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It's definitely a generational thing and younger folks have never seen a repair and retain society or scarcity that drives that hoarding attitude. And unless t

• Swizec 9y ago
  I grew up in a postsocialist country so I think I did experience a repair and retain society of scarcity at least in my childhood[1] and through strong cultural tradition later. But you know what? I just don't have room to repair and retain stuff. I have to throw things away when I buy new and better things. I'm cash rich and space poor. It is often cheaper to throw things away and buy again later. Or better still, rent stuff you don't need often. [1] when I was a kid we'd go shopping in Italy or Austria because so many things/brands (clothes, toys, food, everything really) simply weren't available at home or were significantly cheaper across the border. We would also repair eeeverything for as long as we could and take extra care to treat things nicely so they wouldn't wear or break.
• chrisper 9y ago
  That is true. I see it also on how my parents act with leftovers. If I have leftover food of certain things, I tend to throw it away and rather buy fresh. I am throwing it also sometimes away because I know for sure now that I won't eat it in the future. On the other hand, my parents put away all leftovers and eventually also eat it. It is pretty similar with many other every-day things. I just lived with my parents for a few weeks after living abroad for 5 years and noticed how they have kept so many things that I have seen when I was a child. I am not even talking about 1 or 2 things, but many (or most) things.
  • dagss 9y ago
    IMO throwing away good food is morally wrong. Luckily there are movements ("food redesign" etc) that try to reverse the trend.
    • Benji_San 9y ago
      I'm kind of surprised that some people don't eat leftovers. While it's understandable from a taste perspective the time required to cooking fresh food every day, assuming you cook most meals, seems staggering.
      • dagw 9y ago
        the time required to cooking fresh food every day, assuming you cook most meals, seems staggering. Sure, but it's time I enjoy spending. Some people play computer games or watch TV for an hour after work to relax, I cook dinner.
        • emj 9y ago
          Using left overs is a way to cook more complex meals! If you enjoy handling food then learning about handling left overs is a big part of that. If you go back and look at weekly food schedules from the past you will see patterns, were people cook one type of food day one to have base or ingredient for the next few days of cooking.
          • dagw 9y ago
            My comment was not so much about leftovers as it was about the time it takes to cook. And while I certainly do use the leftovers I end up with, I also try cook in such a way that it minimizes leftovers.
      • padraic7a 9y ago
        A lot of food is nicer the next day. Anything spicy improves with a little time, and I've found the same to be true with tomato sauce and cooked cheese - so curries, chillies, lasagna etc etc all improve. soup is often better the next day too.
• csydas 9y ago
  I disagree; I think it's as much a personal preference as it was in the past. I don't deny that things are not built to be repaired nowadays, but that doesn't mean that everyone in the past was good about self repair. Stuff could be repaired but much of what we collect and hoard isn't that, it's trinkets and decorations. My grandmother, for example, had several rooms in her basement dedicated to Christmas decorations, neverminding the rest of the household items and junk she had collected. It took a few months to clear it because my mother and Aunt wouldnt just give it away. My mother wasn't quite as bad, but she used to have her own mountain of decorations until I got her to agree to let me get rid of about 75% of it. It's still taking up about 12 or so large plastic storage bins, but it's way less than it had been. Nowadays we do want durable items even if we are more at leisure to replace them. I am very happy that most of the easy to fail components in my MacBook Air are replaceable (I/O board, fan, battery, SSD) and would love it if other parts were too. Working on computers for as long as I have I know people like to get what they can out of a computer; the number who just go buy a new one when it dies isnt as high as you'd think. Same with other items like phones, cars, etc.
  • pm90 9y ago
    Ah, this makes sense. Maybe its a generational thing but I notice my parents do love their trinkets/mementos. They are avid travelers and try to get something from wherever they visit. When I visit new places, my memory of the place is mostly: photos on instagram and facebook.
    • hndamien 9y ago
      We also value space and time differently because it is so damn expensive. The things you own, own you in many ways, so reducing them increases living space, and time which are both in short supply.
    • prawn 9y ago
      Trinkets mean storage or displaying and dusting. Current generations are already going through a stage of ditching video, CD and DVD storage, and potentially book shelves too.
