How Long To Keep Things

2026-05-14

These are all hypothetical questions but I am curious what everyone thinks. I love throwing things away but sometimes I throw them away too early. There have been a few things that I have thrown away and then a while later I needed it. But I am wondering, what is the limit one how long you keep something that might be useful in the future? Does it matter how big it is? Does it matter how often you use it? Does it matter how emotionally important it was for you?

Like I will start with somethings that I hope are pretty obvious. Something that is huge, like a grand piano, that I might learn to play in the future but probably not, is something I would get rid of without second thought. I think that the fact that it is so large makes it much harder to hold onto, anything that is bulky needs extra scrutiny. Also I dont know how to play the piano, I dont think that I would use a piano soon and so that is another strike against it.

Irreplaceable baby photos of myself I would keep, they are small and emotional. A kitchen knife, also pretty small, something I use all of the time, would never throw it away.

I really really try to use stuff at least once a year, I try to convince Sneha to throw away stuff with varying success. But we have more leeway for things that we dont use that often but are small, or tiny even. Some good things that come to mind are fancy cups for tea, some plates, pictures that we only look at from time to time. These are all really compact things so keeping them doesn’t take very much mental energy. Also I find if something can be hidden from view I dont think about it often and it again doesn’t drain my mental energy, if I see or trip over stuff I will be much more likely to throw it away.

And my cut off for usefulness is about once a year, it makes pretty good sense, we have Halloween and Christmas stuff, I try to use my formal clothes once a year. I recently threw away a bunch of formal clothes that I didn’t wear.

So I am curious about what you guys think. If you might use something in a year would you keep it in your garage? What if it you might use it in two year, or five years, or ten years? And does it matter how big it is? Like some papers, a baseball size? A mini fridge size? A full fridge size? What do you guys think?

-Gary