3 ms·

I don't have a tendency to hoard, but I do find it useful when I'm considering whether to keep a thing, to consider whether I can easily buy an equivalent or be

I don't have a tendency to hoard, but I do find it useful when I'm considering whether to keep a thing, to consider whether I can easily buy an equivalent or better thing on Amazon or eBay and have it at my house within a couple of days for a minimal cost. If so, then the question isn't whether the thing will someday potentially be needed, but whether I'm willing to potentially pay $X if and when that happens, in exchange for not having the thing take up space in my house until then. If you want to get fancy with it, you can mentally multiply X by the odds of that day every coming.

magicalhippo 3y ago
This is a strategy I'm trying to adopt as well. For a lot of things though the answer is that it's not easy to get a replacement easily and cheaply (no Amazon in Norway), which makes the decision tough. Another strategy I'm trying to adopt is one my brother-in-law lives by, which is to focus on one "thing" at a time. Like he recently wanted to get an RC race car. So he sold his previous "thing" and bought an RC car setup. He'll keep it for a year or two until he finds something else he wants to try and he'll sell the RC car stuff and buy something else.
- hommelix 3y ago
  I tried this strategy as well, but I've been disappointed when business update their portfolio. Typical example keeping a couple of door knob in case the old model is not available in future, so that all innrr doors in the house have the same knob.
  - tempestn 3y ago
    It's funny, I was just chatting with a friend at brunch today about this thread, and he mentioned the same thing. Turns out we both do keep a dedicated box of extra house parts for this reason. There are indeed things that aren't easily replaced and it can make sense to keep. But if you're going to do that, you want to make sure there's a system so you can find them if you do end up needing them, and also so you don't end up with crap you don't need taking up space.
throwaway173738 3y ago
This is one of the tacks I have to take with my partner sometimes because she will hold on to stuff she thinks she can’t get again. She’s getting better at getting rid of stuff we don’t need.

magicalhippo 3y ago

This is a strategy I'm trying to adopt as well. For a lot of things though the answer is that it's not easy to get a replacement easily and cheaply (no Amazon in Norway), which makes the decision tough. Another strategy I'm trying to adopt is one my brother-in-law lives by, which is to focus on one "thing" at a time. Like he recently wanted to get an RC race car. So he sold his previous "thing" and bought an RC car setup. He'll keep it for a year or two until he finds something else he wants to try and he'll sell the RC car stuff and buy something else.

hommelix 3y ago
I tried this strategy as well, but I've been disappointed when business update their portfolio. Typical example keeping a couple of door knob in case the old model is not available in future, so that all innrr doors in the house have the same knob.
- tempestn 3y ago
  It's funny, I was just chatting with a friend at brunch today about this thread, and he mentioned the same thing. Turns out we both do keep a dedicated box of extra house parts for this reason. There are indeed things that aren't easily replaced and it can make sense to keep. But if you're going to do that, you want to make sure there's a system so you can find them if you do end up needing them, and also so you don't end up with crap you don't need taking up space.

throwaway173738 3y ago

This is one of the tacks I have to take with my partner sometimes because she will hold on to stuff she thinks she can’t get again. She’s getting better at getting rid of stuff we don’t need.