The Cost Of Keeping Your Stuff

[heydude]

Isn't it the age old problem that we all try to get things and then once we have them we have to spend all the time trying to keep them?

What expenses or time have you discovered that you didn't know you'd have to have once you got something you wanted?

For example, even a relationship can be a lot of time and money.

I was thinking of a fire and if I need to buy a safe to keep my good stuff in.

Granite countertops require sealing every so many years.

Leather requires conditioner that ends up being more expensive than the leather after so many years of applying.

Car costs!!!!!!!

[reader99]

Some book I read talked about the cost of 'buying stuff for your stuff'.

Carpet comes to mind - spot cleaner, a vacuum, and for the vacuum, bags and belts and electricity, carpet cleaning. I go with tile now.

Clothes that need dry cleaning

[redfox]

And how do you balance the benefits? That's the other part of the equation.

[Selah]

Relationships, LOL! Marrying someone still paying child support can be really costly, although hopefully one knows about that before "getting to the business end of the aisle," as some wag on these boards once said! That said, I once knew a man who was 84, who had never paid his child support. When the authorities caught up with him, he got his Social Security garnished...boy, was his girlfriend pissed! :)

Hobbies and fitness come to mind...DH always loved playing golf, but fortunately started really looking closely at the costs involved and decided, more or less, to dump it. Costs included not only the stuff for golf (costs that take my breath away), but for physio needed to keep his shoulder working (old rotator cuff injury). Now we walk and ride bicycles! But even walking for fitness costs money...we have to replace our shoes about every three months, because nowadays the manufacturers are planning obsolescence into the shoes, and they only "last" about 300 miles. And bicycles break, tires go flat, you also need a lock, a helmet, lights, panniers, pant-leg garters, and then the whole bike gets stolen, so next time you'll be more careful to insure the NEW bike you get, etc., etc.

The more frugal option would to be to not exercise at all, of course, but then you'd end up paying more in medical costs!

[Mrs-M]

We are the opposite of nature, peasants, created in a fracture of time, destined to toil and slavery at every turn, for our entire keep...

[leslieann]

The "stuff for your stuff" always amazes me. And when I do upgrade something, then you need new stuff for your stuff. I was highly frustrated a few years ago when I bought a new bed. Mattresses had gotten a lot thicker and I needed to buy new expensive sheets to fit the new mattress.

There are many examples like that one (only of course at the moment my brain isn't generating them). Oh, we got a fancy tv (don't ask me why) and then that "needed" a particular kind of stand because we didn't have a table that was suitable.

Mostly it is when I indulge my "wants" rather than my needs that I discover that my things need more things. I think the best example is the piles and piles of huge plastic storage boxes for sale at my nearest big box store. Those are there for me to purchase so I can organize and store my stuff (that apparently I am not using). Okay, I do have SOME of them and they are helpful, but perhaps Less Stuff is a better approach. For me, anyway. YMMV of course.

HeyDude, I love these "ahas" that seem to come up for you about stuff. Thanks!

[CathyA]

DH and his sister have kept a rented storage space for their mom's (RIP) junk for 12 years now. Its $100/mo. That comes to a little under $15,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And they refuse to deal with it. It makes me sooooooooo MAD!!!!! :devil:

[Fawn]

Well, the bigger and harder to get rid of the item is, the more stuff it needs to maintain it.

I remember years ago, before I bought my house, when I owned less than 100 things total. Then I bought the house, and two couches and a lawn mower and a hose and tree pruner and a gas can for the lawn mower and two more trash cans and a sprinkler for the hose and two cats moved in with us (could not have them at the apartment) and a cat litter box and a scooper for the litter box and bowls for food and water and a plastic bin for the cat food that the cats wouldn't chew through to get dinner early and....

Yeah, HeyDude, I like how you think about stuff too.

[leslieann]

Yeah, Fawn, why do I need a container for the dog food? It COMES in a container, doesn't it? But I lived in ****roach heaven (southeastern Louisiana) for some time and I just cannot seem to leave stuff like dog food in a paper bag.

I had a push kind of lawn mower. It did a crummy job on the lawn but it was quiet and didn't require any other stuff. When we "upgraded" to the gas powered machine (albeit with the least number of features possible) we did have to add a gas can, oil containers, and a shed to store all that stuff.

Hmm, I just moved about fifty books from upstairs to downstairs. I wonder how many of them I actually NEED in my work? Wonder how much lighter I would feel if I liberated them? Then, of course, I wouldn't need the bookcase either. Or the dusting cloth....

[Jemima]

I agree with you, heydude. For the most part, stuff begets stuff.

My house has only a small shed for storage, aside from a few closets (no attic, no basement), so I solved the lawnmower-string trimmer-gasoline problem by hiring someone. It may have cost more to do so over the years, but Dave takes his equipment home where he has to store and maintain it, and his wife has to maintain HIM. Simple and easy! :D