
Stuff - simonreed
http://paulgraham.com/stuff.html
======
mortenjorck
When I moved into my first apartment after college, I brought a laptop, a
sleeping bag, a folding chair, and a clip-lamp. It was great. I felt I could
go anywhere and do anything.

Of course, with a new job, 650 square feet, and an an IKEA nearby, I couldn't
turn down a few basics. So I picked up a spartan bed, a minimalist sofa, a
function-oriented desk.

Then time began to pass. Though I'd resolved never to subscribe to cable,
where was the harm in a TV to watch Netflix in comfort? Off to Best Buy to
pick up a 20" on sale. Then IKEA to put something under it. Now I needed
shelves. Accessories. Electronics.

Time passes. Books. Papers. Storage. A couple raises? Bigger TV! No need to
sell the old one; it goes in the bedroom. Office reorganization? Don't throw
away that table; it matches my sofa! Now I need chairs...

As I laid the cables for my home theater system last year, I had to confront
just how far I had come from my theoretically nomadic self just a few years
earlier. I had an apartment full of stuff. Some new opportunities had me
contemplating the possibility of picking up and moving a great distance --
something that would have been easy not all that long ago, now made quite the
unappealing prospect.

I'd kept pretty fit myself. But I realized that my lifestyle had put on a lot
of pounds while I wasn't looking.

~~~
dkarl
The key is to keep your stuff out of your lifestyle. I have an immersion
blender that I use about a dozen times a year. I got it as a gift, and it
lives at the back of a cabinet underneath my kitchen counter. It's awesome!

I have three kettlebells that I use two or three times a week. They live
beside my couch. There's a weight belt and a medicine ball beside them that I
rarely use, and I swear I keep putting them in the closet, but the kettlebells
are like a magnet for exercise-related junk.

The blender is awesome, even though I could easily live without it. The
kettlebells are clutter -- until I find a good way to store them. (Any
suggestions?)

~~~
dkarl
Bizarre downmod. Its placement as a reply to parent doesn't make sense (it
mystifies even me in retrospect) but I think I made a valid point: the classic
unnecessary "junk" we rarely use doesn't hurt us when it's out of sight, but
valuable possessions that serve an important purpose can drag us down if
they're always in sight, altering the look of a space and affecting how we
behave in it.

I know this is supposed to be an inspiring "carpe diem" type essay, but
everything is susceptible to practical considerations, and with "stuff" it's
important to identify the right culprit. Frivolous domestic accessories and
the worthless junk in the back of your closet might not be the problem --
something eminently practical that you use regularly might be your burdensome
"stuff."

I hope I made myself clear this time.

------
fnid2
_I have too much stuff. Most people in America do. In fact, the poorer people
are, the more stuff they seem to have. Hardly anyone is so poor that they
can't afford a front yard full of old cars._

Wow, Paul, you really don't understand what it is like to be poor. The poor
people don't have a lot of cars in their yard because they can afford lots of
cars. They have lots of cars because they never throw them away. Rich people
throw lots of fine stuff away, but poor people keep everything forever,
because they don't know when they can afford to buy another one.

I've been rich and poor and most of my family is still poor. While they don't
have lots of cars in the yard, they are pack rats and worry constantly about a
time in the future when they won't have anything anymore.

Poor people keep stuff because there may be a day when they'll need it but
won't have the money to buy it. The regret of, "Oh... i had one of those but i
got rid of it" is pretty strong when you need something you don't have but
once did.

~~~
philwelch
Or maybe people with marginal incomes spend themselves into sustained poverty
through wasteful consumption. If they saved _money_ instead of buying
minimally useful possessions and saving the possessions, maybe they wouldn't
have to worry about being able to afford stuff they need. You and I have
probably known different sets of poor people, but I've seen cases of this.

That doesn't justify throwing things away once you have them, though, but how
does one get them in the first place and were they all really necessary at the
time?

~~~
potatolicious
Wow, that's possibly the most arrogant, yet typically upper-middle class thing
I've seen all week on HN.

