The great junk transfer is coming • Hacker News Board

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#301

Post by r2_pilot » Wed, May 25, 2022, 1:17 PM UTC

jmspring wrote: post #104

My father has been doing a decent job decluttering from things my mother accumulated. She is still alive, but not all there. He has a safe that has multiple locks that I need to make sure I have the code(s) for. I don’t accumulate stuff and already told my sister when it comes to that time, she can grab what she wants. The rest goes to donation/dump.

Regarding the lock, hurry and do that. My family lost the combination to our safe when my dad passed away, and it was a long time before we regained access (found the note eventually).

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#302

Post by kaybe » Wed, May 25, 2022, 1:18 PM UTC

benhurmarcel wrote: post #262

petesergeant wrote: post #48

I love getting rid of stuff. I've just packed up my apartment again, and my wife and I have under 5m3 of stuff, and that includes a couple of larger pieces of furniture, 7-8 framed pieces of art, a decently-sized toolbox, and a big TV. Most of the time we're away from our homebase anyway, so living out of two suitcases. It really means that our treasured items are treasured, as most have undergone several iterations…

I used to make sure I owned a fairly small volume of stuff. And then I got a kid.

Being an adult for some years now after the changes in childhood and early adulthood surely is interesting with regards to stuff.

As a kid, you outgrow things so quickly that you often pass them along before they break down, or they break faster due to, well, being a kid. It's natural that things come and go quickly. This rhythm is very different in different times of life. I'm not done pondering it yet.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#303

Post by snowwrestler » Wed, May 25, 2022, 1:23 PM UTC

petesergeant wrote: post #213

jseban wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are always travelling then yeah, I guess it makes sense. The problem I have with minimalism is that it also minimises the activities you can do. Any sport and hobby requires stuff, the more stuff you have, the more activities you can do. Painting, playing music, going swimming, skateboarding, playing tennis, running, picnic/barbecue, hiking etc etc. If you don't have any stuff, you can't be active. I just get…

Some hobbies certainly require a lot of gear, but I think it's also possible to massively overdo the stuff-to-fun ratio. We go for four-hour hikes with our trainers, our badminton rackets weigh almost nothing and take up almost no space, and so on. > If you don't have any stuff, you can't be active This is simply false. We're currently on a little island and there are boats and stand-up paddle-boards to rent, we have…

It really depends on how much money you have or want to spend. Skiing frequently is way cheaper over time if you own your own gear. Same with climbing, biking, kayaking, surfing, etc.

Some gear you absolutely cannot rent for liability reasons, like most rock climbing gear.

It also depends on how good you get. I’ve been kayaking for 25 years and whatever I can rent down the street is not likely to work for what I typically want to do.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#304

Post by Dudeman112 » Wed, May 25, 2022, 1:24 PM UTC

SturgeonsLaw wrote: post #243

substation13 wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Opportunity cost is high. Acquiring the trinkets in the moment feels great but leads to long term challenges.

One must live an ascetically trinket-free lifestyle in order to fully minmax their life

Alternatively, one really should stop to think about what they care in life at least once or twice each decade.

Lots of people never do it once in their whole life. There's a world of optimization levels between "randomly doing things" and "min-maxing life". There's a huge-ass chunk of people who never leave the 0-optimization level of randomly doing things.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#305

Post by thebigspacefuck » Wed, May 25, 2022, 1:27 PM UTC

wilgertvelinga wrote: post #285

eddy_chan wrote: post #34

Where I live we have 'council clean-up' days. It's a designated day once per year you can leave a reasonable amount of rubbish outside your house including old furniture, tools, utensils etc etc. The good thing is it's widely advertised and if you sort your stuff out properly and lay it out in an organised manner, lots of amateur collectors will come and take it away to re-sell or re-use leaving only a small amount o…

In Amsterdam we have a Facebook Group called "Amsterdam Deelt/Geeft (Shares/Gives)" with 40k+ members. Almost anything you put up there is picked up within 24hrs by a very happy new owner! I must have given a way over 50 items through this page. It is really nice that you can see the happiness of the person who will benefit from what you don't need anymore.

