4 ms·
Tangential to a serious hoarding disorder, but relevant to the audience: I think it would be interesting to have a discussion here about tech-specific hoarding.
by wintermutestwin 3y ago
Tangential to a serious hoarding disorder, but relevant to the audience: I think it would be interesting to have a discussion here about tech-specific hoarding. Personally, every time I dig through a box in the garage and find that cable that I don't need to buy and wait for, the volume goes up on the voice saying not to ditch the next thing. Or when I use an old laptop to play with a new distro or set up a server.
But, there is a cost to all of that stuff. Monetarily because I have paid for moving and storing all those boxes over the years, but more so the mental tax of "I should really use these 5 extra laptops that aren't worth enough to bother ebaying but I can't just throw them out because someone else (that I don't know and have no easy way of getting in contact with) could use them and darnit I spent lots of money on this crap."
The best solution for me was taking the time to reduce all of those boxes of cables/parts/etc down to one well organized box. It was actually much easier than I thought. So much of it was old tech that I would never realistically use like SCSI/parallel/serial cables, etc. For everything I kept, I grouped like items together and put them into ziplock bags so I could easily see inside. Now, instead of dreading the box dig, I find it gratifying. The laptops and old phones are still a problem and I keep thinking that I'd run into some techie kid who would use them, but I think that techie kids these days are into different stuff...
- neovive 3y agoHow did you organize the new box? Did you use a specific type of organizer? I have a few scattered boxes of cables, wires, and parts that I need to reduce into one "usable" container. Thanks!
- wintermutestwin 3y agoI made piles of similar stuff (e.g. network cables, connectors, crimper and tester), got a bunch of quart and gallon ziplocks tossed the stuff in them and put 'em in the box. Easy peasy. No need for an organizer for me as I go into the box maybe 2x a year so it is easy enough to pull out ziplocks until I get to the right one.
- jhallenworld 3y agoThe value of your hoard is zero if you can't find the item you need, so organization is key. My recent scheme (I organized during Covid): everything goes in covered Sterilite transparent containers with labels from a brother printer. The containers are cheap, stackable, somewhat waterproof and I find it helps that you can see a bit inside them. There are many sizes to choose from, I tend to use the 6 qt. and 16 qt. sizes the most. They do crack if you drop them, but this is mitigated by the price.
- massysett 3y agoOh yes, I have shelves of Sterilite boxes. I keep several empty boxes at all times so I can reorganize and categorize new items. I label all of them with the Brother label maker. The key is that occasionally I go through and toss obsolete items. Recent casualties: all Micro USB, when the last Micro USB device died. RCA audio patch cables: all the speakers are smart now and don’t hook up to old-school receivers. Nearly all telephone wires. USB chargers less than 5 watts. Miscellaneous video cables, like VGA, DVI, composite video, component video.
- sowbug 3y agoSimilar here. A couple big bins for bulky things that are still useful, like my previous router that I sometimes need to unbork the current router during bad firmware updates. Small Sterilite boxes that are well-labeled so that anyone in my house can find things and put them back in the right place if they find a stray geegaw on the coffee table. We also have a lost-and-found bowl on a countertop for things we don't have the time to file immediately. For me, identifying obsolescence is secondary to deduplication. It seems like USB cables breed if not monitored. Thinning the herd keeps things fitting in the small boxes. It was all easier once I abandoned my lifelong dream of saving the day with a null-modem cable.
- woobar 3y agoI use two labels. One is code to identify the box (GLS-1 for garage left shelf #1), another label lists some details of the content of the box. And a google sheet with the box Ids and a corresponding list of items. Easy to search, and I don't have to go from room to room checking each box.
- intrasight 3y agoHoarded items are in one or more of three categories: 1) tech, 2) aesthetic, 3)trash Everything man-made is tech (books, old SCSI cables) Things you find in nature are aesthetic (shells, rocks, driftwood) The challenge knowing which of the first to should be moved into the third. Everyone fall somewhere on the hoarding spectrum. I am guilty of keeping things that may some day be useful. I have a pretty good track record of being correct. For my tech, I do a purge every few years or when I move. If I've not found something useful in over four years, and it doesn't have great sentimental or historical value, then it goes into the trash. My opinions anyway
- NickM 3y agoEveryone fall somewhere on the hoarding spectrum. I am guilty of keeping things that may some day be useful. I mean, sure, but there's a pretty stark difference between "oops, this didn't turn out to be useful after all" and someone who keeps hundreds of dirty plastic takeout containers "just in case". Maybe to some extent it's a spectrum, but it feels like there's a hard line between someone who keeps things that legitimately might be useful vs someone who is literally delusional.
- intrasight 3y agoThat's keeping trash, and is a mental disorder with a specific name: "trash hoarder". Not to be confused with rational/healthy hoarding ;)
- solarmist 3y agoIt is a spectrum and there is a line. When it begins to negatively impact your life or functioning in life. Technically you could have a pile of dirty takeout containers and be healthy, but it is just extremely unlikely because a series of things need to happen to arrive at that outcome and the distinction is almost always in the process not the results.
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- alwiejrt 3y agoI can totally relate to this. I used to have shelves of old parts that I might maybe use again someday. It seems like I'm able to change my own behavior very abruptly by finding the right perspective. I convinced myself to clean it all up by thinking about opportunity cost. It costs money and time to store things. How much does it cost me to store this? Monetarily, psychologically, socially? If my rent is $2/sqft/month, then this box that takes up 2sqft costs $4/month to store here. It would cost $80 to replace the most expensive item in this box and there's a 10% chance I'll ever actually use any of it again so this box has an expected value of $8. After 2 months, I'll have paid more to store this stuff than it's worth to me. And am I embarrassed to bring company into this room because it's such a mess? Are there other things I could do with this room if it weren't crammed and cluttered? Could I live in a less expensive apartment with fewer rooms and save more money and retire earlier if I didn't keep this stuff? Do I have to spend x hr/year maintaining this stuff to keep it in functioning condition? My free time is worth at least $x/hr. I'll take it to goodwill and I'll check goodwill first if I need it again in the future. Now if I could just get my partner to start thinking similarly and stop spending $300/month to rent a storage facility to hold dead grandma's worthless furniture that no one wants ...