貰｛もら｝える物は貰っておく (idiom?) meaning


How should the 貰っておく part be interpreted? What (I) can receive, I ... (?).




To capture the nuance of the original, I would go with something short like:

> "I'll take anything that's free!"

You might think I did not translate expressly the 「もらっておく」 part, but if I did,
it would sound pretty wordy.

> "I'll take anything that's free as it might come in handy in the future."




The sentence means

> If you can have it, just get it ( _even if you are not sure you will use it
> anytime soon. Let's just get it first and we will see what happen next_ ).

the -ておく implies what is in the brackets. It's like predoing/preparing for
something that may or not come.