Unfortunately, the "poor people are poor 'cos they're dumb!" sentiment is
_way_ too prevalent just about anywhere you go.

I had the (unexpected and unintended) opportunity to live on the wrong side of
the tracks, in an incredibly poor industrial neighbourhood - the reality is
_far_ more complex than "poor people have poor impulse spending control". To
reduce it to such is incredibly out of touch with reality.

~~~
jackowayed
I don't think that was his point.

His point wasn't "poor people are poor because they spend too much", his point
was, "maybe spending too much is _part_ of what keeps them poor." Obviously
there's a lot of factors reducing economic mobility anyway, but poor spending
choices certain don't help.

The best example of this would be addiction. A lot of poor people are addicted
to tobacco, alcohol, illegal drugs, etc. This puts a huge damper on any
ability to save they might have.

But I'm sure he knows that sub-optimal spending decisions are just one of many
reasons that poor people stay poor.

------
dgallagher
I have a 90-day rule. If I have something and I haven't used it in 90 days, I
probably don't need it and get rid of it (sell it, give it away, throw it
out). This tends to keep my life de-cluttered and "focused". It also keeps me
from waisting money on stuff I don't need. "Am I really going to be still
excited about, and benefit from, using this widget I want to buy in 90 days or
not?" I've lived like this for about a decade and I highly recommend trying
it.

There are exceptions of course. Seasonal items like clothing, mountain bike,
etc... Books too as mentioned in the essay. Having a library of coding books
on-hand is not only reassuring, but has helped me save significant time
solving a problem, even if I only rarely use the book. And I don't think it's
a good idea throwing out your old money either. ;)

~~~
derwiki
I recently decided to give away all my coding books. They were great, and I
learned a lot -- but I never reference them. I remember most of the core
concepts, and the details are a quick Google away. My other coworkers decided
to follow suit, and our work library has grown to 4x what it was a week ago.
And my apartment is slightly less cluttered.

------
abstractbill
_Except books—but books are different._

I suspect most people have their own personal caveat to this essay. Mine isn't
books (I usually give good books to friends after reading them, and bad books
to ebay). My own caveat would be raw materials for building or repairing
things (electrical components, nuts and bolts, tools, etc).

~~~
wyclif
_It's not especially inconvenient to own several thousand books_

Until you find yourself having to move.

~~~
Luc
I have thousands of books and would love to get rid of them. I would need a
future-proof platform that allows annotations, and that lets me migrate
between devices (so I can keep my books for at least my lifetime). I guess I
would also need a convenient book scanner, for those books that are no longer
in print.

~~~
derwiki
I've often wondered why Amazon doesn't have a program like "send in your
books, get a free Kindle copy of them"

~~~
JadeNB
I think that it's fairly clear why they don't do this --would they do it only
for books purchased from amazon.com? If not, would they require some sort of
proof of purchase? What about used books? What about books not currently
available on the Kindle? If you send them an old edition of a book, then what
edition do you get on the Kindle?-- but it's such a gorgeous idea. This has
been one of the biggest roadblocks in my attempts to decide whether to buy a
Kindle: I have a huge library, and the idea of spending thousands of dollars
in format-shifting doesn't appeal to me. If I could even just get a discount
for books that I already own, it would make me much, much more likely to take
the plunge.

------
bcowcher
This reminds me of fight club (or at least one of the core themes), in fact
one of the lines in the essay reads like it was plucked out of the movie.

Anyway, Fight Club definitely struck a cord with me and since then I have been
living with incredibly little stuff. I have a computer, my iphone, my car, a
desk and a bed and just enough clothes to get by for 2 weeks (do laundry once
a week) and of course minor other things that you need, but basically bare
essentials.

While I cant say for sure how much of an impact its had on my life, I can say
without a doubt that coming home always feels very relaxing and definitely
helps me prepare for a new day.

~~~
jotto
fight club: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJdfWdIBfE8>

"byproducts of a lifestyle obsession" "things you own... end up owning you"
"working jobs we hate so we can buy ish we don't need"

edit: link fixed

~~~
TheSOB88
You can cuss here, if you want.

