Liz, you should have seen my dad's lifetime collection of stuff. Similar to your dad's, but before the major clearout! He saved everything, even the dust on the shelves. Hundreds of old tools, metal parts, lumber, screws, nuts, bolts, fasteners, caulking, plastic sheet, fiberglass, plumbing accessories, books, magazines, bottles, a kite, old skis, boating hardware, shaving accessories, shelf objects, coat hangers, plastic bags, wooden dowels, metal rods, electrical boxes, rolls of tape, burnt-out fuses (mixed in with a few good ones), old cans of paint, solvents, metal shaping machinery, very dull hand saws, engineering manuals from before WWII, framed paintings, a Dallas newspaper from Nov 22, 1963 (he was there in Dallas on a business trip the day Kennedy was shot), old letters, bric-a-brac, pieces of drywall and panelling, unidentifiable whatnots, and total absolute irredeemable junk.

I have hauled away uncountable vanloads of it to the dump.