"There is just too much " Topic

OK this is a first world problem and I do not want to sound as if I am whining, but I do not have room for all the miniatures, rules, terrain, etc. Let me set the stage, for the last five weeks every bit of my time not spent with work, or working gigs, has been spent on doing graduate school projects. I am done for now with the grad classes and have a brief two week break before classes start again. During the five weeks when I would be doing work on the computer in our den area which is on the first floor of our tri-level house, I had began to notice a strong musty smell. We have had almost two months of downpours and thunderstorms and I was concerned I had a moisture problem. Now the den is where my gaming stuff is as well as my art studio that share the same space. A very tiny space, in an area of the house that dose not get a lot of natural light. Well sure enough as I began to pull boxes, books, paper, and book shelves I found a green horror on the wood panel walls as well as on furniture and yes I lost some books that could not be saved. Long story short I had to pull everything out and douse everything with white vinegar and bought a ton of DampRid to help absorb the extra moisture. Heck, as I am writing this another thunderstorm is brewing up. I have good drainage and gutters around the house. The problem is that air does not flow well with all this stuff. At this moment the entire den, our entry way into the house, and the utility room has all my boxes of minis and other related items piled up. The wife is not happy. I am not happy, although I have attacked the mold and mildew and everything has a strong vinegar smell right now. Vinegar is potent stuff.

Anyway the point I am getting at is with all I have going on I cannot justify keeping all this gaming stuff when I do not have anywhere to store it safely with out cluttering up our house. For several years I have been culling down my collection in order to focus on just a few eras/genres (I am down to 14 from 25)and still I have a lot. As I sit here writing this I am looking about my wreck of a den. It is ten pm and I have to be at work tomorrow. So I will have this to still deal with when I get back home in the afternoon. I am at a point where I am considering just selling off everything or having a gamer's yard sale next weekend. I know I would have seller's remorse. However, in the end it is just things. They can be replaced. My home is my place to be non-stressed and my investment. Mold is bad. Any suggestions?

I once had the same problem with mold behind some book cases and cabinets because of a block wall not having been sealed properly.

However, I discovered that there are no problems that moving to a place with a 207m2 man-cave wont solve. Now I have plenty of room.

Board games. A friend had a vey similar problems with yours, then he switched to board games. They still take room, but more compact for the amount of gaming you get. You lost a little bit of creativ aspect, but can possibly play with family/relative and friends.

I'd have the air circulation system checked out and see if more vents can be added, may a whole house dehumidifier. Even if you toss almost all your stuff you might still have the moisture problem unless you do something about it.

At least keep a few treasured things in the garage and out of the way for now.

Try increasing the air circulation with a fan, arranging the room to allow air flow, if you haven't already. You may have to leave that fan on. You appear to be at your wits end, so get some rest, don't do anything rash. Consider sticking with your plan to reduce your collection. Good luck.

My daughter lives in Catawba County and suffered some minor basement flooding, probably the same storms that you experienced. Hopefully, all they lost is their carpet. As for storing your stuff, have you considered plastic storage boxes? Our Lowes has some big heavy-duty plastic storage boxes with lids on sale for about $10. USD I have some of these same boxes in my leaky garage and the contents stay perfectly dry. The boxes are very stackable, too, if your storage space is limited.

I am in the middle of a great sell-off and I feel relieved. I want to do a few things well and everything is is going bye-bye.

Tom mentioned it already, but I'd check into a dehumidifier. We have a basement that get's damp and musty as well. Once I put that in there, damp and musty smell went away. I've got to empty it once every day or so, but it's made a big difference.

If you've got concrete walls, you might also want to paint them with Drylock. That may help somewhat with moisture getting into the room. I've not done that yet, but it's on my list.

We do the fan thing as mentioned above,plus we throw in the furnace fan as well,to help circulate air throughout the house.Mold is bad-maybe rent a storage unit for awhile until you decide what youre going to do.

I have the fans going and I am looking into pricing on dehumidifiers. In the short term I have four DampRid buckets in strategic places in the den. The house as some of you have surmised is in Charlotte, North Carolina. Due to warming temperatures my area of the world is now classified as sub-tropical. It used to be temperate. Our winters have become so mild that you have to mow the yard year round.

I have rearranged the area as best as possible given the space. However, I still have all the boxes and other stuff to move back into my area. About half is in the clear plastic storage bins but the rest are in cardboard boxes or Plano tackle boxes. If I move it all back into the area I am back to same problem as I had before. I do have a storage building in the back yard which is due for an annual cleaning out. In fact there are parts of the collection already stored there. My concern with that is the storage building is not climate controlled and never will be. Therefore, I have concerns about the extreme temperature fluctuations we have in the South having an impact not so much on the miniatures but on terrain items. Adding more air vents while an option is also a very expensive home improvement.

@ Ooh Rah, yea Catawba County is getting as much rain if not more than we are in Mecklenburg. Of late a day hardly goes by that I do not receive a flash flood and/or sever thunderstorm warning on my cell phone. Thank you all for your suggestions and support. As Condotta correctly surmised I am at my wits end. I have been burning the candle at both ends and put a blow torch to the middle.

