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Comment by kirstendirksen | Hacker News Reader

I wonder how many of us find clutter exhausting. My husband can't even start his day with too much stuff around the house (on the floor, hanging off chairs... that would be my contribution), but I am able to overlook it a bit more. Though since living with him, I have realized that even I would prefer to live without clutter.

Though somehow so many people can't seem to be able to hop off the stuff treadmill: buying, collecting, storing (I'm amazed at the self storage business in the U.S.) and trashing. I am not saying I'm always immune either. I think partly it's being aware of stuff collection as a problem (even just for your own sanity).

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“Do not have anything in your home that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful” -- William Morris

As of a few years ago those became the words I lived by. I threw out anything that had no sentimental or significant monetary value, and things I thought were ugly or junk. I had very few things left -- all of my furniture was gone except for a chair, a desk and a lamp. Most everything else fit in a trunk. I had exactly a week's worth of clothes. Some cookware, dinnerware and basic kitchen tools. My girlfriend was livid, though honestly I found it a good excuse to break it off with her too.

Now when I look at something, I always ask myself - depending on what it is - how it will be 5 (for non-durables like clothes), 15 or 25 years from now. Would I still want it after that time? If not, there's no way I'd ever buy it.

So when you're an apartment with absolutely nothing, you learn what you can live without, and you develop a deeper appreciation for simple things like chairs. You don't just go buy a new sofa, you lay on every sofa in the city until you find one that looks great, that you'd want to reupholster after 30 years and that you can fall asleep on near instantly. You really examine how your clothes hold up over time because... honestly, you don't any spare shirts or pants around. Simple things like plates... if they're ugly, you'll notice all the more. If you don't have enough, you're not so bombarded by other things you're more aware that you seem to be cleaning them an awful lot. Your place stays clean too. A shirt on the floor in a sea of nothing is very much out of place.

You also don't... buy all that much anymore. I have a bed and nighstands and lamps again. And a dining table, chairs, sofa, coffee table and another lamp or two and my lounge chair... but that's been it aside from 5 or 6 articles of clothing and a pair of shoes in 3 years.

Now I'm sort of at a point - still in my 20s - where there really isn't anything I want to buy anymore. Having been brought up by "gotta-have-this"-trend parents, it's a very peculiar feeling. Almost as if you feel lost.

This response feels poetic to me. Well, that and it made me laugh the way you describe using it as an excuse to break off with your girlfriend.

But there's something that feels so right about living according to a principle seeking things of usefulness or beauty. And I'm very impressed that it truly seems you live this way.

I'd agree I used to shop more to have spare shirts, but now my spare shirts sit unworn and I simply wear the same few shirts over and over so I don't see the point in having the spares.

Any interest in talking more about your downsizing experience and/or videotaping your "stuff"?

I have a few photos, though the place is still VERY sparse. There are still huge chunks of empty space (we're talking 60 to 100 square feet per chunk). The place has 4 closets and an alcove -- I only use 1 1/2 now. The others are completely empty.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30258487&l=cf3ff03... http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30632001&l=aeeaed7...

Right now I'm trying to make the mundane pleasing. You know, arrange pots and pans, or bath towels, so it looks nice. Hard to beat $0 interior design ideas.

I guess it stems from growing up as the son of a garbage man with a stay-at-home mom, and despite that, they always seemed to be buying things. When I was 20, I found myself having to send home an awful amount of money to save them from their debt when his job situation took a serious turn for the worse. Everything had seemed fine, until one thing happened - then it unraveled into hell.

I thought about it. We were always out buying something. Sometimes the same thing... again, after a year or two. Before I helped them out I demanded to know their financial situation, and found out how they were sort of skating buy and passing off that things were grand. It never was. We went from a family of clipping coupons and picking change off the ground, to grousing circulars. When I had to help them out again at 25 I told them it was the last time. I also was determined I never suffered the same fate and became trapped by my stuff. "You don't own your things, they end up owning you."

-----

I wanted to live in the city with lots of natural light (Boston, currently). Without a lot of stuff, it was completely reasonable. I then got a job in the city. My commute is trivial. I could also move to NYC in a week if I needed to - packing would only take an afternoon, and a 400sqft apartment would fit everything very comfortably.

Everyone buys cars larger than they need "just in case". I have my two-seat roadster. I couldn't spend car money on an object that brings me no pleasure. I commute on foot now, so I guess I'll keep the car until the chassis needs re-freshening -- another 18 years I figure.

I didn't want debt. I have none. I do use a credit card, but just to abuse the reward points program and spend that on boring stuff like trash bags and detergent.

I hate cleaning. With few things, the place can be obsessively spotless in under 30 minutes a week. No real cleaning + no real commute = a lot more free time. Compared to coworkers, we're talking 10 to 12 hours a week.

I want to plan for the worst. I save 35-40% of my gross pay a year, though that's increasing as non-food/shelter expenses have basically dropped to 0. My salary could be cut in half and I my lifestyle doesn't have to change. I have a hell of a "screw you" fund, or a lot of money I can burn trying to turn an idea into reality.

What freedom to feel you could pack up and move in an afternoon. I love the idea of knowing that is possible, even if it never happens.

Funny how so much of what we have is "just in case": not just space in our cars, but extra clothes, extra linens, extra plates...

The photos of your apartment are great. It looks amazing, not at all like someone trying to "opt out", but something out of a style mag. Though I shouldn't be so surprised as simplicity is an important element to good style, or what I see as that.

I have been pleased to note that, after moving in with my girlfriend, I have "infected" her with my anti-clutter mindset. I try to live by the general rule of, "If I haven't thought about it in 6 months, it shouldn't be here," and it delighted me the first time I saw her with a box full of old odds-and-ends and explained on her way outside, "I haven't thought about or used any of this in years."

Your note about not being immune to the "stuff treadmill" (great term, btw) rings true to me, too, though. Because of our cultural upbringing, it's incredibly easy to get caught up by the consumerist undertow.

I was inspired by George Carlin's rant on "stuff," which someone transcribed here:

http://www.writers-free-reference.com/funny/story085.htm

It's less endearing without his delivery, but the idea is the same: we get emotionally connected to our stuff, and in many cases, that isn't conducive to removing stress from our lives. I think he also touches on the (somewhat pernicious) assumption that Americans grow up believing, which is the assumption that everyone is "supposed" to want and have a big giant house filled with all kinds of tchotchkes. I may some day own a house, like I said in my OP, but I never want to have so much stuff that I couldn't fit as much at least half of everything that isn't furniture into the back of my station wagon. No specific reason for that particular measure of proportion... it just feels right.

Other than the "6-month rule," I just try to be brutal about every individual object I come in contact with. I try to occasionally remind myself to ask, "How does this thing improve my life and make me happier?" The answer could be as simple as, "Looking at it makes me smile," but if it really doesn't do anything for me, I put it in a box, and--as with before--if I don't think about it for 6 months, it fails the test and I get rid of it.

I would make a similar comment to you as I made above to MrFoof. Maybe because it fits with what feels right for me, but I like your 6-month-rule and your question for every object.

In many ways I think when we get too much stuff the same thing happens that happens to kids when they have too many toys. They seem to lose interest in all of them. So we put most of them away in drawers and pull them out a few at a time. It's as if without all the clutter of lots of toys around our daughter enjoys herself, and the few toys, much more.

I would also repeat my comment to MrFoof that if you're interested in contributing to my documentary, I'd love to see some visuals of your de-cluttered lifestyle.

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