Junk Box

Just what the name says. Every collection of good stuff has to have some place for the flotsam to accumulate. This is it.

If it's junk, delete it.

No, no! You miss the point. Every kitchen has a junk drawer. Every garage has a junk shelf. Every technician's bench has a junk box. You don't toss out the stuff that ends up there, you put it out of your immediate way. One day you may ask yourself, "Hey, where's that thingamajigger I almost discarded?" It will be clattering around in the junk box. It's just the right size, the right shape, and almost the right color. You can use it. It's right here in your hand. And you didn't even have to go to the hardware store.

Not at all. The stuff in the drawer is not true junk. One can alternatively help others by placing unwanted items outside, with a 'please take away' (or equivalent) label. This is much simpler than divorce. [Warning! Warning, Will Robinson! Cynicism approaching!]

Yepper. My point exactly. The name is "junk box," but the contents are not. At least, you don't know if the junkbox contents are kaka or not. Don't forget that one man's driftwood is another man's coffee table centerpiece. I tend towards the basement full of possibly-useful stuff, of course, so I need to occasionally be reminded that I am a PackRat.

Sounds like this idea is a variant of DeleteByMoving.

No, this is not the same. Go take a look at that page again; some new diatribe added. Refactor this text out when it is appropriate.

It depends on whether it's organized or not. There's a book on organizing/simpliying your stuff/life that recommends the following strategy:

1. If it has a monetary value, keep it, or better yet, sell it. 2. If it has sentimental value, keep it. 3. If it will ComeInHandySomeDay?, toss it.

Isn't the JunkBox just a place where we put things that will ComeInHandySomeDay??

Precisely. This is how I ended up with a basement full of that kind of crud. I'm hoping that this particular JunkBox will be used as more of a temporary buffer; a storage space for stuff that might come in handy - but only for a while. Folks will come here looking for their text that was refactored off of other pages or made passe by a more cogent argument. Sometimes I have contributed a particularly pleasing turn of phrase to Wiki only to have somebody step all over it with language that is less lovely but more accurate. Shucks. It's nice to come here looking for such bits and pieces, maybe to discover other folk's bits, but all of it has to go at some point.

While not strictly WikiRelated?, I would recommend amending that third rule to "If it will ComeInHandySomeDay?, and when that day comes it is readily replaceable, then toss it." For example, your University notes on some subject may not be currently applicable, but they will ComeInHandySomeDay?. But you can't just toss them and expect to be able to recover them again should it be required - they are irreplaceable (without going through university again). There are no doubt better examples, too. On the other hand, I'm probably a bit of a PackRat... -- GavinLambert

Gavin, we are too much alike. I'm laughing because I discovered a pack of University notes not too long ago. I decided that I would never look at them again. If I ever needed to learn calculus again, I would just get a new textbook, written by a professional. I would never try to decrypt some 19-year old, hung-over, B student's attempt at explaining calculus. -- SeanOleary

And yet, there is no junk in the JunkBox, merely a collection of rants about its existence. -- DragonDave?

Yeah, there was some effort to clean things up in a different way - ended up in WikiFire. Not pretty. By the way - RealNamesPlease.

More Junk for the JunkMan?. -- DanHall

Contributors: [okay, let's see who will 'fess up] MartySchrader, SeanOleary, DragonDave?

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