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I had a similar pile but went through it and tried to pick: - Only one of each type of thing - Only the highest quality/safest power bricks - And items that

I had a similar pile but went through it and tried to pick: - Only one of each type of thing - Only the highest quality/safest power bricks - And items that punched above their weight in terms of utility (like an adapter that at least one end was not obsolete) This reduced my pile by about 75% . I find that I subconsciously keep a map of things that I encounter on my search for other items and this is actually a burden. Just getting rid of that PCI SCSI card lets me just forget that type of thing even exists and move on with my life. I've been doing this sort of thing since the pandemic started and I haven't once regretted it. Actually now I have more space for new junk.

aix1 4y ago
I have a similar method: I keep all cables in a set of small boxes. All USB cables go into one box, networking into another etc. I don't allow the boxes to overflow. This does three things: 1. Makes it easy to find the right cable or to establish definitively that I don't have one. 2. Limits the volume of cables I keep. Say some gadget comes with a micro-USB cable, but the USB box is full. I either already know that I don't need any more micro-USB cables and recycle it right away, or check the box and find another USB cable to recycle to make space. (On extremely rare occasions I decide that the box is too small and either upgrade to a bigger one or split the category up into subcategories. I haven't needed to do this for a very long time.) 3. Makes explicit the process of thinking "Do I need to keep this thing?" instead of automatically storing it away. I use the same method for chargers, mains extension leads and adapters etc.
- JohnBooty 4y ago
  This works for me and it's pretty effective!