11 ms·

I enjoyed this article about the minimalist man getting two minimally useful extra wallets.

replygirl 3y ago
Mostly single-stitched and with unfinished edges to boot
mberning 3y ago
Therein is the kernel of every hoarder pathology, which is ironic. “This is too <whatever> to get rid of!” Wrong. Throw it away and don’t replace it.
- notatoad 3y ago
  or if throwing it away makes you feel bad, give it away. either it finds its way to somebody who will value it, or somebody will throw it out for you. either way is a win.
  - nebula8804 3y ago
    Giving it away has now haunted me. Father passed away two years ago and a bunch of computing equipment he bought for me had been donated years before he had passed when it was worth very little. Now in this post covid era all of those things are 'vintage' and super expensive. I have tracked down some of the original equipment through the people I originally gave it to but it has not really been possible to get those things back. Yes I was a mild hoarder aspiring minimalist before but now I have become a full on hoarder. I desperately do extreme organizing in places like my basement to be able to contain so much of the stuff I have. I don't really know how to reconcile this fear of losing something for good. A fellow hacker at VCF once mentioned to me that this obsession that many geeks have should graduate into letting go of items because down the road you can always buy another one if it scratches your itch again. He made a good point.
    - Fr0styMatt88 3y ago
      I'm going through my own journey with this at the moment, the thing I keep telling myself is that "this item will have a better life somewhere else" and "my house isn't a landfill". It's tough though. Plus selling stuff is a full-time job really and it's annoying AF if it's not your day job. So I guess the question is - are you going to ever sell it? If not, then it doesn't really matter if it's expensive, it's just taking up space.
      - ghaff 3y ago
        I've gotten rid of a lot of stuff I've accumulated over the years--including most computer-related hardware and software I don't use. One thing I find hard is that you know you have stuff that someone would be delighted to get for cheap/free. But it really isn't worth my time to try to make that connection. And a lot of it is niche enough that I doubt I'd find takers at a yard sale out in the country.
    - wongarsu 3y ago
      Keeping things isn't free, especially at scale. And it's not just about the space, as you've noticed organising and keeping track both of what you have and where to find it is a lot of hassle. Only for 95% of things decreasing in value over time, with no reliable way to identify the 5% worth keeping. Your income/purchasing power definitely plays a role here too. Hoarding is more worth it if you don't have an efficient way to covert time into money.
  - balaji1 3y ago
    Giving things away definitely is a win. Good Will seems to be a quick solution for this - is it a good place to give things away? Hope the things find a second life.
  - mberning 3y ago
    I disagree. It’s another pathological behavior. In many of these cases you are taking your problem, something you have no use for, and turning it into someone else's problem. My wife and sister in law are terrible about this. Rather than just getting rid of things they go to a relative to sit around for years or decades, out of sight, before finally making their way to the trash. I absolutely hate it when the sister in law shows up with a new box of “priceless treasures” for us to deal with.
nicbou 3y ago
I used to be interested in minimalism, but I realised that they just obsess over objects in a different way. I wanted to save money, avoid maintenance and reduce my mental load. I found people who keep spreadsheets of their stuff and debate whether it's okay to own tools or multiple coffee cups.
- joshcanhelp 3y ago
  Thank you for this, it put into words my uneasiness with this practice. Our household definitely has too much stuff and we always seem to be at battle with it but minimalism just feels like a mirror image problem.
  - safety1st 3y ago
    > Replacing broken or worn items often feels like a nightmare of upheaval and system change It seems like if this is where someone's application of minimalism lands them, they have missed the point. On that note I went from owning one pair of shoes last year to three. It was a great non-minimalist decision. My shoes now take three times longer to wear out, and now I'm always wearing shoes that are more useful or more fashionable for the situation (or both) than what I used to wear.
    - pfannkuchen 3y ago
      Whenever I try to do this, I inevitably settle on wearing one of the three 100% of the time. How do you manage it?
      - oefnak 3y ago
        Buy identical shoes in different colours.
      - safety1st 3y ago
        I go by function. A pair of everyday shoes for regular days, a pair of cross-trainers for gym days, and an expensive pair of boots for days when I get dressed up.
patrec 3y ago
One also has to admire Whitstable man's marketing genius if he's able to live of his $100 "wallets" (which mostly amount to two badly sewn together pieces of leather). This article feels a bit too on the nose though. But he probably knows his audience.
- emodendroket 3y ago
  They're really more like card holders, but I looked up that term and found they've now been rebranded as "minimalist wallets." Hey, even minimalism can be commoditized and sold. All that is solid melts into air after all.
  - ghaff 3y ago
    A lot fewer people regularly use business cards and a lot more people rarely use cash or need to carry a lot of cards with them given they can store info on their phone. I carry one made by Saddleback and it's perfect for me.

