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Comment by VariousPrograms | Hacker News Reader

Whoever does need it, I give you permission to throw out all your old cables, power adapters, and routers. Yes, on the off chance you do decide you need a Palm III dock, Linksys WRT54G, or Sony PSP charger that means you'd have to buy one on Ebay, but you can cross that $10 bridge if it actually happens.

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For me it's not the cost that bugs me when I don't have a part, but rather the disruption to my flow. If I can't get a project done all at once I'm much less likely to ever get it done.

No, this method does not work. I tried, got rid of all those stuff because why would I need it ever again. And of course a month later I needed that one stupid thing right there and then. And I remember throwing away... Not again, I keep at least one cable of each in a separate box to find immediately, the rest is stored, it is not asking for any money.

Yeah, what happens to me is I need a thing, go to Amazon to order it, see that I already bought it 4 years ago, spend 30 minutes trying to find it, then let out a big sigh and order it again.

Most recently: a USB to TTL serial adapter.

You’re not replying to the comment.

If you’re using 20 year old hardware, okay - keep 20 year old wires and accessories.

Most are not.

Put an expiration date on your neuroticism. Old dirty stuff can literally consume you.

Ask me how I know!

> Palm III dock, Linksys WRT54G, or Sony PSP charger

These are all >20 years old

Correct, and depending on your usecase, threat model, probably obsolete, except the PSP.

Keep what you’re using.

I have a bin of cables marked "Obsolete". A cable only goes in there if there's absolutely no possibility of it being used for any reason ever again.

I use cables from it once every few years.

Throwing away proprietary cables is a sin. Throwing away standard commodity USB cables is not so much

Give them away to a thrift shop instead. Then you've helped somebody else who will find that cable in the thrift shop. So they can put it on ebay and sell it back to you when you need it two months later.

Yeah its hard enough when you need a Mini USB cable. When you need the proprietary RS232 cable for an old piece of hardware, at short notice, that stings.

Speaking as a person that had to buy 2 additional psp chargers (my ebook reader uses one too), please throw those onto ebay or your local marketplace instead :)

And whoever needs something else, I give you permission to ignore this fool and keep your box(es) of cables. I don't regret a single thing about my ~8 boxes of cables.

For me, the hardest part is actually figuring out what the cable is called in order to find a replacement.

hardest part was

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