------
rodyancy
This is great. I came to the same conclusion some time ago. Of course, I never
articulated it so elequently.

Anyway, anytime I bring new stuff into my house I take the same amount of
stuff and put it in a box. About four times a year I call the Salvation Army
and they pick up the box.

Before buying something new, I have to think about what old stuff is going in
the box. Normally it isn't hard. On Christmas, when I get a lot of new stuff,
it can be a challange. The worst is when someone gives me something I will
never use and I have to put it right in the box, which seems ungrateful. Other
than that, the box is liberating and putting stuff in it feels great.

~~~
johnwatson11218
yes I have started doing this kind of thing as well. I have a lot of crappy
business casual clothes that don't really fit anymore. I don't want to toss
them because I keep thinking I'll lose the weight to be able to fit back in
them real soon.

What I have started doing is donating 2 pairs of old pants to Goodwill and
buying 1 pair of nice pants that I will want to wash and deal with. This seems
to be working well for me so far.

I also wanted to mention that our hard disks can suffer from this same
problem. I have also started making an effort to delete old pdf books that I
won't read, delete mp3s that I'm tired of hearing etc.

------
groaner
I find it particularly annoying that society in general, not just marketers,
tends to pressure people into having stuff. Nobody respects the "miser" who is
earning decent money and not spending it by buying things. I get a lot of flak
from people who ask me that since I can afford something, why am I not adding
it to my lifestyle? They wonder if I take pleasure in watching the numbers
change in my bank balance.

My answer to them is usually that it's a slippery slope from buying things I
can afford to buying things I don't actually need (slickdeals.net is
especially good at exploiting this behavior). This tends not to sit well with
them -- maybe it reminds them of a fact they are uncomfortable with and are
trying to suppress?

------
kgp
"I think humans constantly scan their environment to build a mental model of
what's around them. And the harder a scene is to parse, the less energy you
have left for conscious thoughts. A cluttered room is literally exhausting."

On a related note , Steve Jobs has no furniture.

~~~
cracki
what does he have? walls and a floor?

~~~
gwern
He just sits indian-style and uses an iPad.

~~~
gfodor
Hey, I thought it was funny.

------
mrj
Sweet, I can post George Carlin and be on topic!

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac>

------
andyjdavis
What Paul doesn't really devote enough time to describing is the pleasure that
getting rid of stuff brings. Reducing the amount of stuff you own is
liberating. You feel physically lighter. Its not just about avoiding a burden.
It is physically pleasurable to reduce the amount of stuff you are responsible
for.

Go through your house and give to charity or throw out anything you haven't
used in 12 months. Its amazing how much of an emotional lift this gives you.

I really dislike the cult of stuff. I'm getting married soon. We've requested
people give us money or just their congratulations :) Some people however seem
to think we're rude for refusing to accept stuff we don't need. Somehow we're
obligated to accept a burdensome gift that we'll have to quietly dispose of.
They spend money that we could use for things we do need and we have to go to
the effort of getting rid of it. Its a lose lose. Yet somehow we're selfish
for asking people not to buy us stuff.

~~~
johnyzee
This is one of the greatest insights that I have had lately - throwing stuff
out is liberating and _makes you feel physically lighter_. Sorry to repeat you
verbatim but that is exactly how I feel.

I fight with my wife over this. She wants to put something in the basement
(which is already packed to the ceiling) and I am like: If you don't need it,
for God's sake get rid of it. If I had my way I would thorw out everything in
that basement today.

Ditto on the gifts stuff. We get a gift, typically crockery or plastic shit
for the kids, and all I am thinking is how long do I have to keep this before
I throw it out.

Here's a hack for children's birthday parties: If people want to bring gifts
(which we discourage), we take the gift at the door and throw it in a closet,
to be opened when everyone has left. This way people do not bring gifts out of
social pressure, don't feel they have to top each other, and there is no
disgusting gift feeding frenzy in front of the other children.

