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The Untouchable Economy: Why Americans Are Turning Against 'Stuff'

theatlantic.com

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Re: The Untouchable Economy: Why Americans Are Turning Against 'Stuff'

#21

Post by bunderbunder »

cletus wrote: post #10

This resonates with me. Frankly I'm tired of owning "stuff". All I really need is a place to sleep, a laptop, a tablet, a phone and clothes. I'll get limited furniture but it'll be cheap Ikea stuff that I'll simply dispose of when I move. I don't own a TV. In fact I doubt I'll ever own a TV again. Nor do I own a big sound system. I do own a table and chairs, a sofa and a desk. All but the desk I regret. One thing tha…

The things you own end up owning you.

I think that stuff might be the single biggest source of stress in my life.

Not acute stress - it's not like I'm underwater on a loan or anything like that. Just a sort of constant low-grade 'micro-stress' that comes from always having to look at a cluttered living space and never being able to find that thing I'm looking for.

Re: The Untouchable Economy: Why Americans Are Turning Against 'Stuff'

#22

Post by noonespecial »

We sold all of our stuff, moved out of our 5000 sq ft "McMansion" near DC and spent a year wandering the country exploring "the spaces in-between". We lived in a trailer that I could pull behind my pickup and all of our possessions fit in the back of said pickup.

It was intensely liberating. Sadly as soon as we settled down again, the stuff started acreting like barnacles. Our plan is to repeat the process on a semi-regular basis.

Re: The Untouchable Economy: Why Americans Are Turning Against 'Stuff'

#23

Post by mindcrime »

Retric wrote: post #12
mindcrime wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cool stuff. My problem is, I don't really have more wall space for shelves. The two remaining walls that would make good candidates for shelving, I use for hanging whiteboards. :-) That said, I could get rid of some of these books... especially older tech books that aren't relevant, either because they're plain out of date, or because I've made a conscious decision to move away from that technology, or both. For exam…

I would suggest dumping all but the very best tech books and buying them again if you actually need them. Sure, they cost's 50$ a pop, but for most tech people that's not really an issue. http://my.safaribooksonline.com/

Yeah, good point. And I am (slowly) starting to transition more and more to e-books. I by dead-tree tech books much less often than I did back in, say, 2001.

> http://my.safaribooksonline.com

I'm definitely thinking about signing up for a Safari subscription soon.

Re: The Untouchable Economy: Why Americans Are Turning Against 'Stuff'

#24

Post by stephengillie »

mindcrime wrote: post #6
jseliger wrote: post #2

Compare this to pg's essay "Stuff": http://paulgraham.com/stuff.html : 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.

I've now stopped accumulating stuff. Except books—but books are different. Books are more like a fluid than individual objects. It's not especially inconvenient to own several thousand books, whereas if you owned several thousand random possessions you'd be a local celebrity. But except for books, I now actively avoid stuff. I don't know... I own on the order of thousands of books (don't have an exact number, can't b…

I don't hold books in any special regard anymore. Now, they're just large objects that hold data less efficiently than other solutions. I can keep the text on a HDD or flash drive somewhere instead.

They're large, heavy, cumbersome objects. They're just more objects to be packed, carried, and worried about.

Re: The Untouchable Economy: Why Americans Are Turning Against 'Stuff'

#25

Post by InclinedPlane »

I like having stuff, stuff can be important, and enabling. The trick is having a good filter. If you just collect crap, or status items, or knick knacks, you're just going to be stressed trying to keep track of it all. If you build up a collection of stuff that lets you do things, then that's very different.

I have stuff that enables me to cook delicious meals. And I have stuff that enables me to travel. And stuff that I can use to climb mountains or hike in the wilderness. And stuff that I can use to fix things like bicycles and cars and computers.

"Stuff" can be either good or bad. Don't collect crap, but there's nothing wrong with collecting tools that you use regularly or art that you appreciate.

