The problem is that "practical utility" isn't always obvious. I have boxes and boxes of components and other oddments that collectively form a useful library, but I have no way of predicting which specific oddments will be useful in future. Any given item is currently useless, but might become extremely useful at some indeterminable point in the future. There's a very fine line between a prepper and a hoarder.
One thing I’ve noticed is that if I can’t find something, its utility is basically zero. If I forget I have it, even more so. Also, things cluttering up a room (visually and in terms of physical space) feel like clutter. So, ideally a collection would be organized enough (which could mean stuff is just piled in boxes, but I’m sufficiently familiar with the boxes), and stored in a suitable place.
I think there’s a lot of power in encouraging people to get rid of stuff that they actually would be happier if they got rid of, by helping them make their own authentic determination.
I thought "good thing everything on those drives is backed up, and nothing critical was lost."
Yesterday I got a call from one of the former owners of one of these drives. They lost the USB stick I gave them a long time ago with their software license key that I pulled from one of those drives.
The drives I had been hoarding could have saved us $500 on Adelo POS software. One man's trash really can be another's treasure.
I got an old blue shirt and it suits me just fine
I like the way it feels so I wear it all the time
I got an old guitar, won't ever stay in tune
I like the way it sounds in a dark and empty room
I got an old pair of boots and they fit just right
Well I can work all day and I can dance all night
I got an old used car and it runs just like a top
I get the feeling it ain`t ever going to stop
[Chorus]
Stuff that works, stuff that holds up
The kind of stuff you don`t hang on the wall
Stuff that`s real, stuff you feel
The kind of stuff you reach for when you fall
https://genius.com/Guy-clark-stuff-that-works-lyrics#note-85...
You accumulate stuff carelessly because storage cost is zero. Even old junk can be source of aluminium block for machining, steel bar for welding or copper coil for wires.
Not at all.
Minimalism isn't the ideology that (less is more)==(less things). That comes from people appropriating philosophies to compete for attention on social media, where everything is at best one-dimensional because the point is to entertain not educate. No, minimalism as a philosophy means (less is more)==(object-essentialism). You initialize solutions among what you have, and factor the time, resource, and opportunity cost into the cost-benefit of acquiring a new object. So, as I mentioned, if acquiring a backyard of junk cars is more cost-benefit savvy than having to acquire a new junk car every time you need a resource from one, it's minimalist. However, if you acquire a junk car that adds what you already have a sufficient amount of, it's frivolity.
And frivolity isn't a relevant category to minimalism. You could be minimalist in achieving frivolous ends. Clearly you're carrying too much in the term.
Wikipedia has it as: "The term minimalist often colloquially refers to anything that is spare or stripped to its essentials."
Oxford Dictionary as: "a style of art, music or design that uses very simple ideas or a very small number of simple elements"
So in my opinion, having rusting car wrecks around in an old shed with the intent to re-use their essential spare parts later is perfectly compatible with minimalism, and what I would expect someone with the skill set and space to do so.
Contrast that with a large garage where numerous expensive cars are being parked and continuously maintained as well as cost of electricity, cleaning, security etc. for the building, although the cars are pretty much never driven.
That would be much closer to a minimalists nightmare. Not the self reliant utilitarian guy with the old shed.
The first is minimalist because it involves less physical material to store and organize. The second is self reliant because you can do for yourself without needing to draw on outside systems as much.
The example you gave is just moving the goal posts completely. The large many car garage case is both less minimalist and less self reliant, so not to the point.
This seems tautological or uselessly subjective. What is a possession without practical value? You seem to have talked yourself out of seeing the value in possessions you own. Perhaps you are simply anxious.
How this attitude began to be associated with the minimalist design movement I have no clue.
...bought in to what?
Token gifts that have been gifts for the sake of gifting something.
Most things in a souvenir store.
> Token gifts that have been gifts for the sake of gifting something.
There is utility value in sentimental gifts, too, but it's obviously subjective. Why not just say "get rid of items that stress you out", like people have been doing the entirety of human history? That's hardly a social movement or a lifestyle, though.
No one should begrudge you a well-stocked and well-used workshop. That’s not what the minimalist message is supposed to be about. It’s the stuff accumulated carelessly, just because you could. Decorative doo-dads, outfits worn once, toys from kids long since grown, furniture retained out of a sense of duty. The suburban middle-class lifestyle I grew up in has a tendency to accumulate a monotonically increasing volume of possessions without much thought. My grandparents have more square footage than my entire apartment dedicated to the storage of useless, meaningless crap. It is, in fact, a necessary and useful message for many people to be more deliberate about what you choose to buy and retain. If the only things you can think to cut are tools, you are not one of those people.