5 ms·

Keep it if it brings you happiness, after all, that's the point. It's the rest of the stuff that can go. I helped a friend move last month. After we'd been to

by grecy 7y ago

Keep it if it brings you happiness, after all, that's the point. It's the rest of the stuff that can go. I helped a friend move last month. After we'd been to the 5 places she kept her stuff, we discovered she had 5 coffee machines, 5 cutting boards, 5 juicers, etc. etc. The things you describe make you happier and are not stuff. The things I described are just stuff.

pjc50 7y ago
> 5 places she kept her stuff Storage unit rental, now that's a means of preying on people who can't let go and/or move often. (It strikes me that there might be startup value in "home inventory management", although it would have to be made as frictionless as possible - wave a camera round your kitchen, inside all the cupboards, get a list of everything you own. Snoop your Amazon webpages so it can remind you not to buy things you already have.)
- cameronbrown 7y ago
  Sortly[0] might do what you're suggesting though not as simply as you described. [0] sortly.com
- ghaff 7y ago
  Fortunately(?) I have a fair bit of storage space at home. It's definitely a battle to pull out and get rid of stuff in storage after I haven't looked or used it for a few years. It's really tempting to throw things in storage rather than make the decision to get rid of them--especially when there's some effort associated with disposing of an item.
- eric-hu 7y ago
  You say preying, but I'm glad I was able to rent out space to store some things when I moved cities and told myself I'd move back. Turns out I didn't move back, and only went back to pick up a few things and give away the rest. I doubt I would have been able to detach from those things if I took them with me. Were the rental costs a waste? I suppose I would have saved a few hundred dollars if I could have just gotten rid of the stuff earlier, but it would have felt like a personal loss instead of a natural detachment.
  - cannonedhamster 7y ago
    Loss aversion is actually significantly powerful and difficult to overcome, but think about why, it's only very recently that humanity can easily procure anything it needs for survival with relative ease in most countries. While getting something new is exciting losing something is far harder when you never know when/if your going to be able to gain it again. It's helped humans survive throughout our history, so I wouldn't be hard on yourself that it wasn't easy to detach, you were just practicing a survival skill.
amelius 7y ago
> Keep it if it brings you happiness, after all, that's the point. But what if it doesn't make you happy AND selling/discarding it makes you unhappy?
- grecy 7y ago
  ...That sounds like a strange scenario. Can you give me an example?
  - amelius 7y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsive_hoarding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsive_hoarding I suspect that hoarders are not necessarily happy with the stuff they collect, but they would become unhappy when they have to let go of it.

by grecy 7y ago

pjc50 7y ago

> 5 places she kept her stuff Storage unit rental, now that's a means of preying on people who can't let go and/or move often. (It strikes me that there might be startup value in "home inventory management", although it would have to be made as frictionless as possible - wave a camera round your kitchen, inside all the cupboards, get a list of everything you own. Snoop your Amazon webpages so it can remind you not to buy things you already have.)

cameronbrown 7y ago
Sortly[0] might do what you're suggesting though not as simply as you described. [0] sortly.com
ghaff 7y ago
Fortunately(?) I have a fair bit of storage space at home. It's definitely a battle to pull out and get rid of stuff in storage after I haven't looked or used it for a few years. It's really tempting to throw things in storage rather than make the decision to get rid of them--especially when there's some effort associated with disposing of an item.
eric-hu 7y ago
You say preying, but I'm glad I was able to rent out space to store some things when I moved cities and told myself I'd move back. Turns out I didn't move back, and only went back to pick up a few things and give away the rest. I doubt I would have been able to detach from those things if I took them with me. Were the rental costs a waste? I suppose I would have saved a few hundred dollars if I could have just gotten rid of the stuff earlier, but it would have felt like a personal loss instead of a natural detachment.
- cannonedhamster 7y ago
  Loss aversion is actually significantly powerful and difficult to overcome, but think about why, it's only very recently that humanity can easily procure anything it needs for survival with relative ease in most countries. While getting something new is exciting losing something is far harder when you never know when/if your going to be able to gain it again. It's helped humans survive throughout our history, so I wouldn't be hard on yourself that it wasn't easy to detach, you were just practicing a survival skill.

amelius 7y ago

> Keep it if it brings you happiness, after all, that's the point. But what if it doesn't make you happy AND selling/discarding it makes you unhappy?

grecy 7y ago
...That sounds like a strange scenario. Can you give me an example?
- amelius 7y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsive_hoarding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsive_hoarding I suspect that hoarders are not necessarily happy with the stuff they collect, but they would become unhappy when they have to let go of it.