Hiatus and Mercury :)

[Denise]

My Week on haitus!

First off, a big thank you to Tafische and Crabman for helping out the admin during my absence! I especially appreciated the help!

So where was I? I encountered first hand a hoarder’s world! Two weeks ago, we started the cleaning process of a geriatric relative’s home. What we thought would take a week, wound up to be two! This house and garage had a 43 year accumulation of everything imaginable; they threw nothing away! I was dumbfounded to find numerous amounts of the same items both personal and general in nature. I lost count on the trips we made to the dump, but it was something like 15+. We made another four runs to Good will. Thank God for Craigslist as we were able to find folks who could haul off all the scrap metal from the backyard (shed) and garage for free including an ancient rusty motor home in the driveway that hasn’t worked in about 10 years (LOL No it wasn’t a Jayco!). Most scrap yards wanted us to pay them to pick it up. We also found people to buy some of the bigger ticket items like a wood lathe, rotary saw, compressor, acetylene torch, welder, etc etc for a higher price than we would have got at a garage sale! What’s left now is just enough to have a garage sale.

Does anyone know what mercury looks like? OMG, we were pecking our way through the piles in the garage when I came across yet another jar of something. But the contents of this jar looked realllllllllllllly kewl. I held it up and swished it around so Don could see the neat silver and grey liquid dancing with each other. Who knew, but Don calmly told me to “gently” put the glass jar down! He said it was mercury! He boxed it up with lots of padding. We wound up taking it along with the other ton of rusty paint/oil/poison cans to the chemical dump facility in our town. The tech there told us that one drop of the mercury in the garage would have required a clean-up of the entire house/garage! Earlier that day, another glass jar broke. I’m glad there wasn’t mercury in that one!

Pics below show some of the rooms and the garage of the house prior to cleaning. I’m not posting the bathroom pics, as some of you may have a queasy tummy

[Crabman]

Glad you`re back. This is a well behaved group. Anytime we can help just ask. -Lee

[clutch]

Healthi, I know about years of accumulated things. Sallie and I had to help clean out my parents house and shop. That is where a lot of the stuff in my wrecked shed came from. Her mothers house had a 50+ year accumulation and her dad's house had around 25.

I think I will really start gathering things so our boys will get in of some of the fun we had.:hihi:

Mercury is far over rated. We used to break thermometers to get the precious liquid and play with it. We are all right all right all right al....

Heck our whole town would be a disaster area by today's standards.

[cekkk]

Hoarding, wow. A friend and his wife just went into assisted living a couple months ago and we went to their house. Hard to walk around in. But the basement had 20 or 30 hi ticket power tools like a Shopsmith, hundreds of clamps, hundreds of ceramics molds, handtools by the gross. But the triple garage was a sight. a walk-around path circling stuff piled eight to ten feet high. Saw a boat in the middle, dozens of US flags. Makes you wonder what's going on in their heads.

[Denise]

Originally Posted by clutch

Mercury is far over rated. We used to break thermometers to get the precious liquid and play with it. We are all right all right all right al....

Heck our whole town would be a disaster area by today's standards.

You know, we asked Gorbet where his little jar of mercury came from. He couldn't remember, but Don thinks he did the same thing over the years - broke thermometers and drained the liquid into the jar.

[wiscampsin]

Glad your back. Tafische and Crabman kept us in line. Looks and sounds like you had quite a project on your hands.

[kjohn73]

Hmm. A fair bit of stuff there....

I am constantly trimming my "stock" of good stuff. It gets easier after you realize that some of the crap will never get used for anything, plus there is some room to actually use for something...well... useful.:hihi:

[clutch]

At some point in ones life you just have to realize that no matter how much you have accumulated you can't take it with you. You will just end up with a bunch of relatives selling off things for a few cents on the dollar.

As for me- - - -if I can't take it with me I ain't gonna go.:hihi:

[clutch]

Healthi, I didn't notice the pictures you posted until now. You certainly had a job on your hands. The basement in Sallie's mothers house resembled that shop picture.