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Hire a Dump Skip or Buy Mountaineering Boots, Harness etc re accessing my Workshop Clutter

inotarobot

inotarobot

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Joined
Feb 7, 2014
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1,209
Location
Melbourne, Australia
Hi all at this Easter Time in 2026. I am posting this I need some advice re some computer items 'keep' value.

Yes I can be a Bunny, but no I don't have a fluffy tail. LOL

I admit it.. YES I AM A HOARDER, like many in my Family and Generation.

Well the crunch has come, that I am SO over climbing over ( hence my Mountaineering kit buy comment) or squeezing past things to get to other things I cannot recall where they are, in either my electronics/ computer workshop or my lathe/milling machine mechanical workshop, that its time to DOWNSIZE in massive way.

I am keeping the old test equip kit and certainly my older computers.

What I am struggling with is to throw out/scrap for waste value, items like modems, switches, routers, as much of the older cabling and power packs (wall warts), smaller LCD screens, desk top pcs (Gigbyte etc era) I have that I have NOT used in years.
Have many daughter boards (not the very early ones) that are gathering dust.

Plus mid 1970-2007 test equipment or monitoring kit that is incomplete.

Pre COVIT Ewaste disposal places that I had access to, no longer allow one to scrummage for items.

So what I have is certain items that are more industrial and unlikely to come up for sale or like , but I doubt anyone would actually want to collect

But I don't have room to turn around etc and have a clean bench to work on.

So a lot needs to go.

Thought and suggestions please ?
 

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Interesting I have 61 views so far in last approx 24hrs, but no comments, or thoughts.

I am certain I am not the first, nor the last to reach such a 'cross road' re my Collection etc.

This morning, 1st Tuesday after Easter holidays, I rang to get quotes on a having large dump bin delivered.
 
My general rule is that if you forgot you had it, you don't need it. If you are still having trouble letting go, consider if the item would still be important if you were diagnosed with a terminal illness tomorrow.

Check sold prices on ebay to see if something is worth listing vs just tossing.
 
I'd guess that lots of folks on here reside in a country (on a continent?) that isn't Australia.

Consequently, I'd imagine that shipping anything from there to somewhere else, especially if it weighs more than 5-10 lbs, is probably prohibitively expensive for the average person. You know, unless they're desperate and/or flush with spending money.

Seems a shame to throw stuff away that isn't strictly trash, but then I suppose collecting/hoarding is a common issue. And, as always, the definition of trash vs. treasure can be highly subjective.

If you know anybody that'd be willing to drive over and relieve you of unwanted stuff, might be worth contacting them.
 
Istarian said:
I'd guess that lots of folks on here reside in a country (on a continent?) that isn't Australia.

Consequently, I'd imagine that shipping anything from there to somewhere else, especially if it weighs more than 5-10 lbs, is probably prohibitively expensive for the average person. You know, unless they're desperate and/or flush with spending money.

Seems a shame to throw stuff away that isn't strictly trash, but then I suppose collecting/hoarding is a common issue. And, as always, the definition of trash vs. treasure can be highly subjective.

If you know anybody that'd be willing to drive over and relieve you of unwanted stuff, might be worth contacting them.
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Agreed. Add that the two photos posted mix together "stuff that you intend to keep" and "stuff to dispose" without any clue which might be which. I looked at the photos when you first posted and threw up my hands in despair of figuring out what in there might be available and valuable to me. I recently acquired some boards from the HP Museum and even after shipping to the US they were worth it to me.

IMO you need to do the sorting first (have space?) and then show folks the "to go" stuff in some modestly organized and visible/recognizable manner. Of your descriptions IMO "mid 1970-2007 test equipment or monitoring kit that is incomplete." (and maybe "more industrial") might be the most amenable to shipping and include various low-availability bits that others desire for their test setups and would pay even trans-Pacific shipping costs. And there are specialty forums where those sorts of folks lurk :-}.

PC-era and microprocessor stuff probably belongs in the tip unless it's particularly small and unusual (e.g., transputers) given your location or there's someone local with a moving van :-}. You're going to have to sort it eventually, so start now. If temporary space is an unsolvable problem then consider filling the tip with the not-unusual PC-era stuff first, then see what's left in your set-aside pile ... and tell us about that :-}.

If space-available means straight into the tip without any sorting/set-aside then it's either just that or first creating an inventory-in-place of everything "unusual" and sharing that information with us.
 
Having or making space for sorting is critical for this type of effort (such as when I've moved or helped people move), even if you have to buy or rent some folding tables.
Sorting them at least into piles of similar items could go a long way into finding people interested in them

As far as "disposal", consider posting some things at the "free" areas of Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, or the Aussie-equivalents, in addition to offering some for sale. At the very least getting rid of some items for free means less waste and weight in the skip.
 
