[projectfolly]

This is a very good topic and there are a lot of great posts here.

I got my “wakeup call” when a co-worker, mentor and great friend of mine suddenly passed away due to a massive heart attack. He was in his 50s, seemingly in great health. It was very sudden and happened at home.
Obviously, his wife and two daughters were devastated, as was I.

He had been into cars most of his life. He had about 15 cars, give or take, some projects, some show cars, some drivers, and a life time collection of parts, parts cars and tools.
When it came time to start getting rid of the collection, his widow asked me for help since I knew what most everything was, and had an idea of what things were worth.
In fact, I’d been along when he had bought some of the cars and or parts in the first place.
She had absolutely no clue where to begin and her daughters had no interest in any of it. Right from the get go, I made it clear, as far as I was concerned, I didn’t want anything from the collection, and I also made it clear I didn’t want anything in return for my help. (We’ll, maybe a chance to buy the ’72 455 HO GTO but I couldn’t afford it at the time anyway) We went through everything, which was a daunting task, came up with a plan and got to work.
Wasn’t long before her relatives got involved and began to impart their advice on how she should be handling the process. Eventually, it became obvious to me that I was considered an “outsider” by the new parties involved, and as such, not to be trusted.
I figured the best thing to do was walk away and let her relatives take over, wasnt easy though.
Ultimately, they decided to auction it all off. I didn’t attend the auction.

Years later, now that I'm older, and not in fact immortal, this experience got me to thinking about what would happen if I died tomorrow? What would my wife and kids do with all my stuff? What do I want them to do with it all? Will it be easy for them to sell the stuff off, or will it be a protracted, painful process? Is it fair to leave my survivors with a huge mess?

All tough questions and what’s more, I realized I was heading down the path of being a hoarder. I had enough parts and car projects stacked up that realistically, even if I lived to be 100, I wouldn’t have enough time, money (or both) to complete them all. I had so much crap I started to forget what I had.

Time for some changes.

I began by reducing my parts collection to a more manageable size. Got rid of the junk, parts for cars I no longer or never would own, multiples of parts, ect.
I then tried to get most of the remaining items onto shelves and organized by make, model or commonality.
Once the parts were easy to get to, I labeled all the containers the parts are stored in, as well as many of the loose parts that I could. Still an on-going process.
At least this way, my wife will know what things are and it will be easier for someone setting up an estate sale – easier get it all properly organized and cataloged.
The side benefit, is that it’s now easier (for me) to find stuff!

I’ve narrowed down the car collection to the ones I really wanted and are also cherished by the wife and kids.
I also decided that if I wasn’t going to get to a car project in 2 years max, it had to go.

As for my tools, I’m not worried about those as much. I figure my wife and kids will probably want at least some of them and the rest should be easy to sell off in lots.

Just the same, I try to keep my garage very well organized so that if someone else walked in, they’d be able to easily figure out where/what everything is.
Not fun trying to sort through piles of tools, parts and debris all over the place. Been there, done that.

I know my friend never intended for things to turn out the way it did and leave his family with such a mess.
I guess life has a way of getting in the way of our plans.