Many many years ago someone gave me a motor, presumably from a washing machine. Back in the days when they didn't design all the metal out of them, and it looked like a real motor with a normal mounting plate, etc.
A couple years later we moved to an old house in Pennsylvania. Inspection of the house before closing and it was fine, but after closing it was freezing. The ancient octopus furnace had died. The oil burner was working fine, but it shut down when the fan didn't come on. Shortening a very long story, that washing machine (or whatever) motor had made it in the first moving load and was pressed into service by 10 o'clock that night, and the heat worked for the next couple years (until I replaced the furnace with a more efficient unit).
I now have a lifetime pass about collecting junk that looks like it should have been thrown out years ago.