~~~
andyjdavis
I was lucky with my then girlfriend, now fiancée. We were moving into a
smaller place so she had no choice but to heavily cull her belongings.
Although the process was painful she has now been converted and regularly
voluntarily gets rid of more stuff just because it makes her feel good to have
less junk around the place.

Your method of dealing with gifts is a good idea. I've always found publicly
opening a stream of gifts a bit vulgar. Whenever possible I deal with any
gifts in private or with only the gift giver there. Having an audience,
celebrating the giving and receiving of stuff just seems distasteful.

"gift feeding frenzy" That is the perfect name for it.

------
julius_geezer
Books: for a long time I thought that I had done something when I acquired
one. Yet clearly there's a difference between the book once dipped into and on
the shelf for years, and the Indian cookbook with turmeric stains all over or
the tech reference with its spine worn out. I have tried lately to be more
discriminating in my book buying, and not to buy another book of some type
(tech, history, fiction) before I've finished the last purchased book of that
type.

~~~
BearOfNH
Books^2: When I buy a paperback novel to read on a plane (or while waiting to
get on a plane :-) I often finish it in some distant city and leave it
someplace where somebody else can find it. Just too much work to sell for a
pittance, and too valuable to simply toss out. So I leave its fate to Fate.

~~~
jcl
Sounds a little like the philosophy of BookCrossing:
<http://www.bookcrossing.com/>

------
shalmanese
Even as a child, I was pretty indifferent to stuff (A 9th grade essay wanted
us to write about our most prized possession and I couldn't come up with
anything except my computer). But I think the final break for me happened when
inadequate backup procedures caused me to lose several years worth of digital
photos.

I was initially heartbroken but then I started thinking how many times I had
actually looked at any of those photos since I took them and, for the majority
of then, the answer was zero. After that, my relationship with stuff shifted
radically.

A few years later, I lost a wooden spoon which was pretty much the only thing
I held an emotional attachment to anymore. That thing was older than I was and
had been the one constant in cooking which is a huge part of my life. I moped
for a year, shrugged and got a new one.

I'm starting to seriously consider that, once a year, I will find the thing
currently most precious to me and get rid of it.

~~~
nat
It sounds to me like you might be taking the wrong lesson away from this. Try
finding the five things most precious to you and throwing away everything
_else_.

Being affected by the loss of a spoon shouldn't make you want to never love a
spoon again (that way lies crappy romantic comedies). The idea here is to
concentrate our attachment to objects, not eliminate it.

------
jasonkester
I can relate to the point about how traveling realigns your ideas about stuff.
I've been traveling around South America for the last 5 months with exactly
one change of clothes. The general rule for long trips like this is that if
you haven't used one of your possessions in 3 days, then you shouldn't have it
along.

I find that I take this concept with me back to civilization. I'll get back to
my storage locker and not find anything that I want to take out. "This isn't
the shirt that I wear.", and "I already have enough socks" (meaning 4).

Back home in England, I can think of exactly two possessions that I've
accumulated in the 3 years since I've been living there with my girlfriend: a
22" monitor to connect to the laptop, and a really nice Italian espresso
machine. Both get used every day, so evidently they meet my criteria for
"stuff you're allowed to have along."

~~~
ebun
I second the bit about traveling.

I relocated from Austin to San Francisco to Japan and with each move, I
drastically reduced my lifestlye. It's just as PG said: you don't really miss
anything.

And I dealt with books by getting an e-reader so I could carry my library in
my backpack.