Thank you all for the helpful advice. As has been commented my huge issue is BLANK Space to Sort. My electronics workshop - Vintage Computer Collection room is a free standing building 6m long by 2.3m wide. As is it located remote of the house, its reapply impossible to move items up there for sorting. There is one door that opens to outdoors to an NON covered unpaved area, so putting things outside to sort on tables (as suggested) is limited by 1. the weather which is so changeable & 2. we have 2 cars parked here, with the 1 closest a 1952 Austin A30 not running; 3 how muddy the remaining available ground gets.

Earlier this Feb-March I had been working to sort out my lathe and milling machine / mechanical area, which is a narrow lean to on side of house. So I set up some temporary benches to put items out on. Due some family medical issues needing me to be driver, this was not a task that took just a day; and only left me spasmodic 1/2 days between available time to gt on. So I covered the benches in a few new $30 Asian made Tarps bought from $2 shop. They were large so I doubled them over and left the area for a few days. YES it f..king rained super heavy. The makeup of the tarp material let water that had pooled seep though, of course into a lot of bits. really depressing. More kit ruined. So trying same with the electronics room items would be a take out in morning sort and put back. I have done this and its not working well enough.

I think the sorting at moment really comes down to my 'biting the bullet' and getting on with it in short little bursts focusing on sub areas to clear the middle of the room.

It is tiring mentally. BUT its not an impossible task
 
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You need a roll archive (or whatever it's called in English)!
Don't know how easy/hard it's to find one in your area, but over here in Sweden it seems like if you put in a search notification thing (or look regularly) you can find a second hand one for a decent price.
If you can select between a few different ones, I'd recommend one that can handle the most common depth of whatever you want to store, and also one that is just slightly lower than the ceiling height of your room (including whatever height the footers of the roll archive eats up) so you have enough space for ceiling lights.
Also you really need to have a concrete floor or something similarly sturdy, or a way to stop the carriages from moving on their own. I have wooden floors and the carriages tend to roll on their own (slowly, but still) unless I somehow stop them from doing so. Mine does unfortunately not have those large wheels used to move the carriages, they only roll on their small wheels with no brakes and just regular handles on the side of the carriages, so no way to simply block that type of wheel from rotating to keep the carriages in place.
I recommend using regular non-moveable shelves at each end of the roll archive (unless an end also would block an entrance and thus needs to be moveable).

(And yes, sure, in theory it's possible to do something about the hoarding, but where's the fun in that?)
 
MiaM said:
You need a roll archive (or whatever it's called in English)!
Don't know how easy/hard it's to find one in your area, but over here in Sweden it seems like if you put in a search notification thing (or look regularly) you can find a second hand one for a decent price.
If you can select between a few different ones, I'd recommend one that can handle the most common depth of whatever you want to store, and also one that is just slightly lower than the ceiling height of your room (including whatever height the footers of the roll archive eats up) so you have enough space for ceiling lights.
Also you really need to have a concrete floor or something similarly sturdy, or a way to stop the carriages from moving on their own. I have wooden floors and the carriages tend to roll on their own (slowly, but still) unless I somehow stop them from doing so. Mine does unfortunately not have those large wheels used to move the carriages, they only roll on their small wheels with no brakes and just regular handles on the side of the carriages, so no way to simply block that type of wheel from rotating to keep the carriages in place.
I recommend using regular non-moveable shelves at each end of the roll archive (unless an end also would block an entrance and thus needs to be moveable).

(And yes, sure, in theory it's possible to do something about the hoarding, but where's the fun in that?)
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I had access to one of a 6 bays of those for a few hundred dollars about 15 years back. Unfortunately there was an extremely short access time to get it, before building was demolished and sadly in a way i missed out on it.
would have been good // thanks for the suggestion. BTW the room I have 6.6m log by 2.3m wide has wooden floors and is elevated of the ground a few hundred mm, So the weight alone of one of them empty would be to much
 
inotarobot said:
I had access to one of a 6 bays of those for a few hundred dollars about 15 years back. Unfortunately there was an extremely short access time to get it, before building was demolished and sadly in a way i missed out on it.
would have been good // thanks for the suggestion. BTW the room I have 6.6m log by 2.3m wide has wooden floors and is elevated of the ground a few hundred mm, So the weight alone of one of them empty would be to much
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Re weight: The ones that are commonly found in Sweden, for office use rather than say car parts storage or other more industrial usages, are made of wood and not much heavier than a regular sturdy book shelf. (Somehow the shelves are still really sturdy).

Thinking about it it might be worth DIYing a roll archive? Mine uses rails that vaguely reminds of railway rails, except it's not a solid lump of metal in the center but rather it's a piece of flat metal that has four 90 degree bends, looking like the cross section of the type of hat that Melania Trump sometimes wear (for a lack of a better way of describing it). The wheels are made of solid metal, and it seems to just rely on the precision of everything to not derail, and/or perhaps wheels that have a slightly larger center diameter in combination with a rail where the center is slightly higher up than the sides tend to slightly force the wheels to self center? Or maybe not. Either way since each carriage only has to move about the width of a carriage derailment seems to not be a problem. Then just add any good enough bookshelf (or build one yourself) on top of the carriages.
 
