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Each clue gives TWO words, which give a letter; the letters can be combined to form two more words, which share a special property with all of the decoded clues.

  1. All of forever. (8)
  2. It's big enough to grab! (8)
  3. Look at the front face. (7)
  4. Merchant awaiting feathers. (6)
  5. Mounted when off the boat. (6)
  6. Museum air vent. (6)
  7. Othello editor. (7)
  8. Smart powers of two. (6)
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  • $\begingroup$ For clarification, do the two words per clue each give a letter, or the two words produce one letter? $\endgroup$
    – Luke Bickell
    Commented Jul 13, 2017 at 2:43
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    $\begingroup$ @LukeBickell I was afraid someone was going to ask that - the answer could be either, depending on how you look at it. (Sorry, a straightforward answer would be more of a hint than I'd want to give at this point.) $\endgroup$
    – jasonharper
    Commented Jul 13, 2017 at 2:55
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    $\begingroup$ what's the in-bracket-numbers at the side for? Is it the number of letters of the two words? $\endgroup$
    – bolt997
    Commented Jul 13, 2017 at 3:48

2 Answers 2

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All of forever. (8)

entirety eternity

It's big enough to grab! (8)

sizeable seizable

Look at the front face. (7)

observe obverse

Merchant awaiting feathers. (6)

trader tarred

Mounted when off the boat. (6)

ahorse ashore

Museum air vent. (6)

Louvre louver

Othello editor. (7)

Reversi reviser

Smart powers of two. (6)

brainy binary

For the final part:

Each answer was a pair of words that were anagrams starting with the same letter. Taking the first letter of each word pair, we get these letters:
E S O T A L R B
Which gives: sortable storable
This refers to the puzzle title "you can order them and keep them"

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  • $\begingroup$ This must be the answer! +1 $\endgroup$
    – bolt997
    Commented Jul 13, 2017 at 4:29
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    $\begingroup$ Yes, that's it exactly. I'm curious as to which one of the clues gave you the breakthrough? $\endgroup$
    – jasonharper
    Commented Jul 13, 2017 at 12:13
  • $\begingroup$ @jasonharper I think it was "observe obverse", followed by "reversi reviser". After that, I started looking for anagrams of that pattern. I think the order after that was "Louvre louver", "brainy binary", "ahorse ashore", "entirety eternity", "trader tarred", and finally "sizeable seizable". $\endgroup$
    – JS1
    Commented Jul 13, 2017 at 16:53
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I believe that the key to the riddle, and potentially the solution, is

Double Letter

Meaning that

All of the solution words likely contain a double letter, or at least two of the same letter.

Work so far:

All of forever. (8)

Utter (eternity?) --> T

It's big enough to grab! (8)

(immense/massive) ????? --> M/S

Look at the front face. (7)

See ????? --> E

Merchant awaiting feathers. (6)

(Quill?) Seller (although this does not fit "awaiting" --> L

Mounted when off the boat. (6)

Saddled ????? --> D

Museum air vent. (6)

Gallery (Ventilator?) --> L

Othello editor. (7)

Moor (Reviser?) --> O

Smart powers of two. (6)

Keen Evens --> E

So far, that gives us the letters

T M/S E L D L O E
If we assume the solution to be "DOUBLE LETTER", then we already have "D---LE LET---" with some letters potentially wrong. It seems possible that some of the clues might provide two different letters, while some might only provide one. I'm sure someone else can do a better job of finishing/revising my current guesses. Additionally, I'm not sure what the numbers beside each clue represent. Perhaps those are meant to be the number of repeated letters per clue solution?

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    $\begingroup$ You're way off track, although you do have two individual words correct. $\endgroup$
    – jasonharper
    Commented Jul 13, 2017 at 3:30
  • $\begingroup$ Time to play Mastermind by guessing more words :P $\endgroup$
    – Luke Bickell
    Commented Jul 13, 2017 at 3:31

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