------
madair
Reminds of an excerpt from the book, The Romantic Ethic and the Spirit of
Modern Consumerism (via [http://mrteacup.tumblr.com/post/386598513/the-
consummation-o...](http://mrteacup.tumblr.com/post/386598513/the-consummation-
of-desire-is-thus-a-necessarily)):

 _The consummation of desire is thus a necessarily disillusioning experience
for the modern hedonist as it constitutes the ‘testing’ of his day-dream
against reality, the resultant recognition that something is missing. The real
experience in question may yield considerable pleasure, some of which may not
have been anticipated, but despite this, much of the quality of the dream-
pleasure is bound to be absent. In fact, the more skilled the individual is as
a ‘dream-artist’, then the greater this element of disillusionment is likely
to be. A certain dissatisfaction with reality is thus bound to mark the
outlook of the dedicated hedonist, something which may, under appropriate
circumstances, prompt a turning to fantasy. It is more likely, however, that
the dream will be carried forward and attached to some new object of desire
such that the illusory pleasures may, once more, be re-experienced. In this
way, the modern hedonist is continually withdrawing from reality as fast as he
encounters it, ever-casting day-dreams forward in time, attaching them to
objects of desire, and then subsequently ‘unhooking’ from these objects as and
when they are attained and experienced._

------
gasull
You can join the 100 things challenge: <http://www.guynameddave.com/100-thing-
challenge.html>

One problem I've found with it is that people buy me worthless gifts (gifts I
don't derive value from because I don't use them).

I've created an online list of things I want at kaboodle.com, or more exactly,
a list of things I wouldn't mind possessing, but my family refuses buying
anything on the list because that's "spoiling the surprise". I would prefer
they stop giving me gifts altogether, but they won't no matter what.

My favorite quote from PG's article:

 _What I didn't understand was that the value of some new acquisition wasn't
the difference between its retail price and what I paid for it. It was the
value I derived from it._

~~~
jerf
Being a middle-middle-class American in the Midwest, I can and do pretty much
just buy what it is I want or need that is on the scale of a Christmas gift my
family could or would get. That, combined with geeky tastes (y'all know what I
mean) virtually guarantees things-I-value-as-garbage as presents.

Next year I'm going to try picking a charity and asking for nothing but
donations in my name. I'm going to pick a popular one, too, not a obscure and
ignorable "geek" charity or something, but one that may actually induce guilt
if they ignore the request. Maybe that will at least cut things down.

(Come to think of it, maybe I'll pick a Celiac Disease foundation or
something, since I have that. A bit more self-serving, perhaps, but even more
likely to induce guilt if ignored. I hate a swing "guilt" at the issue, but
I've tried mere protest for a couple of years now to no effect.)

~~~
autarch
I've been doing this for quite some time.

I make plenty of money, and I have very little interest in most stuff. The
only stuff that does interest me is books, video games, and
computer/electronics equipment. When I want one of those things, I buy it.

I've also been involved with an animal rights organization I co-founded for 11
years or so, so every birthday I simply ask everyone to make a donation to
that organization.

------
oconnore
I agree to being minimalist, with the notable exception of kitchen supplies.
It's near impossible to cook interesting food without cabinets full of spices,
various sized pots and pans, utensils of all shapes, and in some cases,
specialty items like blenders, strainers, etc. Add to that a pantry full of
food staples, and a full refrigerator, and suddenly moving anywhere is a
painful process.

