
Marie Kondo and the War on Stuff (2016) - iiv
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/10/magazine/marie-kondo-and-the-ruthless-war-on-stuff.html
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jseliger
I don't think there's a "war on stuff" so much as there is a tendency among
many people to accumulate and tend to way too much stuff:
[http://paulgraham.com/stuff.html](http://paulgraham.com/stuff.html). And I'd
include myself in that group. And the price of stuff is not just in the
original acquisition cost (which may be zero); it's also in real estate needed
to hold stuff and the time needed to search and sort it.

I've got a loose rule: if I've not used it or worn it in the last six months,
it should go, no matter how much it originally cost. Some seasonal clothes and
and a few tools are exempt. For books, I ask if I'm likely to re-read it, and
if the answer is no, it goes. In the post-Amazon world, books are very rarely
hard to re-acquire. In short, "The Possessions Exercise" is useful:
[https://jakeseliger.com/2010/02/13/the-possessions-
exercise-...](https://jakeseliger.com/2010/02/13/the-possessions-exercise-
according-to-geoffrey-miller).

 _America had entered a time of peak stuff, when we had accumulated a mountain
of disposable goods_

Right.

It's strange to read the article and not see "cost" and "trade offs"
mentioned. My guess is that we're psychologically wired for a world of limited
and scarce stuff, but many of us no longer live in that world. A similar
problem can be seen in our predilection for refined sugar.

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OJFord
> if I've not used it or worn it in the last six months, it should go

When did you last 'use' the pictures on your walls?

> For books, I ask if I'm likely to re-read it, and if the answer is no, it
> goes

Why is a full bookshelf different?

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WesleyLivesay
If your goal is to be pedantic, you 'use' a picture every time you look at it,
so probably more often then every 6 months.

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OJFord
> If your goal is to be pedantic,

No, my goal is to suggest that there's more value in many thing than their
primary use.

> you 'use' a picture every time you look at it

In which case you also 'use' a bookshelf full of books every time you look at
it; so the books need not be discarded either.

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ktRolster
At first I thought Marie Kondo hated stuff, and wanted me to be minimalist.
That is absolutely wrong.

She doesn't mind of you have stuff. She wants you to only have stuff you
enjoy. All those extra things that are like a load on you, weighing you down,
get rid of _those._

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lucaspiller
> only have stuff you enjoy

In this case I'd have no clothes then. Maybe I'm weird, but I just see clothes
as a utility, not as something that gives me joy.

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klodolph
It's obviously a simplification of what Kondo said. If everything could be
condensed into a sentence she wouldn't have written an entire book.

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tonyedgecombe
Actually, I think most of the book could fit on a page, there really isn't
that much in there.

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Simon_says
Maybe she should get rid of the extra stuff in her book.

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dguo
George Carlin has a pretty great comedy routine on our relationship with
"stuff".
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac)

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ValentineC
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12049350](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12049350)

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jtraffic
There is an interesting interplay between stuff and space. I'm married and
have two children (3 and 18 months) and we live in a two bedroom apartment.
Whether I'm justified in wanting more space or not, I really, really do want
it. My wife and I talk all the time about how having more space would be nice.

I'm interviewing for jobs (finishing phd) and our income/cost ratio will
hopefully increase, and I think we'll end up in a place with more space. But I
don't have the experience to have calibrated to the exact amount of space I'll
need. We'll probably overreact and be gluttons for space. Then we'll fill up
the excess with stuff.

I don't know, maybe I'm wrong. It just feels like you want space, then you get
it, then you fill it with stuff you don't want.

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rhapsodic
PSA: Those who have useful stuff they want to get rid of can give it away on
freecyle.org.

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damnfine
Even craigslist, your local community board (real or virtual) or just your
curb can be enough. Just be sure to clearly define what is free, lest you
accidentally donate your mailbox, puppy and fountain.

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mc32
If she hasn't she should set-up a subsidiary recycling co. Which takes the
rejected items and in turn reconditions them and cycles them back into useful
items for other people, either as nonprofit or even for profit.

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hirzel
So true. My fantasy company (please anyone start it) is "reverse-Amazon-
prime"\-- Remove anything from your house in 2 days. Then you have all the
connections to a) sell and share the money back with me, b) donate it, or c)
dispose of it responsibly. This would be so awesome done right with solid
research into the best ways to do all of the above for a huge variety of
stuff.

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bisRepetita
It exists and is called Craigslist.

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tripletmass
...and it funds journalism by sending drones to the Waffle House to workshop
my ephemeral stuff while doing some mending and meeting other drones to trade,
to share litecoin, or to fix up their rides; sometimes even tell whether a
carrot is seeding true. They do mad backbeats and end up with tips.

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abiox
I have way too much stuff that I really don't care much about. For a good
while it was a feeling in the back of my mind, but packing and hauling all
this stuff in a recent move has made this a very clear thought.

Currently 'at war' ensuring the next move will require far less effort and
stress.

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rhizome
(2016)

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dang
Thanks, added.

