Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion How many of us are "OUT OF ROOM" for more stuff ?

Thought this might be a fun way to get some ideas and thoughts of other collectors who might face some similiar issues. Now I know there are some lucky few out there that have multiple buildings and 9 stall garages etc etc to diplay items. But for those of us normal folk I have to ask...where do you put it all?

I have a standard size garage that was full years ago. Now my car barely fits. I have many things hanging from the ceiling with a "layered" look..lol. I'm also lucky enough to have a very understanding wife who allows me a spare bedroom and most of my living room with cathedral ceilings to display the nice stuff that wouldnt fair well in the garage temps. Now I can barely walk in the spare bedroom and have signs leaning here and there. Ofcoure that doesnt slow my hunting down at all..lol. Any others out there in a similiar boat?

I have a friend who recently told me a story of how he rotates some of the more easily hung signs in his collection. Once a year he takes stuff down and replaces it with others he hasn't seen in a while. Maybe it's time to clean out under my bed!

Post pictures please. Would love to see the buldging spaces.

I keep complaining that I am running out of room... But, as now seems to be "the norm", I keep finding space for the items; That catch my eye...

Making my "spare 1/2 bath" into a "Gas Station" themed room, freed up quite a bit of space... But, that open space has been filled for the most part, now....

I have a small house with wife and 2 kids...My living room has two pumps and a bunch of signs and a load of globes. I am about outta wall space..lol

I have a three car garage and have never driven a car into it.

Back in the 1990s I had 200 gas pumps stored in two storage garages. I was selling parts. When I got down to 75 I moved them to my garage. Rick Dale (American Restoration and an old friend of mine) called, he bought them all. Now the garage is filled with ECO parts.

Either build a bigger garage or scale down.

Jack Sim

My wife thinks i have been out of room since day one.
There is always room for one more thing.... then another and another LOL

I have a basement full and both a large and small pole barns with most walls covered with many sitting around. Additional pole barn has sign poles and 6' signs stored there. I have a semi trailer loaded with pumps & lubesters and just bought a 40' cargo container..... luckily my lovely wife talked me into buying her uncles farm and building her a horse barn years ago. Cause with this addiction growing with every show/auction I attend, anything I need to build now is no problem LOL

agree...

I guess I'm different than some of the rest of you! I have found that as my tastes change and evolve with the time spent in this hobby, so does my display. When there is something that I just "have to have" and no room to put it up, I just take something down and sell it. I can't stand to have a sign in a pile somewhere, it just isn't satisfying to me unless its up on the wall!
Granted, sometimes its taken me a whole year to determine what goes and what stays, but it does happen. I have a lot of fun just sitting in my shop and thinking about how I could make the display better looking! Some of those plans are never realized and some happen right away.
I do finally have a few things in the house, but only in my office. The Warden did mention that having a restored gas pump downstairs might be OK!!
I was pondering the fact that I'm almost out of room in my shop, when suddenly I realized that the folding overhead garage doors could hold some pump plates on every panel and they wouldn't interfere with anything! My problem seems to be solved for now, and I'm not going to worry about it until that area is full! LOL

Learn to be selective,quality not quantity.Sell 10 crummy globes and buy one good one.Same with cans or anything else.Do that and you won't have a problem.

Everything is cataloged !! Dan

I have way more stuff than I have display space. That will eventually change when we build our next house. I'm working towards a long term goal so I'll have to put up with short term storage problems.

This has been a great topic. Over the years Ive upgraded and sold off a lot of the common stuff to get better, rarer, etc etc. Ofcourse the longer you collect, the more picky you get and the more expensive taste you aquire. I surely dont feel as bad now. Although I will most likely always have signs stacked in corners..the plan is to one day move to a larger home with a bigger garage in the near future. MORE WALLS!!

I have a 9'x10' bed room and I've got 7 single shelves, 2 old book cases one has two shelves the other has 4 shelves, 1 display cabinet with 3 shelves, and a display rack of 24 oil cans, and three walls. All my shelves and walls are filled with qts, signs, globes, Smalls and Oldsmobile memoriblia. This is Some of the ways I've maximized the little space I got.