Life is too short to live on ramen.

~~~
andymism
I love to cook. My kitchen cabinets are stuffed with all sorts of kitchen
appliances, pots and pans, and utensils. But even when cooking the most
elaborate meals for up to 16 guests, I've found that I only use 5 or 6 tools
out of my large (and expensive) arsenal.

I've actually moved most of my pots and pans into my outdoor storage. The ones
I'll need, I'll go grab and keep inside, but after another 6 months, the rest
will be up for sale on ebay--and there'll be a lot of them.

------
yread
Reminds me of <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac>

------
tom_ilsinszki
Find the few things that matter, and drop the others. This approach might
apply to many areas of life.

------
mgrouchy
This is so funny because I was talking to my girlfriend about this recently.
We recently moved from a 700 sqft condo to a 1700 sqft house and I look around
and I say "why do we need all this crap" I mean do we really need that second
couch or extra desk, its really just filling the space.

I honestly look at most of the stuff we have bought and thing that it was not
only a horrible waste of money but a burden. We talk about possibly moving
around a bit basically move where we can both work and It keeps coming back to
what do you do with the stuff.

This is terrible. We aren't rich but we are not poor either, but we are kind
of in a spot where we are kind of like how can we move to another country or
province(we are in Canada) when we have all this stuff.

I think in the long run if you are interested in having some freedom owning
less stuff is the way to go. I know thats the direction I am know moving in.

------
billswift
I have lots and lots of stuff. Some I use regularly or at least often enough.
Some I used to use and keep just in case, its not like its costing me. And
some I got just in case, mostly science, math, and engineering books I found
cheap and think I might get to some day (they are also a useful investment,
I've been mostly living off of reselling some of them the last year that I've
been out of work).

But I am not ruled by my stuff, I have in the past, and could again, just
abandon most of it when I move again. What I know and can do is what is most
important to me; and that is mostly what my belongings are actually about -
books, tools, supplies for learning and doing.

 _"The best of all things is to learn. Money can be lost or stolen, health and
strength may fail, but what you have committed to your mind is yours
forever."_

\-- Louis L'Amour, The Walking Drum

------
jseliger
I wonder if this got submitted now because of my submission:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1124086> on "The Possessions Exercise:"
[http://jseliger.com/2010/02/13/the-possessions-exercise-
acco...](http://jseliger.com/2010/02/13/the-possessions-exercise-according-to-
geoffrey-miller) .

(For those of you who don't want to click the second link, here's the money
shot:

 _List the ten most expensive things (products, services, or experiences) that
you have ever paid for (including houses, cars, university degrees, marriage
ceremonies, divorce settlements, and taxes). Then, list the ten items that you
have ever bought that gave you the most happiness. Count how many items appear
on both lists._ )

~~~
fburnaby
Geoffry Miller, nice! If I owed a house, it would be on both lists. Other than
that, my computer, education and guitar are shared on both lists. Below those,
my most expensive purchases have been necessities (think bed mattress, rent,
etc). Honestly, it feels wrong to regret spending money on these. I may not
_love_ them, but they're part of the cost of living.

The list exercise might make more sense to non-students.

------
UsNThem
Books ??? - Its kind of funny on my front. I live the nomadic lifestyle and
the box I have never opened since my last move has been my books. I plan never
too and possible avoid any more technical book purchases. ( My bit for the
environment )

How do I manage technical dilemmas ??? Google ... Seriously - Google like
mad.. And i end up learning/reading a whole lot more in the general direction
of my problem.

~~~
coolnewtoy
Safari books online or Books 24 x 7. I may never buy a paper copy of a
technical book again.

------
ilamont
A couple of things I've been doing:

When kids have a birthday or holiday with gifts, we tell them that they have
to throw away or give away an equal amount of stuff. It works surprisingly
well.

I've been thinning out my media stuff (books, videos, old records, etc.) in
batches during moves, but recently began selling what I could on amazon. It's
mostly CDs and books, but in the past two months it's totaled about $800. One
problem, however, is many titles are worth too little for me to go through the
trouble of listing, selling, packing, and shipping them. This is especially
true of older books. No matter how good or important they were, about 90% sell
for <$2 used on Amazon.

~~~
joshstaiger
You can donate lower-priced titles to your local library.

~~~
mos1
Or have a used book store buy them in bulk. They won't pay much, but it's a
single transaction so it doesn't use a lot of time.

------
mschaecher
I am moving to San Francisco from Nebraska. I pretty much got rid of all my
stuff already except books, clothes, and computers. It felt awesome to get rid
of everything, I suggest you try it.

------
tel
I'm always aware of this when I look at model rooms for designer furniture.
They are always alarmingly spartan. With that image, it's easy to notice that
without the pressure of real stuff, your mind prefers it not be there.

That always struck me about IKEA. It tries to have both by trying to appeal to
high design while filling their model rooms with clutter. It's very telling
and a wonderful business model since they'll sell you the stuff: moose
spaghetti, tiny candles, cacti.

