Starting to transfer to a spreadsheet instead of my usual paper notebook I list all my electronics in to get a grasp on all my parts (towers, laptops, memory, motherboards, videocards, etc). Lately I’ve been on a kick of labeling all my shelves (medicine, linen, kitchenware) and trying to sort things into random plastic bins I’ve had laying around waiting for a purpose.
I realize I could dive into deep rabbit holes for every category. With electronics I’m thinking of documenting every chip, board, and component along with compatibilities. Pantries and personal goods could be inventoried and auto-reordered, better tracking of my tools and materials with service reminders for equipment, etc etc.
I’ve gone through years where I throw everything away and get rid of anything not used recently and years where I horde everything and anything. Seems moderation in both is key and why keeping it all in mind and documented seems like the right thing to do if you have the time to kill.
tldr, what tips or tricks do you use to keep up with all your shit?
Personally I’ve been trending the opposite direction: getting rid of things. We had our first kid about 7 years ago, which has seriously decreased my time for tinkering. I didn’t realize it at first, so I kept on picking up projects that interested me, got some pieces for them, organized them, and… they’re still there years later. The worst a somewhat sentimental things, that don’t really see much use, and are also projects. For example, I bought the boom box of my youth. It’s from the 80s (it wasn’t new when I had it 25 years ago) and needs some TCL - potentiometers cleaned up, some loose connections run down, etc. It’s low on my list of things to fix because it doesn’t actually sound that great and cant compete with my Bluetooth speaker.
I was at your stage a little over 10 years ago, renting and moving, kids slowly getting more things. Now they’re starting to move out and I’ve purchased a larger run down house that needs to be filled up. There’s some things I regret getting rid of like materials but for the most part I’m happy I don’t have so much to keep track of at the moment. The projects I’ve shelved for some many years are starting to get dusted off again and I’m finally getting back into hobbies and tinkering again. Definitely a good observation on the bluetooth speaker, there’s some things it’s just not worth putting the effort into unless it’s a niche need like a portable cassette player etc. I’m hoping you experience the same thing and get some of that time back in your future to do what you want.
Thanks for the thoughtful reply! I am holding on to some things in hopes of being able to do with the kids when they’re older, but it has been pretty liberating getting rid of some of this stuff.