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Comment by ednite | Hacker News Reader

Oh, this is such a great topic for a frugal person like me. Sure, I’ll occasionally splurge on a gadget I probably don’t need, "For Research", but most of the time, I try to live simply and frugally.

I try to DIY everything. In my head, every piece of hardware, broken furniture, or random screw has a future use. My default mindset is always repair before replacing. And even if I can’t fix something, I’ll go on a mission to find some other way to use it and look for a used replacement. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad trait, but I do know it drives my wife a little nuts at times!

Still, I take pride in being the guy with the only 20-year-old Toyota on the street, rust patches and all.

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>In my head, every piece of hardware, broken furniture, or random screw has a future use.

For me, this mentality has lead to a sort of hoarding, in which everything I own has a potential future use, but little of it has been used, even after years of being in my possession. This is partly due to the fact that the quantity physically obscures many of the items and I forget that I own them. It is also because many of the items have near-zero use-value; I can imagine a use for almost anything; I can only actually use a small fraction of that.

Recently, I have been aggressively throwing away possessions; if I see it and I can't remember using it (or I have replaced it with something I use more frequently), then I throw that thing in the trash ASAP. I don't care how much it's worth; space, time, and labor; every possession has mental load.

I totally get where you’re coming from, and you're right to flag the risk of this mindset turning into hoarding. I think your approach is good advice for many. I realize my original comment may have unintentionally encouraged that, so thank you for pointing it out.

In my case, I’m a bit obsessive about labeling, organizing, and keeping an inventory. I like having everything within arm’s reach because I hate wasting time searching.

That said, I might also one day change that habit and I fully recognize it’s not practical (or healthy) for everyone. I agree that space, time, and mental load are real constraints. I’ll be more mindful about how I frame these things moving forward. Appreciate your comment.

I’m totally the opposite. If I don’t use something for a couple of months I just throw it out. I can rebuy it on Amazon if I really need it and that almost never happens.

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