~~~
fburnaby
I remember thinking the same thing about Ikea when I went through one of their
catalogs last week. But I think it seems like a bad idea; it makes their
products feel less enticing. I could look at their furniture and -- though the
pictures still look very nice -- think to myself "how would I navigate around
that with a cup of tea and a book in my hand?".

------
chime
I wrote something very similar in the same exact month:
<http://chir.ag/20070725> \- Buy Less Stuff. I honestly don't remember if I
was inspired by PG's essay or it was just a coincidence. Like 'bcowcher', I
even mentioned Fight-Club.

So where am I today 3 years later? I still haven't bought a lot of stuff. But
I got married in 2008 and now my house is full of my wife's stuff. However,
she started to get rid of a lot of her stuff. I don't need stuff to make
myself feel at home but she does, as that is her only connection with her past
life. I bought some clothes for myself last year (12 single-color t-shirts @
$3/each online) and a lot of running gear for my ultramarathon but other than
that, barely anything.

I think the lesson here for me is that it is indeed possible to reduce your
acquisition of "stuff" and maintain it. However, it depends very much on your
personality. My wife likes to dress nicely and decorate the house. So we'll be
stuff every night and then, hopefully not too much.

------
SwellJoe
I just went through a major purge in order to downsize from a 1000 sq ft
house, to a ~220 sq ft RV. I've still got too much stuff, but I'm getting
closer.

Stuff weighs you down, and makes making major life changes more difficult
(even if you know you need them). I stayed in Mountain View at least a year
longer than I should have, from a contentment perspective, mostly because the
thought of moving was just too much to handle.

Some things I will never allow myself to again have a lot of: Books, CDs and
DVDs, more furniture than I use every day, more rooms than I use every day,
more computers than I use every day, and _anything_ (clothes, tools,
foodstuffs, kitchenwares, etc.) that can sit in a closet or on a shelf for
more than a year without being needed. Even now, I think I have probably twice
as much stuff as I really need, and I'm planning to move into a smaller, but
nicer, RV in a few months, once I've downsized more thoroughly.

------
ahk
Somewhat similar to Bruce Sterling's Viridian design movement
<http://www.viridiandesign.org/2008_11_01_archive.html>

------
elblanco
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impermanence>

------
mike463
I think the way to get a handle on all your stuff is to turn your life inside
out (or more accurately, turn it rightside out).

From an engineering standpoint, you have to _design_ your life. You know -
architect how you want to live.

From that, it's easy to deal with your stuff -- does it support your design?
If it doesn't, it should go.

The computer should have a place. Kitchen stuff should live in the kitchen.

The bedroom closet is for the clothes you do use and maybe seasonal stuff at
the top. It isn't for 6 boxes of cat5 and all those extra USB cables you end
up with. You should not have a closet or garage full of "misc".

My personal test is the "might" test. Stuff you "might" need is not stuff you
_do_ need. It goes.

~~~
johnyzee
> My personal test is the "might" test. Stuff you "might" need is not stuff
> you do need. It goes.

Exactly. If in doubt, you don't need it.

------
indiejade
_And yet when I got back I didn't discard so much as a box of it. Throw away a
perfectly good rotary telephone? I might need that one day._

Sounds like INTP tendency:

 _Because the present is inextricably linked to a sense of the past, INTPs
tend to hoard items which help solidify the connection to the past. They find
it very difficult to let go of anything they have collected (or indeed
created) and which may have a nostalgic meaning._

above from <http://www.intp.org/intprofile.html>

------
abdels
I love this article.

My wife and I came to the same conclusion when we wanted to start our own
thing. We needed to be flexible enough to live from anywhere a frugal life
style would demand and our stuff was just weighing us down. Even storing it
was going to cost alot of money - in the end we got rid of must of it.

Our books were the biggest culprits. Through bargains, we accumulated tons of
novels that we've never read. Those were the first to go. The only books left
were mostly references.

------
dennisgorelik
Books are no different from other stuff. It's better to apply the same
standards to books when you you are trying to get rid of useless stuff. And
it's not only about paper books (it's obvious they have huge downsides,
because they are heavy). Electronic books are also should be deleted if they
are not useful anymore. Our attention span is very limited, and new
information tends to have better quality than old information (on average).

------
oliveoil
I often think about this. And of one more hidden cost of stuff, especially
furniture: it occupies space in a place you pay rent for for. If that sofa
takes 2 square meters out of my 40 square meters apartment, that means every
20th rent I pay is just because of this. If my rent is approximately the same
as the price of that sofa was, I refinance if every 1.6 years.

