he was right.
Well now, there are pack rats and there are Pack Rats!
My hundreds of MR car and loco boxes are all neatly stacked on shelves - in a climate controlled closet. My other MR stuff is in storage boxes or the plastic bins. Its a lot of stuff, but it is organized and there is no true garbage in there.
Yes, I have seen folks that just dump their excess anywhere and everywhere, but some of us “rats” are neat, organized, and clean.
Hundreds- - hundreds? and the reason to have hundreds is …
So neatly stacked and organized on shelves constitutes not “dumped excess” but the same articles not neatly stacked are “dumped excess”? ? I don’t think being referred to as a “rat” is necessarily a compliment.
