Comments on: Can Minimizing Go Too Far?

By: BFS has a Guest Post about Minimizing at Funny about Money «Budgeting In the Fun Stuff

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 15:42:01 +0000

[...] 2010, at 4:48 pm Funny about Money was kind enough to let me guest post today with Can Minimizing Go Too Far?. Take a look when you can, thanks! Tweet This PostIf you're new here, you may want to [...]

By: Weekly Favorites and Gratitude! «Budgeting In the Fun Stuff

Weekly Favorites and Gratitude! «Budgeting In the Fun Stuff — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 20:20:26 +0000

[...] Editor’s Choice! Beating Broke hosted the Festival of Frugality and chose my guest post at Funny about Money, Can Minimizing Go Too Far? [...]

By: Weekly Favorites and Gratitude! «Budgeting In the Fun Stuff

Weekly Favorites and Gratitude! «Budgeting In the Fun Stuff — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 20:04:55 +0000

[...] I would also like to thank Personal Finance Journey and Funny about Money for inviting me to guest post Deal or Frill: Angel Food Ministries and Can Minimizing Go Too Far? [...]

By: Festival of Frugality » Blog Archive » Festival of Frugality: Earth Day Edition

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 18:23:59 +0000

[...] Funny about Money wonders, Can Minimizing Go Too Far? [...]

By: Festival of Frugality #226 – Earth Week 2010 Edition @ Beating Broke

Festival of Frugality #226 – Earth Week 2010 Edition @ Beating Broke — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 14:02:26 +0000

[...] Funny about Money wonders, Can Minimizing Go Too Far? [...]

By: Budgeting in the Fun Stuff

Budgeting in the Fun Stuff — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 22:39:38 +0000

mario, that sounds about right. We collect board games since we play them with friends and each other. Seems to make sense to me.

By: mario

mario — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 15:54:44 +0000

My wife calls me a pack rat. I call myself a collector. i don’t have 100 of the same things. I enjoy collecting favorite movies and upgraded my VHS tapes to DVDs and I do “re-watch” them. I collect books and magazines too. I do think I have a lot of stuff but one important thing is communication with your spouse. I don’t mind de-cluttering as long as I’m not rushed. There are many instances where I suddenly find things missing only to find out that my wife threw them out during a de-cluttering frenzy. What irks me is when we have to buy a new one when, down the road, we needed the stuff we threw out a year ago. I do think that having 50 mugs is OK if you really like them and it’s your favorite hobby as long as you have an existing storage for it. Once you HAVE TO CREATE new storage, then it’s something else. I still have plenty of room on the bookshelf and cabinets for new books and DVDs. I don’t intend to build or buy new shelves or cabinets. Once they start to overflow, I would consider getting rid of some stuff… on my own time.

By: Budgeting in the Fun Stuff

Budgeting in the Fun Stuff — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 15:40:25 +0000

Red, that was my point on “another kind of wasteful”…a bunch of commenters on a minimalist article at Get Rich Slowly had some regrets on things they threw out or donated. That made me think they cleared stuff out on a cleaning spree instead of thinking it through.

I would argue that you don’t need to keep things around that you can get to easily, but “easily” is also a matter of perception. Even if my mother owned the Firefly series, I would too since she lives over an hour away. I also like owning movies so my friends and I don’t have to travel anywhere to pick something up for movie might. BUT, I only own movies that my husband or I love.

As for only using 2 mugs but owning 20, yes, that person would not need to store the other 18 mugs. BUT, I’m betting that they don’t just use 2 mugs. My husband and I have 16 glasses and only use two at a time, but we usually circulate through all of them at least once every few weeks….

By: Red

Red — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 04:48:27 +0000

Also, I would speculate that minimalist living and de-cluttering is rarely if ever “another kind of wasteful.” If you’re selling or donating the things you are removing from your home, you’re helping yourself and others. The only time it’s wasteful is when you throw things in the trash or when you donate things and want them back later (so you buy them again).

By: Red

Red — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 04:44:55 +0000

But if you can get the thing somewhere else conveniently, what’s the point in owning it yourself?

I recently went on a major de-cluttering run and got rid of things my mother never thought I’d like without – my Sex and the City and Felicity DVDs. I cherished those shows growing up and took the DVDs everywhere with me. But I had watched them so many times that it was beginning to be something I did out of boredom. Did I need to see Felicity choose Ben 200 times? No. And my mothers owns all of the Sex and the City DVDs so I can borrow them anytime I want.

Similarly, I got rid of every book I owned because I can get them through our local library. And if the library doesn’t have them, they can borrow them from another library through inter-library loan.

Just because you have the space to store something doesn’t mean you should. If you only use two coffee mugs but you have 20, there’s no reason to keep the other 18, even though you have the cupboard space for it.