I feel for you. My game room flooded 4 times. I had to get all my downspouts redone and pipe the water away from the house. Lots of cost, but worth it. I lost a lot of game rules and such.

Plastic bins now just in case.

Don't sell everything. Maybe focus down to just a few eras or one scale.

Matthew

Every few years I conduct a Great Purge. I usually just give stuff away to friends. I tell myself that if I ever wanted it again, I could just borrow it from them, but in truth, I almost never miss anything once it's gone.

We have a small house by American standards (it would be a typical middle-class provincial home if it were in Britain.) So it's all the more important to get rid of things and not give in to the temptation to keep accumulating things when you're not using the things you already have.

If the truth be told, we're both in a process of downsizing, probably to sell the house and move back to an apartment, so a lot of my game/miniatures stuff will probably end up on Ebay or at a convention flea market, or just in the hands of friends, at some point in the next two years.

I think about it this way:

- I'm not "losing all that time" I invested in painting them, since I enjoyed that time, and then I enjoyed them after they were done.

- I'm not losing money, since that money was already gone, spent on those toys in the first place. And I certainly didn't have the money, once I had the stuff.

- And I'm not losing opportunities to play games with my friends, since my friends are still around, and it's fun to play pretty much anything with them; it's not the specific collections that made playing with them fun. It was just being with them.

Nothing is lost. Just purge.

Air movement and dehumidifiers are the way to go, accompanied by a purge. A window air conditioner may also be an idea, since A/C's tend to dry air out. Don't sell it all, just stuff you haven't touched in a while.

Thanks guys you are making this easier. Who Let the Trout Drive, your statement is sublime, thank you for your wisdom. OK, there is much to do.

Regards,

Kim

I feel for your sense of loss; I had the entire Squad Leader collection (the stuff before ASL), including all the scenario collections: scenarios 100, 200, 300, and Rogue scenarios. Had them stored in cardboard boxes in the patio closet for a long time, which got moisture from rain over the years. When I pulled them out at the time of my move, I found them to be covered with mold and had to get rid of them.

What Who Let the Trout Drive is so true. I still have figures from when I began miniature wargaming back in 1989/1990, but in sharing an apartment with my new bride, there is very little room to store it all. So I have been selling off most of my Avalon Hill games, and will probably sell a good portion of my miniatures too, so that I can focus on just a few cherished periods.

I remember giving away a collection of 1:2400 modern naval models and some scratchbuilt 1:1200 victorian ironclads to a friend, but I do not miss them, as we never play those games anymore. The memories of good times with frineds are more important than the things themselves.

That said, I think the advice from others to hold off on selling anything until you take care of the moisture/mold issue is right on. No need to make rash decisions about what to keep/throw away until you can afford the time to make reasoned decisions without feeling pressured.

Good luck

Also, the title of your post reminds me of a book on this subject of purging/de-cluttering titled "It's All Too Much: an Easy Plan for living a richer life with less stuff"

"Also, the title of your post reminds me of a book on this subject of purging/de-cluttering titled "It's All Too Much: an Easy Plan for living a richer life with less stuff"

I haven't read that book, but that's basically what my wife and I have decided to do. We're frankly sick of all the money and time spent on things; the endless cycle of maintenance and upkeep for a house, the taxes on it, the replacement and upgrading / updating of all the various gadgets as they inevitably break or wear out.

I want less.

Funny how a thread will morph and evolve. I agree I am tired of the upkeep, and want a simpler life.

When I was a broke-ass 20-something, this was easy. Lots of time, no money. But eventually you reach a point in your life where you start to realize that you have more money than time. And then it becomes a question of what you're willing to trade in order to make the best of your time.

As Timothesos has stated I am going to at least finish dealing with the problem at hand and temporarily store the majority of the collection in the storage building in plastic boxes until I have time to better assess what I am going to keep and what to let go.

It will be hard but this is a process that is long overdue.

Who let the trout drive is correct- When I separated from my last partner I went minimalist and loved it! I didn't sell my wargames things but most of the other trappings went west. Binned mostly, or, with lots of books to second hand book shops. Still mostly minimal but with more figures now!

I certainly dont miss all the GW stuff I sold,frankly glad I got my money back.

Anything I haven't used in over two years is usually sold, given away, or tossed in the bin. It helps keep the clutter to a minimum.

Well I have the mold and moisture problem under control and my studio/work area is almost back in order. There is still a lot of stuff. Keep in mind supplies for doing illustrations and other art can get out of hand as well. Maintaining paper stock can become a problem all in itself.

And to add insult to injury the clothes dryer and microwave gave up the ghost yesterday. Ah well I did begin this thread with these are first world problems. At least I have a home, a job and most everyone is well. So can't complain too much. Be looking for me renewing my TMP membership and posting some things in the Marketplace. And looks like I will have plenty to take to the Historicon Flea Market in 2014 if I wait that long.