Tackling the junk room

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Started 10 months ago by lucy1965
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lucy1965
Member

Hi, all!

As mentioned in ATAD, DH has given me permission to start on the junk room. This room contains boxes of computer equipment/software/printouts, most of which have been untouched for 10 years, after having been untouched for the previous 6 in the old house.

For those of you saying "Just throw it all out!": bwahahahahaha! There's roaring cases of "sunk cost" and "repurposing" fallacies going on here; presenting him with very granular choices, in small batches, is the method that's going to lead to something good. (I've also put floor plans of the potential new flats on his white board, with "Your stuff here" marked in bright red Sharpie with the area measurements.)

So: if you were sorting this, how would you start? Pull everything out and start grouping? By what categories? I've also agreed to come up with disposal methods (user groups with archives, GreenDisk, the electronics recycling event next month) so that as soon as he makes a decision, the item has a place to go.

What have I overlooked? Have we covered this already and I need a pointer and a cluestick?

Posted 10 months ago #
Ella
Member

Brave girl! I'd start with the vipers nest of cables. Put like with like so he can see how many duplicates you have. Then hope for reason to prevail!

Posted 10 months ago #
chacha1
Member

I think I'd have to go with "pull everything out and start grouping."

Software with manuals
software without manuals
manuals without software
input devices (keyboards, mice, etc)
monitors
printers/scanners/faxes
computers
Cables
Power supply/management devices

Anything that doesn't fit in one of these categories is just garbage, so you'll probably need a pile/bag/box marked TRASH as well!

Re: sunk cost fallacy, if necessary remind your DH how much mortgage/rent has been paid for no other purpose than to provide storage space for this junk. I guarantee that is far more than the entire "value" of the contents of the room.

Posted 10 months ago #
smallLife
Member

I know Best Buy here in the states has recycling containers for all of the random cables that seem to accumulate.

As far as how to tackle the project, what are you turning the room into and does DH have a stake/interest in the resulting space? If so it might be useful to tackle areas and slowly redecorate so he can see his progress. . . . although sorting in that kind of environment might be overwhelming.

Posted 10 months ago #
jlw
Member

Given how fast computer hardware changes, I have to wonder how useful 10- to 16-year-old stuff is going to be anyway. Maybe you can convince him that getting any of it working again would be more trouble/cost than it's worth, just to end up with something that seems pretty unimpressive compared to today's equipment?

Posted 10 months ago #
Rosa
Member

Get him to give you a date before which software manuals are useless, maybe? My partner is a coder, and always just uses online -man, but he has 2 or 3 paper manuals - we have a standing agreement that any manual more than 5 years old is recyclable, like a phone book.

Posted 10 months ago #
Gypsie
Member

Way back in 1965, when computing was new Dr. Gordon Moore, cofounder of Intel, predicted that technology would double every two years. There is an exact quote but this is the basic gist of it. And that prediction has become Moore's law as it has remained crazily accurate and is predicted to remain accurate until 2015 or longer.

That said, you now have a little more ammo for exactly how worthless some of this computer junk really is.

Posted 10 months ago #
bandicoot
Member

tech advancement certainly blisters along at a crazy pace.
anything older than, say, what is on my desk right now, would be sent on to a new home, if it was mine.
tech stuff in piles in a garage....you know what i'd be doing!
tech for me, is to be used until it falls apart OR sold while it is still kicking to make way for upgrades.
just buying newer stuff and leaving the old stuff somewhere around the house...that way madness lies (for me anyway, and i've been a short way down this very road, with cables and broken mice and defunct keyboards and hard drives that would never go again.....i held onto them for years and then i woke up one day and gave it all away. and the thing is, i have never ever regretted a single piece of tech that i have donated or sold on).

i'd go through it, get an overview, arm myself with some salient facts and details about how old and useless it all is......and then i'd make a lovely dinner for him and have a really good, calm, reasonable chat about it.
yes, it is horribly manipulative, but he needs to start thinking about this stuff differently if you want to really get a move on it.
might take a bit of persuasion.

Posted 10 months ago #
Sky
Member

DH has several boxes of wires, computer parts and who knows what else in boxes in our office. His thought is, when he finishes the garage (sheetrock, shelves) he will use all this stuff for a TV, surround sound (why?)and whatever else out there.

When the garage is finished, and all his stuff put up, the rest is out of here. It is probably outdated anyway.

What is it with men and their wires?

Posted 10 months ago #
Shortbird
Member

And those wires are always the wrong length...

Seriously, folks, the hi fi and TV surround sound set up was on the short side of the living room rectangle. And then on the long side. And now, it's back to the short side again. I'm sure that cables have been remade every time, even though you would think they would still fit.

Lucy, all the best. A virtual cup of what cheers you is waiting here when you need it.

Posted 10 months ago #
Shortbird
Member

Oh, by the way, Sky, surround sound is great fun after it's been set up... Although I wouldn't miss it if it had to go.

Posted 10 months ago #
susanintexas
Member

Lucy -- seems like you have a good plan, and great job on winning over the DH!

I think grouping is useful -- at least it has been for me. When you can see EXACTLY how many things you have it makes it easier to let the duplicates go. Have one extra power cord or mouse is perhaps prudent -- having 20 is silly.

I have found that my ideas of categories change as I go through a mess, so I would recommend flexibility. If you have a computer recycling event next month I would make that stuff my priority -- you certainly don't want to reach the point where you are ready to move and have to PAY someone to take that stuff off your hands!

When dealing with DH's stuff (or stuff he deals are his primary responsibility) I found it helpful to do as much pre-sorting as possible. The more opportunities he had to touch a thing the stronger his attachment to it grew.

