Archer57 wrote on 2025-07-01, 07:29:
Old computers are not my only hobby, there are also 3D printers, flashlights an whatnot.
Wife... i guess i should be really grateful, but we've agreed to one simple thing a long time ago - do not spoil other one's enjoyment when they got something they are really excited about which seems useless/stupid to you. Yes, this includes old computers, 100s shoes, whatever. But for this to work obviously both sides also have to stay reasonable and not try to turn the apartment into hoarder's den...
A threat to throw away without consent? Honestly i can not really imagine doing that, from one side or the other. That's either a last ditch attempt to deal with "hoarder's den" situation, or complete lack of respect. My reaction would be an unpleasant conversation to figure out which one it is, not hurrying to discard something i do not want to.
Sounds similar to the situation with my wife and I.
No doubt, we have too much stuff, and we both have similar struggles with parting with things, but we own our (really old, decrepit, but largish) home so it isn't like we don't have space. We've been married close to 15 years and I can't imagine just throwing away something of hers or her doing that to me. She is also well aware of the fact that me reselling computer stuff that I find\test\repair ends up making a real difference for us financially. I'm entirely self employed (doing mostly non-computer related work), and she's supportive of whatever side work I do that allows us to spend more time together with our daughter or doing other important things. I've probably actually sold 2% of what I've collected in the past 10 years of purposeful collecting, though it is often the slightly more valuable or easier to sell items that go.
If I were in an apartment I would definitely have turned down a lot more stuff over the years, but I have made good use of this space. If I find a good deal on a pile of stuff, I have space to be opportunistic while still leaving plenty of space to have a bunch of people over if we want.
My biggest dilemma of course is when I manage to put together some really nice setup that I would love to just have permanently set up on display, ready to use. Like, my loaded IBM 5150+5153 that I've put a lot of work into (currently set up in the corner of my wife's office if you can believe that... 🤣) , IBM PS/2 Model 90, Apple IIe, or the various other "maxed out" PCs I've put together... or all the CRTs I've hoarded collected. I want them all out on display somewhere, ready to use, but that is just not practical.
Anyway, long story short, we'd be just as content with none of this junk around, but since we currently have the space and I am able to fund the hobby, build the value of my collection and pay some bills with this stuff, I am able to keep doing this without really even having any strictly agreed on rules about where stuff goes or how much I have.
If I end up with anything huge (like the complete retail boxed 1993 Dell system + crt I bought, refurbished and resold), I try to move that stuff on relatively quickly unless it is just so incredible cool that I must keep it. Once in a while I will also do a massive culling of "fluff", but that mostly consists of used\junked 10-15 year old office machines that I've been given as well as boxes full of junk cards\boards that I have gone through that are only good for scrap. The idea is to keep reducing the amount of stuff that has little or no value and keep increasing the "density" of the rare\interesting\valuable stuff in the collection.
