OT: Storage problem

My immediate problem is that I have tons of steel stored in a place that has been free to me but will start costing me $50/mo at the beginning of 2008. Every time I need steel for a project, I save tens to hundreds of dollars by having it. Whether I can count on saving $600 a year in the future is debatable---particularly since some of my past projects could have been done some other way but I used steel because I had it. That makes it hard to calculate its actual value.

Here are my options:

1. Pay for the storage.
2. Give it away. (The college welding program will send a truck to haul it for scrap.)
3. Sell if for scrap myself. (Probably only a break even option---many trips in my small truck or a truck rental expense.)
4. Move it to the last place I've still got room for it---140 miles R/T. I've got other materials stored there which usually results in me buying things I already have so that I won't have to spend 4 hours going to get something.

Selling the steel for more than a U-haul scrap price isn't a reasonable option because there's not enough of any one thing to interest anyone with a specific need.

I'm hoping someone here will suggest something that will make me think, "Why didn't I think of that?" but all opinions are welcome. Often a problem viewed from a distance is clearer than it is to the person who's wallowing in it.

Stan

Here are the results as of the writing of this post:

KEEP--13
Crem--container
Slowpoke--container
VaTom--stash
Murray--keep
NTP--keep
JT--keep
stronics (David)--keep
Bill in N central PA--neighbor
led--neighbor
Ted in Ne OH--container
railhead--neighbor, or anything before tossing
dr sportster--keep everything
Bob Farrell--KEEP IT

CULL--5
Billy NY--conditional keep
Charles (in GA)--cull
Nolan--keep only best
Dick2--be more discriminating
RegoR--downsize

TOSS--3
rockyhawaii--toss, then get more
T_Bone--toss, then get more
Blue3992 (N Illinois)--toss, keep best stuff

I hope I didn't mis-categorize anyone. I think it's interesting that there were not only few votes for tossing, but that position was also stated with mixed feelings. How could it be otherwise? I didn't expect, or even want, suggestions from people who have never had to deal with this situation.

Thanks again, Stan

I got my lesson from an old (even older than me) machinist who seems to always come up with the steel I'm needing if I don't have it. Doesn't matter if it's something special for gear manufacture, or just a piece to repair my wife's exercise machine, Carl's got it. Usually where he can find it.

He retired from GE and got a lot of scrap along the way. Storing it all. Needed a new cutting bar for my Cat with an 8' bucket. No problem, which thickness did I want? That sort of thing.

Fantastic resource. Good luck with yours.

My best friend shared your "keep everything" philosophy (as I also always have, for the most part), and he was better at it than me. I had more indoor storage space than he did, though inconveniently scattered through 5 counties, but he had acreage around his enormous house. One time I told him that minding all the mostly useless crap I owned was dragging me down and I was thinking of getting rid of just about all of it. His completely serious response was, "If you ever decide to really do that, give it to me and I'll keep it for you until you come to your senses."

All the best, Stan

However, son accumulates and accumulates and hates to part with anything.

These days, I'm trying to get rid of the junk, and keep the treasures. Junk being things I haven't touched for years on end. Doesn't mean I trashed everything, but a lot of it has gone to making other packrats very happy.

Charles

Me? I get tired of clutter. I'd get rid of almost all of it. If you have some really handy stock (say a good 10 foot long piece of 1" angle iron), maybe keep it, but get rid of the rest.

I think a good way to decide whether or not to toss something is "Have I used it in the past six months?" If you haven't then chances are you won't need it, and you can toss it.

I was in a similar situation a while back. Dear old Dad coudln't bear to throw anything away. Had a scrap iron pile that rivaled the junk yard. When Dad passed on, I couldn't decide whether or not to get rid of it. I ended up getting rid of it all. The result is I take an occassional extra trip to Farm and Fleet to get iron, but I also have a clean yard and barn and don't have to look at a huge ugly iron pile.

Any way, good luck.

Bill

You need to cull out the least useful of the steel, based on size, condition and other factors, call the school and tell them to come and get it, they certainly need it.

As for the rest of it, hopefully you will have culled it down to a size that you can deal with, moving elsewhere, or your own shop.

If you are not doing projects on a nearly weekly basis, you probably don't need much that cannot be purchased when needed. If you are saving it for that once or twice a year task, you have way too much. One scrap metal place here pulls out the good stuff, the angle iron, channel iron, steel tubing, plate, etc that they get and make a row of stuff off to the side. You can go and buy any of it for a quarter a pound and they will even torch off a smaller piece in most cases, for you. They too cull the stack, if it sits too long, it goes in the truck to haul off, they do this once or twice a year.

I stopped just the other day. Sold 400 lbs of old brake rotors, shocks, lawnmower, and such, and looked at the steel lineup for a plate about 3/8" thick for a welding table top. They had 3" thick and some stuff about 1/8 or so and that was it. I'll check later.

Charles

There is no doubt about clutter and the space it takes up, sooner or later it will box you in, best thing to do is to compromise and see what you may really need for future use, kind of a hard call to make, if you really don't have any future use, or can reasonably think of any to justify the cost of local storage, now it's down to moving it and knowing what you have, forcing you to always plan ahead if you need to draw from it at your place or just plain getting rid of it period. It is a good to purge ones place if cluttered, but it's always nice to have some neat and orderly storage that provides you access to materials and things that you do use.

I think the most indecisive problems I've ever had are along these lines, materials and other useful things kept at home, what to get rid of and what to keep. One thing that helps is the fact that prices of all goods are so expensive, so if you do have the room and know that sooner or later a fair amount will get used keep it, if not, send it down the road and don't look back.

Easy to say, I've had a fair amount of clutter in the past, but have always been able to get to what I need, have also surprised myself as to things I've kept when I actually used them, but had considered tossing.

I've got enough room that surplus steel will always have a home, even if it's bridge-sized. If you came to me with an offer to share the wealth in exchange for the storage, I'd help you move it in my large truck.

That's exactly what I did with the rebar which comprised about 1/2 the steel I previously owned. I told a friend with a dump truck that he could have half of it if he would haul all of it to his place and keep it there. Unfortunately, he has no interest in the rest of the steel. He's a landscaper and does a lot of concrete work, but I can't get him to show even a flicker of interest in welding and metal fab.

All the best, Stan