Why do I have so much stuff? I hate it all. Should I give it all away? Ugh or set it on fire (probably not very eco-friendly but very emotionally satisfying)
What shit is worth holding onto? (This seems like it might be a pretty deep question. Discuss.)
I don't like the analysis of "does this bring me joy".
That 15 year old geforce card didn't bring me joy, but it costs nothing to leave it in a box and it saved me a lot of trouble testing components last time my PC failed.
I've got so many tools, bits of scrap lumber, cables, etc that does nothing day-to-day, but saves a lot of misery when I need to fix something.
I've always asked "will I ever use this?"
And I can come up with scenarios along the same lines as part testing for nearly every item. At some point the analysis has to go deeper and actually weigh the part cost/usefulness/probability of use and the opportunity cost of the space used etc.
No easy answers is where I'm going I guess
There's also the thing that happens where you hold onto a small piece of something for years without needing it, then you throw it out and a week later you absolutely need that thing.
I've been trying to downsize but Its hard. I don't keep a lot of collectables around but tools and materials are all over.
The "sparks joy" criterion specifically doesn't apply to items with utility
Most of my items have utility, how do I proceed in shedding possessions?
I have a lot of stuff. It's all useful but surely I don't need it all.
I guess ease of replacement, likelihood of needing again soon, whether or not you can do the same job with some other item or combination of items
yeah i'm dumb as shit literal brain of a magpie i just have piles of junk i've collected in my room.
I've got to move in a few months and it's terrifying how much crap I have to sort through and either pack up or get rid of.
Jesus Christ I've spent an embarrassing amount of money on Star Wars action figures this past year. I've had some extra money and collecting is a fun hobby that makes me happy but sometimes I look at this shelf full of them and think like, I could have put that money towards traveling the world, or donated it to charity.
The things you own end up owning you. [...] You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.
—Karl Marx, probably
But my house is full of things I don't want so I'm not sure what to tell you
I know the konmari method had its watered-down pop culture moment a while ago, but the original technique is genuinely great. When I read the book a few years ago and did my first full clean out of the things I owned, it was a big turning point for me in my relationship to material junk.
What things do you use a lot? What things do you need to survive physically? What is important to you emotionally? What makes you comfortable? That's how I decide what I need to keep.
PC stuff. Sleeping stuff. Clothing stuff. Videogame stuff. Books n stuff. Cooking and eating stuff. Gardening stuff. Storage for all this stuff.
I avoid accumulation of practically anything else.
This is how I do it except I'm also a musician so I've got a drawer full of flutes
your wierd if setting it on fire and giving it away are two equally weighted options for you , just saying...
I've been here before and setting it on fire (or otherwise destroying/discarding it) is unfortunately much easier than giving it away, and at least for me when I'm at the stage of being totally overwhelmed by it my brain needs me to take the path of least resistance otherwise I'll get task paralysis and do nothing while it gets worse and my brain tortures me about it. (For me at least that's part of my ADHD)
Under communism we'll have a service like trash pickup that takes all the usable stuff you want to get rid of, sorts it, and distributes it to the people who need it or breaks it down and recycles the components.
Does it have a practical use that you can forsee? Does it have emotional sentiment? Do you like it? If no to all of these, give it away.
I will refer you to this comment I made a very long time ago but TLDR: I fucking love my stuff.
I can't offer any meaningful advice that isn't already in this thread in the event that you do get rid of your stuff. Keep the important things.
In my circles, I always see stories of grandparents/fathers/mothers/etc leaving something behind of a common interest that sorta carries the story of lost relatives down to newer generations.
Old guitars, tools, a classic car half way through restoration, etc. These items bring together generations in a way that ties these people and their stories together, similar to the immortality thing you mentioned.
As a kid I had to clean out my great grandmother's house after she died. It was a whole summers worth of work but me and my grandpa worked through it. I got to learn about the Brooklyn neighborhood he grew up in. I got to learn through items more about my great grandfather I never met, about my great grandmother who I mostly knew through dark basement apartment visits. I still use my great grandfather's oil stone to sharpen knives. Something about that intergenerational connection is important to me.
Aside from small items here or there, I generally don't have many other "artifacts" that connect me to older generations that I can actually use and live through. So now in my day to day life, when I buy things, I consider if this is something i'd like to leave behind. Things I wouldn't care about leaving behind I'm far less attached to, but I'd like to retain items that I may forget about, but my children and grandchildren can learn more about me through.