    • 9y ago
• eksemplar 9y ago
  I'm one of the oldest millennials and my parents won't be dying for another 20-30 years unless shit happens, so you may be apologetic to the wrong generation. I think this trend will actually change with us, my parents have loads of stuff that I'd like, and I've build half my furniture myself, and regularly fix things rather than buy new ones, despite not being handy at all, with YouTube teaching me how. The other half is things I've inherited from my grand parents. Not because I liked it, at first anyway, but because I don't really want to own something with a CO2 footprint leading all over the world or things were build by slave labour. Besides, the quality and detail in old hand made stuff is so much better than the shitty gluewood you buy in ikea. Of course that's just my view on things based on myself and my circle of friends, who are strikingly similar to me when I think about it, and we could simply be odd millennials.
  • fundabulousrIII 9y ago
    Pretty understandable to throw away the past and make it anew. Unfortunately unless you understand that the exercise is just that: exercise, and that there is nothing truly new under the sun you misplace your importance and priorities. Learn from other peoples mistakes and don't fix what isn't broken. If these two precepts were persistent there would be constant advancement. As far as your concepts go on C02 and inherited guilt..grow up.
    • Symbiote 9y ago
      > As far as your concepts go on C02 and inherited guilt..grow up. Are you suggesting only children and youth care about the environment? If true, that's terrible! (Edit: A downvote doesn't explain what I've misunderstood.)
      • fundabulousrIII 9y ago
        'If true that's terrible!' Why don't you research what you believe and get to the bottom of the issue(s)? Why don't you at least look at what the economic factors involved imply contra the 'objective' science and take a look at how the pendulum swings. Yes, there is climate change, yes we are involved. But this type of emotional outcry based on taught thought is stupid.
• nodamage 9y ago
  In the context of this article I'm not sure if it has so much to do with repair and retain as opposed to simply not wanting to own a bunch of stuff that will take up space and never get used. Fine china, silverware, crystal, etc.
  • gedy 9y ago
    > Fine china, silverware, crystal, etc. But note that in particular is a cultural thing where people are cooking at home less, smaller families, less formality, etc.
    • nodamage 9y ago
      Less formality, yes. You don't need $60 plates to host a dinner party when a $2 plate will do just fine. Plus, you don't need to worry about accidentally breaking one.
  • t0mbstone 9y ago
    I've always been annoyed by "fine China". If something is so fragile that it can't be used, then it is worthless to me. On the flip side, it's kind of interesting that products made in china are now synonymous with "cheap crap", while at one time we held finely made, fragile cups from China on display in our homes.
    • barrkel 9y ago
      Fine china of the generation we're talking about here is typically made in Europe - the fine bone china my grandmother owns was made in England. China in this context refers to porcelain, using techniques learned from China.
    • kaybe 9y ago
      Fine china is fun. There is an endless and very cheap supply of these things on the fleamarket, so one can use them with abandon. If they break, just get more.
      • 9y ago
• jdavis703 9y ago
  I own a Sony radio that is probably 15 years old... It's been around for greater than 60% of my life. My laptop is three years old. My TV is 5 years old (and I have no plans on replacing it anytime soon). The reason I don't have much stuff is because I'm diligent to get rid of things I don't use anymore like old books, charging adapters, electronics etc. Some millennials may be buying cheap novel stuff, but many of us are opting to only have a few quality things we use frequently.
  • sundvor 9y ago
    Aye. My Rotel system + Infinity speakers are ~20 years old, and even does beautiful 5.1 multichannel through the HTPC after finding a DB25 to RCA cable with my Asus Xonar Deluxe soundcard. I had to replace the baffles on the Infinity speakers after the first decade; sound is just as good if not better than when I bought the system (thanks to that Xonar card). A few months ago our 11 year old Nilfisk vacuum cleaner broke down. Back then it was about A$450. Instead of buying an equivalent new one for ~A$700 or so, I repaired it for ~A$250. I figured it'd still be better than buying a new $200-300 vacuum every 2-3 years. Sometimes buying expensive stuff is the cheaper option.
• majjam 9y ago
  In my experience its also a lack of a permanent home. Stuff becomes a liability when your landlord can kick out at short notice, or you are living in a tiny apartment.
  • Reason077 9y ago
    Indeed. Moving frequently is the best way to prevent accumulation of too much "shit you don't need"!
• pmiller2 9y ago
  I love stuff that's durable and repairable, but it's so hard to come by these days. And even things that are theoretically repairable often aren't worth doing so (e.g. refrigerators). I have Oneida flatware, solid wood furniture, and a Blendtec blender because these things will last. I don't want to buy flatware ever again, and, because I bought quality the first time, I won't have to, and I wish there were more things I could buy for life.
