Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A dot a day keeps the clutter away

scottlawsonbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 175 posts

Re: A dot a day keeps the clutter away

#81

Post by assimpleaspossi »

taftster wrote: post #74

I need this for the junk in my life. Like, did I even use such-and-such thing in the past decade? If not, toss it out (ideally to a reuse store). I'm trying to get to a place where I think of all my purchases as rentals. That it's OK, if justified, that a tool served its purpose one time, and if it doesn't get used again or goes to the donation center, I have received the benefit. Something that can be reused is then…

Within 24 hours, whatever you threw out and can no longer retrieve, you will find a need and its replacement will cost an arm and a leg.

Re: A dot a day keeps the clutter away

#82

Post by sixhobbits »

refulgentis wrote: post #64
sudonanohome wrote: post #38

A lazy wall of AI slop: > I was looking for something simple. Something right-sized for my scale. > Clear boxes don't have this problem. They scale. > That's not a failure. That's the system working. I wonder if there's a simple regex that could detect these. Perhaps I should ask Claude The entirety of this post could be explained in 20 tokens: 1) use transparent boxes and bags for organizing 2) track the usage with…

It's against the rules as of 2 weeks ago, in the short term, you're more likely to get downvoted for complaining than see less of it. And it's astounding. Because this is awful writing. Author, one year ago: "you replied to an LLM generated comment. if you look at the posting history you can confirm it" Now they can't be bothered to take an edit pass on the most rote slop.

Technically it's against the rules to use AI for comments. I don't think you have to be 100% sure that AI wasn't used for a submission before submitting or upvoting

Re: A dot a day keeps the clutter away

#84

Post by Ajakks »

Small direction limited NFC Tags and the right NFC Ring might render this system effortless - tags maybe placed under the lid with a metal back to limit accidental scans.

I like the dots, they are visual, you can see at a glance - standing in the lab. You could graph your digital data of box usage in the lab over time from home. I understand you've attained desired function and have no reason to do that.

I'm not picking on you - I'm seeing this type of content all over and I also understand why we are retreating from digital spaces... but,

This is a clever "life hack" - partly bc it isn't reliant on any technology and that is clearly stated -> very functional but almost anti-tech, being such a hit on HN is actually quite interesting.

Re: A dot a day keeps the clutter away

#85

Post by duckmysick »

assimpleaspossi wrote: post #81
taftster wrote: post #74

I need this for the junk in my life. Like, did I even use such-and-such thing in the past decade? If not, toss it out (ideally to a reuse store). I'm trying to get to a place where I think of all my purchases as rentals. That it's OK, if justified, that a tool served its purpose one time, and if it doesn't get used again or goes to the donation center, I have received the benefit. Something that can be reused is then…

Within 24 hours, whatever you threw out and can no longer retrieve, you will find a need and its replacement will cost an arm and a leg.

That's why you do a "soft delete" and move things from your main area to out-of-sight closet/attic/storage unit. A cold storage, as the OP called it. Then clean it once a year (or when you need more space) and get rid of things you haven't used.

I regretted throwing out a thing like that maybe once.

Don't do it to "insurance" items like a fire extinguisher or a drain snake.

Now, what happened to me more often was: losing a thing, doing an extensive search for it, not finding it, buying a replacement, and then finding the original item the day after.

Re: A dot a day keeps the clutter away

#86

Post by darkwater »

kbaker wrote: post #58
QuantumNomad_ wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Clothes? maybe RFID patches that are unobtrusive. Decathlon and Zara both have RFID tags in their products. https://sustainability.decathlon.com/product-traceability-an... (Decathlon) https://www.inditex.com/itxcomweb/so/en/press/news-detail/7f... (Inditex is the parent company of Zara. Link is a press release from 2014.) So if one were to buy all their clothes at Decathlon (clothes for sports and other outdoor act…

Almost all retail RFID tags are on hanging labels, like with the price, or a sticker on the item. Although I did find one inside a pillow once. A huge number of items at Walmart, Kohls, Target, Academy, Old Navy, and many other stores now (those are just the ones I've seen in store.) Look for the 'EPC' logo, GS1 is the same standards body that controls the UPC barcode numbering. https://www.gs1.org/standards/rfid/gui…

> Almost all retail RFID tags are on hanging labels, like with the price, or a sticker on the item. Although I did find one inside a pillow once.

I would say that Decathlon stuff has the RFID inside the internal labels (the ones that you should cut off if you don't want them to scratch your skin but sometimes you don't notice them)

Re: A dot a day keeps the clutter away

#87

Post by jimnotgym »

Dots are very common in real professional warehouses. They get added every time it is counted on a stocktake. Even with full electronic control, ERP, Barcodes etc.

If you are auditing the count you can see everything was counted. If you find an old dusty box you know why it is not in the system. If you are looking for slow moving stock, find the ones with lots of dots. Even with electronic systems it is not uncommon to find rotation (First In First Out) is not working.

Now I'm thinking about the boxes of electronic components in my own garage. Clear boxes, labelled on the front, bags inside, just like the article... and untouched year after year! It just feels so good when a psu breaks and you pull a capacitor and replace it with one you had already on hand...

Re: A dot a day keeps the clutter away

#88

Post by flir »

As the article mentions using standardized clear bins, which really do help:

In the UK I settled on Really Useful Boxes. Not their new cheaper range, the chunky straight-sided ones.

Transparent, they don't go brittle in a few years (I guess they will eventually), the front-opening ones are handy if you're racking them, and you've got some guarantee you can go back and buy more in a couple of years.

I wouldn't be surprised if I've spent £1k on RUBs over the years, but they really were worth it. The only problem I've found is that they don't have overhanging lips, so you can't build floating bin shelving (eg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYX50-Vw9AQ) for them.

Re: A dot a day keeps the clutter away

#89

Post by tsak »

flir wrote: post #88

As the article mentions using standardized clear bins, which really do help: In the UK I settled on Really Useful Boxes. Not their new cheaper range, the chunky straight-sided ones. Transparent, they don't go brittle in a few years (I guess they will eventually), the front-opening ones are handy if you're racking them, and you've got some guarantee you can go back and buy more in a couple of years. I wouldn't be surp…

Second that. Our garage is full of their 50L boxes with the XL lid, perfectly fitting those industrial shelves. Very versatile and long lasting. Even after nearly ten years, they look pretty much the same, and we live in harsh climate near the coast.

Re: A dot a day keeps the clutter away

#90

Post by wccrawford »

stickfigure wrote: post #4

Interesting, but this seems to solve the wrong problem. I already know that the ice cream maker sitting on the shelf hasn't been used in 5 years. The problem is... what if I want to make ice cream?

This is exactly my problem. It's easy enough to say "give it away if you won't use it soon" but how do you know? That urge might come on any time, and the act of giving it away is likely to reignite that passion.

And for small things, like cables you don't often use... You never know when you'll need them. I've been telling myself I'm just going to throw them away after all, but then within a month of deciding that, I end up using a cable that I hadn't even seen in 2 years, and I had to hunt pretty hard for it. And it's a $10+ cable.

The article sounds like it's going to address these issues with the dots, but then just doesn't. I'm actually not even sure what the point of the dots is other than to convince the author that they're doing something about their problem, when they're really just putting stickers on things and buying more bins.

Post reply on HN