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I use the fear of future clutter to try to keep my impulse buying down. Like sure, I could go buy a big 4K TV... but then what would I do with my old (still perfectly good!) 1080p set? I could upgrade the GPU in my HTPC, but I'd then have a 1060 I wouldn't have anything to do with.

I'm at a fairly comfortable place, where all my entertainment needs are met. When I get the urge to spend on something, I make myself balance the actual improvement to my life against the hassle of dealing with the clutter, and moral implications of creating even more hard-to-recycle E-waste.

NTMBK wrote:

I use the fear of future clutter to try to keep my impulse buying down. Like sure, I could go buy a big 4K TV... but then what would I do with my old (still perfectly good!) 1080p set? I could upgrade the GPU in my HTPC, but I'd then have a 1060 I wouldn't have anything to do with.

I'm at a fairly comfortable place, where all my entertainment needs are met. When I get the urge to spend on something, I make myself balance the actual improvement to my life against the hassle of dealing with the clutter, and moral implications of creating even more hard-to-recycle E-waste.

Wow, this is really good. Really really good!

We have a box of old wall warts - typically I only keep the ones that I can repurpose for other things (12v adapters are pretty handy for all sorts of things). The oddball ones that go with old routers, switches, whatever usually go in the bin.

We're forcing ourselves to clean out the garage this year by buying interlocking vinyl tiles to cover the floor. It's gonna suuuuuck to move all the tools, car parts, and miscellaneous crap out of the garage to install them but hopefully well worth the effort.

Waco wrote:

We have a box of old wall warts - typically I only keep the ones that I can repurpose for other things (12v adapters are pretty handy for all sorts of things). The oddball ones that go with old routers, switches, whatever usually go in the bin.

I repurposed an old 12V adapter to power a 120mm fan attached to plastic dryer ducting to pull soldering fumes away from my work area. That's about the only instance I can remember in 20+ years where I didn't use a universal (generally because the plugs don't match up).

Never understood why manufacturers felt they needed 879 different sizes of barrel plugs.

I use them for powering assorted things that need 12v (just cut the barrel off and make an adapter) like LEDs, car accessories, etc.

Waco wrote:

We're forcing ourselves to clean out the garage this year by buying interlocking vinyl tiles to cover the floor. It's gonna suuuuuck to move all the tools, car parts, and miscellaneous crap out of the garage to install them but hopefully well worth the effort.

I plan to clean out my garage this year to allow me to actually use the other half for a 2nd car one day.

I epoxied my garage floor about 10 years ago or so, and it held up except for the one little spot where my left front tire comes to a stop. I think I've worn that spot really really thin over the years by turning the wheels when the car is stopped or nearly stopped. If I were to do it all over again, I think I'd go with the interlocking tiles too. A neighbor of mine has those; in colors complimentary to his Mustang. Sweet!

We went with pretty standard black / dark grey checkerboard. I would have done red/black but the WAF was not there.

BIF wrote:

Here's the first one: Do any of you keep AC adapters around even after the original device is no longer present or functional? I can't remember ever being able to repurpose one of these, and I have to ask myself why I have a big box full of them. And...can they be recycled?

You just haven't reached a critical mass of adaptors. Add more to your collection and they'll start to be useful.

cheesyking wrote:

BIF wrote:

Here's the first one: Do any of you keep AC adapters around even after the original device is no longer present or functional? I can't remember ever being able to repurpose one of these, and I have to ask myself why I have a big box full of them. And...can they be recycled?

You just haven't reached a critical mass of adaptors. Add more to your collection and they'll start to be useful.

Eventually they start breeding and you'll have extra adapters you didn't even realize you had.

Between Dear Old Dad and myself, we have a box with about 40-odd transformers and wall warts (and I've got another dozen specialty transformers in reserve elsewhere). That includes an ancient 9VAC(!) adapter from a 1980s-vintage Atari system of some kind. Sometimes one of the units has been excavated from the box 10 or 15 years after it landed there in order to power some oddball project.

OTOH, if you've got 15 varieties of a 5V or 12V adapter at 500mA or less, it's probably time to send a few to the e-waste recycler.

I didn't know wall-warts multiply!

I must admit, I'm a massive hoarder I generally do like clutter to be "out of sight, out of mind" but that doesn't mean I will completely get rid of it :/ Most of my old PCs, monitors, gaming consoles, TVs, exercise equipment, and even a few toasters and kettles end up in the basement or attic. The issue is that many of these things haven't really broken down, but just become obsolete and superseded by a better model. I'm hesitant to throw them all away in case, somehow, they become useful to someone else one day and perhaps even rise in monetary value! I think gaming consoles like the Nintendo 64, Nintendo GameCube and the first Xbox might seem a bit old hat now, but kinda feel an original from back in the day could be worth something in 10 years maybe! I did have to put some bigger furniture and odds and ends into storage recently, which wasn't so arduous cos these guys picked it all up. I did this because I had to make room in the basement and aren't sure if I want to sell the items or give them away just yet! For now, will like to keep my old tech and think about it all in a few years

BIF wrote:

I didn't know wall-warts multiply!

Most things do in the right environment.

While cleaning the shop a few days ago I found a pretty decently sized offcut stacked away behind some other materials. Accumulating old tools and bits of scrap are one thing, but this was a 3 foot long chunk of wood I didn't even know I had.

I want to thank StarFalcon for buying most of my really old crap...
I also want to thank goodwill for taking my old CRT's (all 18 of em).
And finally thanks to Fair Salvage in Reed city for taking my old broken computers, laptops, and empty computer cases.

Does that mean I've fully decluttered? ROFL! No. I still got tuns of stuff...
The wife is happier though.

Now as for wall warts if they have a barrel connector yes I keep em and I also keep laptop power supplies especially if they are HP or Dell since they don't change much over time.

anything with a weird connector that I can't find the device for gets tossed in the bin to go to the salvage yard.

Speaking of old stuff, if anyone happens to have a working 386DX-33 system or mobo+CPU, I'd likely be interested.

The Egg wrote:

Speaking of old stuff, if anyone happens to have a working 386DX-33 system or mobo+CPU, I'd likely be interested.

PM Starfalcon.

"In Feng Shui, clutter represents postponed decisions and the inability to move forward."
(https://fengshuiforreallife.com/Detailed/63.html)

Maybe I don't need everything that's safely stored under the bed I sleep in. Will check it out. Unfortunately it's not a pile of AC adapters that's stored there. It's things with emotional value, like old cassette tapes. It's sooo hard to say goodbye to any of them.