Having broad categories of stuff that YOU can toss also helps. For example, DH got it into his head that he needs to keep old copies of income tax software in case we are ever audited. Of course, he wants to keep it way beyond the point that an audit is possible -- we have tax software going back 20 years. I convinced him I could throw out the packaging and the manuals and just keep the disks, which all fit in a smallish binder (instead of the entire shelf they used to occupy.)

I gather from what you said that the printouts are of Internet groups? What a nightmare! He's looking for group remnants that may want hard copies? I'd set a deadline. Sounds like wishful thinking to me.

Posted 10 months ago #
ElFish1
Member

Lucy, my husband is hesitant to get rid of things too, especially electronics equipment. What I found did NOT work was putting items in a box and asking him to go through them. What does work is separating items into the categories I think they belong in -- throw away, give away, keep. Then I tell him what I've done and give him the opportunity to go through the boxes and change them in any way he wants to. Then we usually both take a trip together to the Goodwill store to drop off the give aways.

This worked out to be a non-confrontational way for us to work through some of our decluttering. I also don't worry anymore about finding just the right home for something I'm getting rid of because that means it usually ends up sitting somewhere taking up space for months. If I'm not throwing it away or keeping it, it goes to Goodwill, and as soon as I have even a box or two it's time to get it out of the house.

My other suggestion is for you to set up a sorting area in the room you're clearing out. Mine is a big folding table like you'd use for a garage sale. When the table gets full of things I need to go through, I take time and go through all of it and sort, toss and give away. I have a problem with having things stacked all over the floor, so *nothing* goes on the floor, it all goes on the table. I sort my items into tall laundry baskets that live under the table. When those laundry baskets are empty I stack them for the next project.

Posted 10 months ago #
lucy1965
Member

I knew you wouldn't let me down. *grin*

@chacha I have grabbed your categories and put them straight into my Evernote page for this; bless you!

@smallLife The room is a bedroom in the basement, which is how it's gone without remark for so long: as we're probably moving in the next six months, cleaning it out and possibly replacing the flooring is the extent of redecorating.

@everyone else This goes back to identity: once upon a time DH was a network engineer; wrote books on the subject, stayed up all night sorting out tetchy servers -- then one day he was asked to become an instructor, and found out he liked that much better: it meant regular sleep! Soon he was the head of the instructor program for a Large Software Company, and that was even more fun.

He knows that he doesn't really need all the software and the equipment; he's not actively coding or testing any more, and as it is most of the gear in the house is ancient: newest things are a Wacom tablet and a 2TB external hard drive. He's gone so far as to say that when we move, we should get rid of everything but our laptops and the hard drives, and pick up an all-in-one that would allow for a little tinkering.

But this is proof that he's not who he was, and he's really taking it hard. I'm hoping that making a start will convince him that who he is now and who he can be are wonderful people, and they need room to be who they are.

Am I babbling now? It feels like it. I'ma go sort some stuff.

Posted 10 months ago #
pkilmain
Member

Ah - the evidence of prior learning. :) I know how he feels. I was an IT Tech and then an instructor. I gave up both to be a librarian (or rather to work as one as I had done the studies/degree previously) but I held on to the stuff from those times for far too long. They finally left in the initial purge of my home office - but it was more than 10 years since I'd used them.

Posted 10 months ago #
Irulan
Member

You're making a ton of sense, Lucy! I don't have a category to add, but a small rule-of-thumb for discarding that my husband seems to like. Any hardware or software that is "to keep" must be compatible with the tech already in use at our home, or must fill an immediate defined need (e.g., he built up a spare desktop for streaming Netflix; we're modifying an old monitor into a TV). Everything else goes to the municipal electronics recycling center.

Posted 10 months ago #
chacha1
Member

Glad we could be helpful, Lucy! I think your penultimate paragraph is beautiful ... show it to DH and he will understand that you "get it" and he may feel comforted.

Posted 10 months ago #
lucy1965
Member

I pointed him at this thread. After he read it, there was a brief but heartfelt moment in which I would have applied the nearest heavy object to the side of his head as he proceeded (his words!) to make my point for me re: "but this is who I am!" statements.

But I persisted, because I love him and I'm trying to be better about confronting problems: when I explained again about recognizing the loss but wanting to make room for who he is now, he stopped and said "Oh. I hadn't thought of it like that. That -- will make this much easier for me. I'm overwhelmed by my stuff and -- most spouses wouldn't do that."

Of course, being big old geeks, the only appropriate response was a Firefly quote lest things get too serious, but we now have the recycling event next month on the calenders as a firm goal. I think the room will be empty then.

Have I told you today how wonderful you are? You're wonderful. Thank you for the encouragement. ETA: he gave me explicit permission to tell you how he reacted: you gotta love someone who owns their behavior.

Posted 10 months ago #
Parsifal
Member

I'm a techie who used to keep at least one of every old piece of technology. Some were for spare parts, others to sell 'one day' and not a few actually had sentimental value! I finally started getting rid of the computer clutter before my last move and was able to turn probably $3000 (retail) of very old pieces and parts into over $400 cash. Not only that, I had over 100 lbs less of stuff to move and after two years I haven't missed a single thing I got rid of*

I'd encourage every geek to get rid of old tools, software and components as soon as they are replaced. Not only will you save space, but the extra cash from selling or trading them while they still have value will more than pay for the few you might actually need to reacquire.

*I did lose a 1980s video game manual I'll probably never be able to replace, but it shouldn't have been in that stack of stuff in the first place. If the closet had been less cluttered, I probably would have realized that!

P.S. Those cables always seem to be the worst. I finally delved into my cable box one day and was able to isolate over a dozen power adapters that didn't seem to go to ANYTHING I still had!

Posted 10 months ago #
Irulan
Member

I'm convinced that cables will breed if you leave them in alone the box for too long!

Posted 10 months ago #

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