• gaius 9y ago
  It's definitely a generational thing and younger folks have never seen a repair and retain society or scarcity that drives that hoarding attitude At the point that the fountain of artificially cheap consumer goods from China dries up, they are in for a rude awakening. Suddenly quality items made to last by local craftsmen won't seem so old-fashioned!
  • RepressedEmu 9y ago
    Then we'll just move to the artificially cheap consumer good from Africa (subsidized by Chinese investment). And the cycle will go round and round!
  • boondaburrah 9y ago
    I have a number of things that were made back when repairing was the norm. Unfortunately, I know now if it were to break I wouldn't be able to find a repairman who knew what to do with it for any price I could afford. It'll become cheaper to buy throwaway stuff since the bills for repair are high (or more likely, I'll hoard the stuff until I can save up enough for the repair - but this is difficult when I don't have my own permanent place to live). Unfortunately this is a problem that perpetuates itself. As more people buy the throwaway goods, repairmen see business dry up, and become rarer. The ones left are expensive. Quality items made to last by local craftsmen sound great! As long as there's any craftsmen left by the time people turn to them for business.
• jahewson 9y ago
  My parents' entire generation seem to think the same thing, but I don't buy the "scarcity" argument. I don't think it was ever true. Planned obsolescence was a concept pioneered (and coined) by those very generations. From its beginnings in the depression-era auto market to its peak in the fashion driven 1950s with cars designed to last three years or so. Fashion-driven, low-quality overpriced US cars left the market wide open for cheap, high-quality foreign imports in the 1970s - and forced US manufacturers to significantly increase quality. That's pretty much the opposite of the story you're telling. Instead I see a society which had a post-WWII manufacturing abundance just binging on material goods to the point that they were buried in stuff in a way that has never really happened before and people don't have good mechanisms for dealing with. At least not until they realise that "stuff" is the problem. Both my parents and grandparents would claim that they bought stuff that lasted but they just bought the trendy items of the 1950s and 1980s respectively, and 90% of it went in the trash years ago.
• DarkKomunalec 9y ago
  > We value the novel and inexpensive over the durable. That's what we're sold, it doesn't mean it's what we value. If there was an easy way to tell durability at time of purchase, I think the trend would shift very quickly.
• pjc50 9y ago
  I think it has very little to do with durability and a lot to do with the relative prices of manufactured goods versus real estate. It's very easy for the floor space consumed by an object to exceed its value. Especially if you're renting, in which case you could probably assign an actual monthly monetary cost to keeping every single object in your flat.
  • euroclydon 9y ago
    Life is not that long either, and being an experience generation, there is a palpable opportunity cost to accumulating stuff you don't want. Just walking by an overcrowded garage or basement reminds you of the time it will take to deal with it, time that you could be using for a trip or something else stimulating.
    • pjc50 9y ago
      > a palpable opportunity cost to accumulating stuff you don't want Absolutely, it can be a real burden. Especially if it requires any kind of cleaning or maintenance. Conversely the time cost of acquiring stuff has collapsed. You don't have to buy or hang onto stuff in advance of possibly requiring it if you can have it same-day shipped from Amazon.
      • euroclydon 9y ago
        I mean, I have a big problem with the, buy-throw-away-then-buy-again cycle too. We need to reduce consumption to ease environmental externalities.
    • gozur88 9y ago
      The time it takes to "deal with it" has gone up quite a bit, too. When I was a kid the trash guys would haul anything away that was less than four feet wide. All kinds of furniture, beds, electronics, used paint... whatever. It all went into the same truck. Now half the stuff you buy is toxic waste when you go to get rid of it. You have to make special trips to the place that collects paint, for instance, which isn't the same place as electronics. There are all sorts of projects my parents would have done without a second thought that I'll pass on because I don't want to spend all that time getting rid of stuff.
• maccard 9y ago
  For me it's about practicality. I don't have space in my 600sqft 2 bed apartment, for the two dining tables, 4 double beds, 3 sets of tableware, 2 living room suites that my parents have in their 4 bed detached 1800sqft house, and I can't afford the space that they have because they bought it in the 80s.
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• lamontcg 9y ago
  I think this has a lot more to do with depression/WWII era children having been brought up not to waste anything. That leads to the garage fulls of stuff that just can't be thrown away / donated. This was all reinforced during the 1970s/1970s era recessions. Both my parents are part hoarder and have basements / garages full of stuff.