I use Nextdoor/Craigslist and put stuff up for Free or take it to the thrift store nearby.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#306

Post by unbalancedevh » Wed, May 25, 2022, 1:27 PM UTC

sumtechguy wrote: post #284

audiometry wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I “de-thatched” my parents basement by filling up an enormous dumpster of shit. Literally things like “oh here are 9 CRT monitors that will never be used” etc. objectively it improved the basement and usability at zero opportunity cost. But it didn’t make them happier at all. My conclusion was better to let them do as they wish. I fortunately don’t have to live amidst the debris. (The basement has since then swe…

You stumbled upon one issue some people have. You can declutter but they use that opportunity to refill and somethings grow even further. Sometimes it is best to leave in place. Unless you get to the root of the issue of why are they keeping it all. I have this issue currently in my home. My wife does not want to go through anything but will not let me touch it either. "no dear my shoebox sized matchbox cars collecti…

I have the same situation with my parents. Their home is storehouse of stuff that my mom bought, mostly with the intent of giving them as gifts as special occasions come up, with paths carved through to get from one room to the next. She knows it's a bit much, but won't let anyone throw anything away. Some day going through it all will be a chore, but I don't think I'll find it difficult to sort out the keep/donate/trash piles.

I've been worrying lately about leaving too much stuff for my kids to deal with, but so far it's mostly things that they left in their rooms when they moved out. I'm trying to keep from acquiring more stuff.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#307

Post by corobo » Wed, May 25, 2022, 1:27 PM UTC

smeej wrote: post #245

noobermin wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously could not finish the opening story. I understand a small tinge of disdain for the effort required, but surely deep down a sense of gratitude and nostalgia should be mixed in no? Do people really not have no love for their parents they inherited the belongings of? The fact of the inheritance occuring is a hint that we're already filtering for kids who did not have an amiable relationship with their parents,…

Why can't you love someone, but not appreciate a new project they've given you that creates hundreds of hours of unpleasant work? Sure, you might bear it willingly out of that love, but you don't have to like a new tedious, dirty, frustrating project just because you love(d) the person who left it to you. To take it a step further, the junk is usually a result of your loved one's insecurities and fears. It's largely…

Indeed! I've got my own projects to be dealing with!

Honestly the way I see it my mum knows me well enough. If I'm instructed to do anything like a tidyup it will be done quickly, efficiently, and without emotion.

Take a picture of your nostalgia items and bin them, the emotion is in the memory anyway. You'll look at it just as infrequently but at least it's only taking up bytes now.

Extract the useful-to-you stuff and get someone to cart everything else away with a "you get everything for £500 if you take it ALL away" deal.

If she doesn't want this I imagine my sister will be in charge, haha.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#308

Post by paulhart » Wed, May 25, 2022, 1:28 PM UTC

bruce511 wrote: post #39

Scoundreller wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh man, stamps, for the past 10 years I’ve bought “discount” stamps off eBay. Basically buying 45cent or whatever stamps for 25 cents or less and plastering my packages like the… never mind. Obviously this is the lossy side of stamp collecting, but man, to take a haircut like that after preserving something for 20 or 30 years.

With very rare exceptions, even giant stamp collections are worthless. Stamp collecting is all about collecting, not disposing. Sure there are catalogs that detail the "listed price" of a stamp, but that's the dealer price to you, not the price they'll buy it at (which is likely Apart from the selling issue, is the searching issue. You might inherit a collection of a few thousand stamps, but it's unlikely to be sorte…

Yeah, my dad is into stamps... These days he only collects items that are no longer produced (i.e. from Newfoundland), and keeps them highly organized.

No idea if they're actually worth anything, but it gives him pleasure.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#309

Post by 1970-01-01 » Wed, May 25, 2022, 1:30 PM UTC

I have hundreds of computer and service manuals for electronics that I will never see again. Part of me wants to give it away, part of me wants to retire and open a vintage repair shop. Everyone under 30 sees it as a pile of trash. Worst case scenario: they can all be thrown into the recycle bin.

Re: The great junk transfer is coming

#310

Post by salawat » Wed, May 25, 2022, 1:33 PM UTC

yardstick wrote: post #100

> And, even if they did want them, this Great Intergenerational Dump is happening just as millennials are facing a housing crisis, which will leave many of them either renting or living in much smaller homes. Grandma’s massive china cabinet is not going to fit. Seems like a weird comment given the possessions were already in a property in the first place, and the death of the parents will normally result in one of th…

Ironically, investment grade housing ensures that for multi-child households, the price of a home is generally too high to afford the buyout of other family members, so the "family home" is more likely to bubble up to someone wealthy enough to buy it as a rental.

Just another way the market perversely guides capital toward a centralized population due to the quirks of estate management.