<story><title>Aging Parents with Lots of Stuff, and Children Who Don’t Want It</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/18/your-money/aging-parents-with-lots-of-stuff-and-children-who-dont-want-it.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>fspacef</author><text>Came to a similar epiphany when I had to move out on short notice. Since then I follow what I call the &amp;quot;1 suit case philosophy&amp;quot; - If I can&amp;#x27;t fit all my stuff into one standard size suit case and fly, then I have too much stuff.</text></item><item><author>Powerofmene</author><text>It is true that culling the volume of things owned by parents can be a nightmare.  I had to do this for my grandmother years ago and am starting to help parents with the same.  It is amazing to me the volume of things they have held onto all these years for no discernible reason.&lt;p&gt;Years ago I committed to reducing the clutter in my life.  It was such a pivotal moment.  It was no longer necessary to move things from here to there in order to put up Christmas decorations, etc.  I do think that overall we see value in things that truly have no monetary value all while keeping this item of &amp;quot;value&amp;quot; in the attic or in a box without seeing the light of day for decades.  Things take a great deal of time and energy and for me personally, there seemed to be a connection between a disorganized living space with a disorganized mind&amp;#x2F;life.  I cleaned all of that up and found I had better health, had time for the things I enjoy most in life, and was far happier than I would have imagined by having &amp;quot;less.&amp;quot;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>barrkel</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s fine if you don&amp;#x27;t have any interests that involve the physical world.&lt;p&gt;My tool cabinet has about $4000 in tools at this point, many motorcycle-specific ordered from abroad and not easily borrowed or bought at short notice.</text></comment>
<story><title>Aging Parents with Lots of Stuff, and Children Who Don’t Want It</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/18/your-money/aging-parents-with-lots-of-stuff-and-children-who-dont-want-it.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>fspacef</author><text>Came to a similar epiphany when I had to move out on short notice. Since then I follow what I call the &amp;quot;1 suit case philosophy&amp;quot; - If I can&amp;#x27;t fit all my stuff into one standard size suit case and fly, then I have too much stuff.</text></item><item><author>Powerofmene</author><text>It is true that culling the volume of things owned by parents can be a nightmare.  I had to do this for my grandmother years ago and am starting to help parents with the same.  It is amazing to me the volume of things they have held onto all these years for no discernible reason.&lt;p&gt;Years ago I committed to reducing the clutter in my life.  It was such a pivotal moment.  It was no longer necessary to move things from here to there in order to put up Christmas decorations, etc.  I do think that overall we see value in things that truly have no monetary value all while keeping this item of &amp;quot;value&amp;quot; in the attic or in a box without seeing the light of day for decades.  Things take a great deal of time and energy and for me personally, there seemed to be a connection between a disorganized living space with a disorganized mind&amp;#x2F;life.  I cleaned all of that up and found I had better health, had time for the things I enjoy most in life, and was far happier than I would have imagined by having &amp;quot;less.&amp;quot;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>y4mi</author><text>so you&amp;#x27;re sleeping on the floor, do sports in your work clothing and always eat out? they&amp;#x27;d sure as hell wouldn&amp;#x27;t allow you to back your kitchen knives after all. or any of your cooking utensils for that matter.&lt;p&gt;a tv for gaming&amp;#x2F;television is also out of the question, they&amp;#x27;d never let you take that along in your suitcase.&lt;p&gt;doesn&amp;#x27;t sound like a life i&amp;#x27;d like to be honest.&lt;p&gt;in all seriousness, its perfectly fine to have stuff. just ask yourself before you buy it, wherever you&amp;#x27;ll still be using it in ~12 month or so. otherwise, its probably just a fad you shouldn&amp;#x27;t spent money on.</text></comment>