One Man’s Trash | Hacker News Reader

One Man’s Trash

thebaffler.com

22 pointsaxiomdata31618 comments

When I got divorced a few years ago I decided to reduce the "stuff" I owned. A friend and I went one weekend to extract my belongings from the marital abode. We drove straight to the dump and got rid of everything except my 2 guitars and my golf clubs. (We donated all the books to goodwill) All my pictures of my kids are stored digitally and I had one box of clothes. Everything else: gone.

It is shocking how much stuff is acquired over time and bow liberating it is to rid yourself of that stuff.

Have you reaccumulated a lot of stuff since then? That's always the part I fall down on :(

I've reaccumulated furniture as I went from living in a friend's spare bedroom during the divorce to having my own place after.

You probably could of given most of it away

Sometimes it's easier to just say "enough" and toss it all. Picking through it to figure out what's donatable means having to think about each item, and by the time you're done you might decide you still "want" most of it.

People run businesses doing this, generally after someone dies.

It's a very poor use of resources to just throw everything into landfill.

Because of how our society is structured, this harder than it should be.

Sometimes I dream of getting rid of all stuff and quit my boring IT job and become a goat herder somewhere. But I have no idea how to herd goats or where to do it and I'm afraid i'll change my mind and miss my comfy enterprise bullshit job where I get paid a shit ton for doing almost nothing.

That sounds a little like a book I read "Driving Over Lemons" by chris stewart... :)

Doing nothing ...um 'But sheeps' ^^

Wait ! Is it a trap ? Yesterday after I went shopping I asked my Grandmom, if we have to by Things that often - with that sourrounding - how do the People could have survived wayback in winter ? She told me that a traveling salesman came two times a week, bringing bread, meat, some fruits and vegetables. So maybe if you do not want to herd sheeps - you may think about traveling... (-;

I have done two long motorcycle trips. The first took six months and the second took three.

Towards the end, I missed home a lot. It got lonely when I was constantly on the move. I missed doing stuff, instead of passively consuming. I missed cooking, gardening, coding and so on. I missed having the tools to do that.

I'm honestly happy to be home, among my stuff. I have warm blankets, sharp knives, fast internet, and many other things that make life a little more pleasant.

I have the option to live on the road, but there truly is no place like home. Home gives me a feeling of permanence and progress I really need.

I once had a job like that.... and it crushed me, but I didn't realize it at the time. I was the sole IT guy at an event marketing company... when I started, there was plenty to do, I kept a running log in Word so I could find and fix things that happened previously... it was great, and I felt good about it. Over the years, less stuff broke, so I started some projects to fix things and make stuff better for the users... but didn't have good enough people skills to get buy-in and navigate around the day to day needs of everyone... so they got shelved more than once. Also, because I was the sole IT guy, I was frequently interrupted, which kills flow, so I eventually stopped programming, and just started stalling until quitting time. Towards the end, I'd volunteer when ever things needed to be done, like data entry when we had surveys to type in, etc... but I spent all my time waiting for things to break, trying to be super helpful, and waiting for the inevitable axe to fall. 15 years, a long run, but it is now 6 years later, and I still have trouble even starting things.

Please don't let this happen to you.

Well now you need a guitar amp.

Why? Just plug it right into the microphone jack on your laptop and use a virtual amp like guitarix: http://guitarix.org/

I don't know. If I ended up out of the whole deal with two guitars and some golf clubs, maybe time to get a real amp.

And a 60's muscle car plus a small box of hand tools.

> “On the psychology of the Woolworth’s shopper, a company president reportedly once said, 'Each customer who enters a five-and-ten-cent store becomes a rich man—for the moment.'”

the japanese, pursuant their reputation for meticulousness, have raised the bar on the five-and-dime to a high art. daiso (and the like) is a wonderland of irresistable crap, of ingenious, often single-purpose domestic gadgets for every fastidiousness imaginable. it's a joyous experience.

Living in Korea I purchased all necessary housewares for my studio apartment -- cleaning supplies, dishes, utensils, cookware, etc -- from the Daiso down the street. Truly a lovely place. Somehow I would never dream of doing the same, back here in the States, at a Dollar General or some such place.

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