I have been having thoughts about people who like myself collect things from a past age.
Is it normal behaviour or are we all nut cases?
All my life I have salvaged items that have been discarded by others in case it would come in handy one day and in many instances when I have decided to throw it away after many years the very next day I have found I needed it.
Every available bit of storage space is crammed with some item of Junk and my family have long since ceased to hope that I will have a clear out.
My Son thinks I am a bit mad and says that when I have gone to the Great Scrapyard in the sky it will cost him a fortune to hire skips. I suppose he hopes these remarks will spur me on to sorting it all out but up to now his words have had no effect.
What do others think are we being rational in our behaviour.?
Regards
George.

Nope, you are an eccentric according to the normal rules! but then again "What is normal"?
But people hoarding stuff have a very useful function - that is one reason why Beamish Museum is as good as it is! The founder (Frank Atkinson) had a policy of accepting all items offered, the system is a little more selective now.
The salvage and re-use of other people's throwaways is a very good means of re-cycling! (I get accused of the pastime of "skip-diving" on a regular basis!)
I have accumulated a lot of useful stuff that way, such as various tools that have needed only minor repairs are a prime example.
Some selectivity is a good idea, and processing/repairing items needs to be a regular activity, hopefully more goes out than comes in. A chap I know makes a very good sideline income by this very practice.
StoneRoad

Quite right. Anyway it is them wot are wierd, not us. Wierdness is in the eye of the beholder, or something.

Welcome to the forum.