Mostly single-stitched and with unfinished edges to boot

Therein is the kernel of every hoarder pathology, which is ironic. “This is too <whatever> to get rid of!” Wrong. Throw it away and don’t replace it.

notatoad 3y ago
or if throwing it away makes you feel bad, give it away. either it finds its way to somebody who will value it, or somebody will throw it out for you. either way is a win.
- nebula8804 3y ago
  Giving it away has now haunted me. Father passed away two years ago and a bunch of computing equipment he bought for me had been donated years before he had passed when it was worth very little. Now in this post covid era all of those things are 'vintage' and super expensive. I have tracked down some of the original equipment through the people I originally gave it to but it has not really been possible to get those things back. Yes I was a mild hoarder aspiring minimalist before but now I have become a full on hoarder. I desperately do extreme organizing in places like my basement to be able to contain so much of the stuff I have. I don't really know how to reconcile this fear of losing something for good. A fellow hacker at VCF once mentioned to me that this obsession that many geeks have should graduate into letting go of items because down the road you can always buy another one if it scratches your itch again. He made a good point.
  - Fr0styMatt88 3y ago
    I'm going through my own journey with this at the moment, the thing I keep telling myself is that "this item will have a better life somewhere else" and "my house isn't a landfill". It's tough though. Plus selling stuff is a full-time job really and it's annoying AF if it's not your day job. So I guess the question is - are you going to ever sell it? If not, then it doesn't really matter if it's expensive, it's just taking up space.
    - ghaff 3y ago
      I've gotten rid of a lot of stuff I've accumulated over the years--including most computer-related hardware and software I don't use. One thing I find hard is that you know you have stuff that someone would be delighted to get for cheap/free. But it really isn't worth my time to try to make that connection. And a lot of it is niche enough that I doubt I'd find takers at a yard sale out in the country.
  - wongarsu 3y ago
    Keeping things isn't free, especially at scale. And it's not just about the space, as you've noticed organising and keeping track both of what you have and where to find it is a lot of hassle. Only for 95% of things decreasing in value over time, with no reliable way to identify the 5% worth keeping. Your income/purchasing power definitely plays a role here too. Hoarding is more worth it if you don't have an efficient way to covert time into money.
- balaji1 3y ago
  Giving things away definitely is a win. Good Will seems to be a quick solution for this - is it a good place to give things away? Hope the things find a second life.
- mberning 3y ago
  I disagree. It’s another pathological behavior. In many of these cases you are taking your problem, something you have no use for, and turning it into someone else's problem. My wife and sister in law are terrible about this. Rather than just getting rid of things they go to a relative to sit around for years or decades, out of sight, before finally making their way to the trash. I absolutely hate it when the sister in law shows up with a new box of “priceless treasures” for us to deal with.

nicbou 3y ago

I used to be interested in minimalism, but I realised that they just obsess over objects in a different way. I wanted to save money, avoid maintenance and reduce my mental load. I found people who keep spreadsheets of their stuff and debate whether it's okay to own tools or multiple coffee cups.

joshcanhelp 3y ago
Thank you for this, it put into words my uneasiness with this practice. Our household definitely has too much stuff and we always seem to be at battle with it but minimalism just feels like a mirror image problem.
- safety1st 3y ago
  > Replacing broken or worn items often feels like a nightmare of upheaval and system change It seems like if this is where someone's application of minimalism lands them, they have missed the point. On that note I went from owning one pair of shoes last year to three. It was a great non-minimalist decision. My shoes now take three times longer to wear out, and now I'm always wearing shoes that are more useful or more fashionable for the situation (or both) than what I used to wear.
  - pfannkuchen 3y ago
    Whenever I try to do this, I inevitably settle on wearing one of the three 100% of the time. How do you manage it?
    - oefnak 3y ago
      Buy identical shoes in different colours.
    - safety1st 3y ago
      I go by function. A pair of everyday shoes for regular days, a pair of cross-trainers for gym days, and an expensive pair of boots for days when I get dressed up.

patrec 3y ago

One also has to admire Whitstable man's marketing genius if he's able to live of his $100 "wallets" (which mostly amount to two badly sewn together pieces of leather). This article feels a bit too on the nose though. But he probably knows his audience.

emodendroket 3y ago
They're really more like card holders, but I looked up that term and found they've now been rebranded as "minimalist wallets." Hey, even minimalism can be commoditized and sold. All that is solid melts into air after all.
- ghaff 3y ago
  A lot fewer people regularly use business cards and a lot more people rarely use cash or need to carry a lot of cards with them given they can store info on their phone. I carry one made by Saddleback and it's perfect for me.