~~~
gwern
> If that sofa takes 2 square meters out of my 40 square meters apartment,
> that means every 20th rent I pay is just because of this.

If you get rid of the sofa, does your landlord give you a 1/20th discount? If
he doesn't, then your reasoning is a bit unsound...

~~~
oliveoil
That's right, he does not. But you can live in a smaller apartment or live in
an apartment of the same size with more empty space which arguably is better
if you ever plan to do anything creative there. Or just spend better quality
time relaxing. In other words, I claim that having a room with lots of empty
space in it is a value in itself. And save money on the original purchase
still.

------
jodrellblank
Raymond Chen (Microsoft)'s blog post on stuff:
[http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2005/11/11/491780....](http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2005/11/11/491780.aspx)

------
elptacek
Thank you, Paul Graham, for talking me into buying another pair of shoes!

------
grinich
Even with books, there exists a simpler solution: the library. Plus, it's
free.

Most people's bookshelves just collect dust. It's no different than having a
few cars sitting in your front yard.

------
swombat
(July 2007)

~~~
ledger123
But I am still happy to read it again. I think we need to constantly remind
ourselves with advice like this. I am going to print this essay now and give
copies to my wife and kids.

~~~
swombat
Sure - my comment was not a negative. The date should be in the post title
though, when it's something so old (hah, 3 years old? that's ancient! What the
internet does to us, eh...)

------
marltod
This especially applies to buying a house.

------
marshallp
Kids don't builder a coarser model of the evironment, adults do. Once again pg
doesn't do his resaarch before espousing his amateur psychology.

~~~
gwern
I came here to say just this. He's right for all the wrong reasons. In most
mental areas, kids trounce adults; relevantly, their senses are _much_
sharper. (Just the other day I saw an astronomer's anecdote: he was showing
adults and kids some phenomena through his observatory's telescope, and the
kids politely told him that it was obviously broken since the object was
upside-down - the adults never noticed.)

It's not a matter of them having a smaller coaser model, as one can see by
comparing how kids & adults do with the 'pile of stuff' organizational model.
They just have more energy to apply to it. As one ages, one has less energy to
apply to stuff, and less energy period; and one begins to appreciate
minimalism.

~~~
Raphael
How can something be upside down in space?

~~~
tb
If it's close to the horizon then there's a definite "up" - towards the
zenith. Many telescopes invert the incoming image, hence why the kids would've
thought it was upside-down.

(I am assuming the object in question was visible with the naked eye, probably
the moon, although it's also possible that the children noticed that when the
telescope moved, the image appeared to move in the "wrong" direction relative
to their expectations.)

------
clistctrl
I've recently started to reduce my spending on "stuff" so I can start saving
for the things I've decided actually matter (a startup, a trip to Europe with
my girlfriend, as well as a ring for her for whenever that moment is right)
One of the key concepts of the essay is happiness will not be reduced, and
possibly increased with this change in living. To this I will attest is very
true, I haven't gone on the trip yet, but I already get more pleasure out of
knowing I actually WILL be going on it, then if I bought a faster laptop etc.

~~~
kaib
> as well as a ring for her for whenever that moment is right

this might be an interesting read:
<http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/198202/diamond>

maybe separate the ring from the 'really great mate' part?

------
sscheper
We have too many things that do too many things.

------
medianama
How is it relevant to the community?

~~~
geirk
If stuff=software features, it is highly relevant