Re: The Untouchable Economy: Why Americans Are Turning Against 'Stuff'

#26

Post by stephengillie »

cletus wrote: post #10

This resonates with me. Frankly I'm tired of owning "stuff". All I really need is a place to sleep, a laptop, a tablet, a phone and clothes. I'll get limited furniture but it'll be cheap Ikea stuff that I'll simply dispose of when I move. I don't own a TV. In fact I doubt I'll ever own a TV again. Nor do I own a big sound system. I do own a table and chairs, a sofa and a desk. All but the desk I regret. One thing tha…

For most of my life, I've been able to fit all of my possessions within my car, and move in one trip. Recently I've upgraded from a 20" monitor to a 46" tv. This means I'm up to 2 car trips.

It's frustrating to move entirely into a new place, and find that the place looks empty and plain because you simply don't have enough objects to fill the place. In a way, it reminds me of dieting: I hate having to eat like an anorexic American just to look like a healthy Human, and I hate feeling like I need to fill my residence with objects just to feel at home there.

I want to live in a nice ~400 sqft apartment in a city. But those don't seem to exist. I want to pay less than $600 a month for rent, but apparently I earn two times too much to pay so little. So I'm stuck paying too much for a too-big place which feels awkwardly too empty.

Re: The Untouchable Economy: Why Americans Are Turning Against 'Stuff'

#27

Post by will_work4tears »

jaggederest wrote: post #17
neverm0re wrote: post #9

For fifteen years, I've been at a point in my belongings that I can pack and move out of a place in hours. Why hang onto all this stuff? Why spend on all these things we don't need? Why not be flexible? At this point everything I own fits into my car. Everything. I've moved from city to city while telecommuting because I could and in fact, on average I move to a new city every two years if not quicker. Stuff just glu…

A good bed? I'm not aware of any that you can pack in a car that won't give you back problems in the long term.

A sleeping bag and a foam roll. Seriously. I did this for years and was fine. Probably just an IME, but I've found that back problems are an issue of being out of shape (low muscle mass) or over usage (bad job, poor ergonomics, etc) and never caused from not sleeping on a bed. If I lift weights or otherwise in shape I can sleep on anything. When I'm out of shape I tend to get back pains from just about anything that isn't perfect.

Re: The Untouchable Economy: Why Americans Are Turning Against 'Stuff'

#28

Post by will_work4tears »

I hate stuff too, but fell in love with a woman that, while she isn't a materialist, tends to want the typical amount of stuff. And now that we own a home, presents tend to be tools, and they are sometimes used, sometimes not.

Frankly, I'd love to cast it off and throw it away, but I'm afraid she'd not let me, lol. I love her more than I hate stuff though.

Re: The Untouchable Economy: Why Americans Are Turning Against 'Stuff'

#29

Post by johncch »

mindcrime wrote: post #8
jseliger wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I own more books than can comfortably fit in my apartment, which means one of the biggest motivations I have to rent a bigger apartment I know the feeling, but a friend showed me the Container Store's "Elfa" shelving, which is pretty easy to install and provides seven to eight individual shelves in a particular space. You can see a picture of my setup midway down this page: https://jseliger.wordpress.com/2012/01/10/j…

Cool stuff. My problem is, I don't really have more wall space for shelves. The two remaining walls that would make good candidates for shelving, I use for hanging whiteboards. :-) That said, I could get rid of some of these books... especially older tech books that aren't relevant, either because they're plain out of date, or because I've made a conscious decision to move away from that technology, or both. For exam…

May I ask what whiteboards are you hanging?

Re: The Untouchable Economy: Why Americans Are Turning Against 'Stuff'

#30

Post by xradionut »

will_work4tears wrote: post #28

I hate stuff too, but fell in love with a woman that, while she isn't a materialist, tends to want the typical amount of stuff. And now that we own a home, presents tend to be tools, and they are sometimes used, sometimes not. Frankly, I'd love to cast it off and throw it away, but I'm afraid she'd not let me, lol. I love her more than I hate stuff though.

I was living in a very, very small apartment until I got a partner. Now we are married, we have a small house with very little storage room for stuff. A slightly larger house would be nice, not for stuff, but so we could work from home without interruptions, entertain our large family and have a bit more room for tools and pets.
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