Out of room years ago, waiting for Bob Drake to build my ultimate garage.

Great topic, I think about this almost daily, ran out of room in my one shed so I bought a 12 x 36 prefab hickory shed and filled that up in about 2 weeks ! lol ! I keep saying "my next house will have a BIG shop but we'll see. Z

That would be a heck of a commute Phil. What is it, 5 hours or so?

After 20+ years of collecting this stuff it does become a problem. My wife says I'm the problem not the great room. My shop is worse and it's only going to keep going that way, but what's a guy to do.

Obviously, there's an epidemic out there! No known cure as of now!

hi don the gilmore pump looks good i did that pump years ago, by chance where did you get that later dave

Looks like to me there are a bunch of hoarder's on this site. No wonder the stuff is getting harder to find these days. lol

Mike

Now I know where all the waverly stuff is its up state I may have to take a drive up there. Lol.

Bob, I will put you in the guest bedroom and by all means bring your wife. I never tasted anything she cooked that was not delicious, free room and board and beer!!!

Go for it Bob!

I'm in the mode now of figuring out what can fit on display. I'm finishing out the basement of the home we moved to a few years ago. I'm laying signs out and measuring to get the most out of each wall. It is fun since so many of these things have been packed away too long. A little like Christmas when I open a box or go through a stack to find items I almost forgot about.

Some signs have gone into the limbo area for items that are low priority because they are too rough, are duplicates or lower personal significance than other stuff. Some may be redeemed to fit into open spots later.

I envision when I'm done with the room, I'll have to decide how to fit in a new item. Probably by taking down an item that is less important to me.

I think most people encounter this problem at some point, regardless of the space they have available. My guys used to laugh when I tried explained that the owners of the multi million dollar homes we were building trim and cabinetry for were on a budget- it's all relative, and I have relatively little room left. I began putting signs on the ceiling of my shop, now they are beginning to hang from the ceiling.

Very cool stories. Is there a cure for this stuff? lol

OK where's Dave Gill on this. His barn has no room to breathe in, there is so little space!
Personally I started getting 6ft and larger signs. However no room in my inn so luckily enough my friends aircraft hanger has bare walls begging for some man cave art.

My map was upside down it's down state. Lol

I am packed in my garage. It is a two car garage with 14 pumps stuffed in there, a couple hundred KS license plates displayed, 35 or so signs, and stuff hanging every where. I even have 1 pump outside and 4 signs outside. I am out of room!

I live in the suburbs and have a 2 car garage full of pumps. I have 12 pumps in the house (this will go up). 6 wired up around the pool, a whole bunch behind the garage and pumps/lubester/parts down both sides of the house. I am as Fred Sanford as I can be. 2 gas carts, an American 1918 and Tokheim 660 out front. More pumps and lubesters in storage and probably about 10 pumps inbound. Just have to rotate the stock a bit here and there.

If I remember right, Fred had no wife and a son that wouldn't
leave! I can see the good and bad in that arrangement! LOL

Well, Fred...all I can say is; I was out of room even before I started collecting Gas & Oil. I've been into cars for a 30+ years. 10 years ago when I started collecting gas and oil I had 120 cars at home. Now I'm down to 60 cars.

Now, in addition to the cars I have 300+ gas pumps, 60+ eco meters and over 500 signs. Like Fred said, I'm absolutely out of space...but I still keep buying. I'm up to seven 53 foot trailers full of stuff. My wife has been threatening an intervention (term used on the hoarders show on TV).

I'm hoping to buy another place with larger out buildings on it. I was going to build a 45,000 square foot building at my current place. Had it designed, building permit approved but changed my mind due to the cost of the construction. More economical to buy a property with existing out buildings then to build.

Dave - we need guys like you around so we can tell our wives "I'm not as bad as that guy".

I am just about of room -- so I've become more choosy. I have 8 classic cars and that's how much room I have so I consider it a useful rev limiter.

Ray