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The top picture is of one of the 2 middle timber rolling benches prior to my starting to clean up today. The lower picture shows result after 3 hrs.
90% of what was in boxes has gone out in the trash bin that gets emptied by midday tomorrow.
8% was cables, that are for now stored in a box till I can sort through them. 1% was 6 hard drives and rest was nuts and bolts etc

The Carburetor in foreground is of one of my old stationary engines and the Big Brass hubcap is one of 2 of a 1902 Panhard et Levassour car rear axle
 
MiaM said:
Yes, exactly that type of roll archive!
(However unless you have golden pants I would think that used ones are the only reasonable way to go).
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I suppose that I've worked out a poor-man's version of that using light-weight assemble-yourself 19" racks (they're 19" deep) under which I've mounted robust wheels -- so not limited to tracks. Useful to mount light-weight equipment or shelves holding labeled cartons. They're not intended for display. Wire-rack shelving seems to be commonly used for display, but can also be used for storage. But in my tight space the 19" width is much more convenient than the wider widths required for wire-rack shelving. But none of these options are going to help the OP.
inotarobot said:
The top picture is of one of the 2 middle timber rolling benches prior to my starting to clean up today. The lower picture shows result after 3 hrs.
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Sounds about my speed :-}. Actually, probably a bit faster as the decision-making part is ... hard and rather painful :-{.
 
MiaM said:
Re weight: The ones that are commonly found in Sweden, for office use rather than say car parts storage or other more industrial usages, are made of wood and not much heavier than a regular sturdy book shelf. (Somehow the shelves are still really sturdy).

Thinking about it it might be worth DIYing a roll archive? Mine uses rails that vaguely reminds of railway rails, except it's not a solid lump of metal in the center but rather it's a piece of flat metal that has four 90 degree bends, looking like the cross section of the type of hat that Melania Trump sometimes wear (for a lack of a better way of describing it). The wheels are made of solid metal, and it seems to just rely on the precision of everything to not derail, and/or perhaps wheels that have a slightly larger center diameter in combination with a rail where the center is slightly higher up than the sides tend to slightly force the wheels to self center? Or maybe not. Either way since each carriage only has to move about the width of a carriage derailment seems to not be a problem. Then just add any good enough bookshelf (or build one yourself) on top of the carriages.
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I understand and will look at what IKEA has to buy in their Massive Store. .. I could easily build something like you suggest, but I think time is not really my friend and it is seriously time to get rid of the Clutter of bits that I have not used over last 20 years. I will however NOT get rid of anything that is either unique or collectable or quite old
 
The quality of IKEA stuff have unfortunately gone down over the years.

Either way, just having bookshelves that go more or less all the way up to the ceiling, rather than having piles of stuff either on the floor or on tables, saves a lot of space.

I would never throw out nuts and bolts unless it's clearly broken ones that have ended up among usable hardware.
(Especially for vintage computing for all of us who aren't in North America the North American non-metric hardware seems worth keeping even if it's not in perfect shape, as it takes time to mail order replacement hardware while the metric stuff is available in shops everywhere. (Heck, I've even bought som assortment of mixed nuts (and washers) at the Lidl supermarket :D )
 
as you can see from the 3 photos in my last pst I actually make use of 19" racks and also LIGHT DUTY Pallet racking. The shelving insert in that blue pallet racking horizontal beams is 3/4" / 19mm chip board and is strong enough to handle the weight without bowing. the longitudinal span of these bays is 2m so in my 6m long workshop I can get 3 bays along the 1 long windowless wall
 
inotarobot said:
as you can see from the 3 photos in my last pst I actually make use of 19" racks and also LIGHT DUTY Pallet racking. The shelving insert in that blue pallet racking horizontal beams is 3/4" / 19mm chip board and is strong enough to handle the weight without bowing. the longitudinal span of these bays is 2m so in my 6m long workshop I can get 3 bays along the 1 long windowless wall
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Very nice indeed (!), but only the rack is moveable and therefore could be relocated to easily access anything behind it. I was riffing on the rolling archive shelves suggestion where several layers deep of accessible shelving in front of fixed-shelving/storage is the objective. I'm mostly two-to-three moveable layers deep, which is IMO much better than several-deep piles, no matter how high and densely stacked :-}.
 
pbirkel said:
Very nice indeed (!), but only the rack is moveable and therefore could be relocated to easily access anything behind it. I was riffing on the rolling archive shelves suggestion where several layers deep of accessible shelving in front of fixed-shelving/storage is the objective. I'm mostly two-to-three moveable layers deep, which is IMO much better than several-deep piles, no matter how high and densely stacked :-}.
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30 years ago I would have 1000% agreed with you. However I am now almost 75 and I really now need to to get rid of anything that would likely go in a 3 layer deep, and in fact anything that would go in a second layer.

By the coming Christmas any instrument or Computer I have not powered up and have proven still runs well, I plan to dispose of... UNLESS it is a critical Main instrument to tasks I still need to complete by time I am 80

Or that item is especially rare or unique, that I can lift without a lot of effort I will keep !!! Sadly that rules out my PDP-8e racked system that is now up for offers
 
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