h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm sure everyone,and that means you, have thrown out,gave away or sold something only to want it as soon as it is gone. Let it sit in the way for 10 years till you finally hoy it and the next day you are forced to go out and buy another one as it is desperately needed. As soon as you sell something it will immediately become a collectors item and be worth heaps.Now I hang on to everything...just in case, and I bet when the world and/or universe run out of rubber bands I will be laughing!

THAT explains my Mum's overstuffed house: she's terrified to discard anything for fear of not having just the right item when it's needed....even if there's a thiry-year gap between acquisition and use.

Fruitbat

The same law applies to trivia. It's important to keep track of every useless bit of information that enters your brain. You'll never know when you might need it. That last clue in the crossword, the idle chit-chat you're forced into with your boss, the subject the object of your affections is a world-expert on...

My dad had some 1 1/4" conduit fittings which he'd been keeping since 1956. In the mid-1980s he decided that, not having needed them for 30 years, he probably never would. In the bin they went. The next day a new residual current device was delivered. I bet you can't guess what size the knockouts were, can you?

Result: dustbin upturned, and nothing thrown away since. But nothing.

for many yearsI hoarded and collected every thing. When I left home as a boy I had 1 suit case. In a few months I had 2 suit cases. In less than 1 year I had 2 suit cases and 2 boxes. Now travelling was dificult. Error 1 I bought a car. So the hoarding was well under way. At first I could load up the car and move, but soon it took 2 trips. By the time I married (old fashion me) it was taking all day to move. Any way I stopped moving, the last move took 4 days. One day I was looking at the now mountain of "stufff" and said "I think I'll chuck it all away and do a bit of travelling again. SO I loaded up the truck and to the tip I went, HORRROR I had to pay a lot of money to dump my prise possesions (I had to prise my fingers away from each bit) and I still had several loads to go. With the job half done, I could stand it no longer (nor afford it) and decided that I will be buried with the rest.
with in 2weeks I had found a use for every single piece of treasure
that lost. So now I am faced with the catch 22 = do it now while it can still be dumped, or face a totally uncertain future should it become mandatory by law and tooo expensive.