# Do kids nowadays not care about "stuff"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 23, 2024, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-nowadays-not-care-about-stuff/1003239 "2024-06-23T20:16:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2024, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-nowadays-not-care-about-stuff/1003239/81 "2024-06-28T12:19:51Z")
My wife is a Method 1 person, too. When she can root around for hours through drawers, closets and boxes to find some implement that we haven’t needed for years, it gives her an enormous and irrational sense of pleasure. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2024, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-nowadays-not-care-about-stuff/1003239/82 "2024-06-28T14:03:18Z")
I tend to think there’s a balance between keeping _every_ twist tie and rubber band, and not keeping any. We have a little tub/bin thing in our silverware drawer that we keep those things in and if it’s full, we just throw the extras away. It is nice to have spare twist ties and rubber bands sometimes, but we really don’t need more than five or ten of them. But otherwise, I know that mentality you talk about. I’m not sure if its genesis is always poverty, or if it’s more of a reduce/reuse mentality. I’ve known people who were never poor, but who always felt like it was wasteful to just throw away the second set of mounting screws that came with something, just because they chose the alternate mounting method. I tend to think the ones who come by it due to poverty are the ones who take it to (IMO) insane extremes- reusing ziploc bags and saving bread bags rather than just buying them. Or who will save up the tiny remnants of soap bars and compress them into some sort of Franken-bar weeks later, rather than spend the 80 cents on a new bar of soap. I mean, I suppose that eventually adds up, but it strikes me that you _might_ save six bars of soap in a year for a grand total of $4.80. Not worth my time and effort, frankly. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2024, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-nowadays-not-care-about-stuff/1003239/83 "2024-06-28T14:03:55Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > It’s all about the mental default being “Keep unless you have an immediate concrete reason to dispose” versus “Dispose unless you have an immediate concrete reason to keep”. > > Method two is very freeing. Method 1 is … something. Method 2 is very freeing – if you can afford to buy whatever you need whenever you need it, and are sure it’ll still be readily available. I’m sure I’m keeping some things I’ll never use again. But I have very often been able to use, either for the original purpose or a different one, something that had been hanging around unused for years; sometimes saving myself hundreds of dollars that I can’t afford to spend, or at some times just plain don’t have. Yes, keeping things because you might need them again sometime is often poor people’s thinking. But there are a lot of poor people. ‘Don’t buy a lot of stuff you don’t need’ is one thing. And some people keep their possessions down to a minimal amount by this technique. But ‘get rid of everything you’re not using right now, even if it means sending it to the dump’ is one of the things driving our waste disposal, pollution, and energy use/climate change problems; because, overall, many people don’t take it as ‘and stop buying new stuff!’ but only as ‘buy whatever takes your fancy and throw it out as soon as you’re tired of it; that’s what keeps the economy going!’ None of which, of course, means that people are required to keep all the clothes they wore when they were ten. – in terms of wearing hand-me-downs, years ago: people did that, yes. But there was often a layer of shaming involved from those who could afford to buy new. And the used clothes etc. would come from within the family/friends network or from specific used-clothing shops. I don’t think I ever saw a yard/garage sale until at least the late 1970’s; and now they’re very common, and there doesn’t as near as I can tell seem to be any social opprobrium to buying from them. Plus which there’s the whole “vintage clothing” phenomenon. So it seems to me that if anything the attitude towards using things other people used first has improved, at least since the 1950’s and '60’s. But when the particular things don’t fit the current people’s lives – yeah, then they’re not going to want them. And the things that reminded my mother strongly of her beloved mother, and remind me both of my mother and of the grandmother I barely remember, aren’t going to remind my greatniblings of anything more than a name in a story. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2024, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-nowadays-not-care-about-stuff/1003239/84 "2024-06-28T14:20:38Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > Yes, keeping things because you might need them again sometime is often poor people’s thinking. But there are a lot of poor people. Sometimes - but sometimes there’s something else involved . It’s one thing to keep lots of things that you might need again someday if you are one or two people living in a four bedroom house with a two car garage and an attic and a basement. ( or otherwise have loads of extra space). It’s a different situation entirely if you live in a two bedroom apartment and have to rent a storage unit because of everything you might need “just in case” - at that point, it’s not about money . ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2024, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-nowadays-not-care-about-stuff/1003239/85 "2024-06-28T14:24:02Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > Method 2 is very freeing – if you can afford to buy whatever you need whenever you need it, and are sure it’ll still be readily available. > > I’m sure I’m keeping some things I’ll never use again. But I have very often been able to use, either for the original purpose or a different one, something that had been hanging around unused for years; sometimes saving myself hundreds of dollars that I can’t afford to spend, or at some times just plain don’t have. Agree with everything you said. Including this snippet-summary. I too have held onto used stuff, new stuff I bought then ended up not needing, and extra stuff that came in the package of [whatever]. And at least as to random hardware, that often saved a trip to the hardware store on some random afternoon one or 10 or even 20 years later. In fact I had all that sort of stuff carefully organized into about 2 dozen plastic totes each about the size of two shoe boxes. As I’ve gotten older what I’ve noticed is there’s a hard “sludge” at the bottom of each container that just sits. And there’s a “foam” on top that very occasionally gets used and somehow replenished. Plus a bit of “liquid” in the middle that’s occasionally dipped into, but often is just an obstacle to finding the foam. About 2 years ago, so age 63, I re-baselined my life at pretty much zero. One of the things I recall throwing out was a very nice set of 4 long heavy duty bolts, nuts, & washers. Which I’d bought with some memorable difficulty at a local hardware store while living overseas to install a set of tow-hooks on my truck. In 1984. Which hooks I’d never ended up installing. And which themselves were thrown away when I sold what would be my last truck 2 trucks after the overseas one. Which was IIRC 2005ish. The unused hooks were old enough to drive, drink, and vote by the time they were pitched. The bolts were old enough to be grandparents when they went to their doom. Still good as new, but also steadfastly unused. Those bolts became a parable for me. Yes, you _might_ need it. And depending on what “it” is, your demand for that type of stuff might well persist lifelong, or might be more the stuff of youth to be gracefully surrendered as time marches on. But for an awful lot of stuff, odds are you won’t need it, and the longer it’s sat unneeded, the more true that becomes. For sure the life of someone who moves every 5-10 years and lives urban is different from someone living rural and moving once in a lifetime if that. As to the rate of accumulating, the ease of storing, the difficulty of short-notice buying, and the sheer amount of doodads they need to get through their daily activities. It does indeed take all kinds to make a society. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2024, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-nowadays-not-care-about-stuff/1003239/86 "2024-06-28T18:59:23Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > For sure the life of someone who moves every 5-10 years and lives urban is different from someone living rural and moving once in a lifetime if that. This is true. As is @doreen’s point about storage space. But I rarely see people recommending that others consider their overall individual situation when deciding whether to keep something. It’s all too often a general blanket ‘if you haven’t used it in six months throw it out’, or something along those lines. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2024, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-nowadays-not-care-about-stuff/1003239/87 "2024-06-29T11:31:56Z")
I also agree with everything you said. Countless are the times when I’ve been stumped by having thrown away something that right now would come very handy indeed. That block of two-inch plywood, or that slice of hardened steel aren’t really that easy to come by on a short notice, and would entail driving someplace to buy a much bigger piece (with inflation factored in), and then having to work it down, not a small expenditure at all. But then, I do projects all the time, many of them cyclical in nature (not about biking, though). Someone with a different lifestyle would feel very different. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2024, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-nowadays-not-care-about-stuff/1003239/88 "2024-06-29T11:57:01Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > It’s all about the mental default being “Keep unless you have an immediate concrete reason to dispose” versus “Dispose unless you have an immediate concrete reason to keep”. I agree wholeheartedly, but with the modification of Method 2 as “unless you can clearly envision a situation in which you would use this in (1?5?10?) years.” Personally, we feel we haven’t really done a good enough job unless we find ourselves wanting/needing/looking for something that we realize we got rid of a few months back. And no, it doesn’t happen often, and it doesn’t involve big ticket items that we need to replace at considerable expense. Most often, if we haven’t used it for 5-10 years, and then come across one instance where it might have been useful, well - we can either do without or substitute something else. -If you have moved from a large home to a smaller one, and have something that only makes sense in a larger home - but have NO plans of up-sizing, get rid of it. -If it doesn’t go with your current decorating style, and you have no plans of going back to the old style. -If it belongs to a kid who has moved out, either get rid of it of have a SERIOUS talk with the kid about when they are taking it. -If you are keeping it “in case” a kid will want it, have that discussion now. I bet \>95% of the time the answer is “No way!” -If it pertains to obsolete technology. -If it is “nostalgic” for you - but looking at it does not bring you joy, but instead reminds you of high school which really was not a great experience. -If it relates to a hobby you no longer actively enjoy. … The main thing is to look everything over, and make some effort to separate the wheat from the chaff. I often pass garages with their doors open to reveal a solid wall of boxes and stuff, and think, “They don’t even KNOW what is in the back corner of that pile!” Personally, keeping large amounts of stuff I no longer use and will not foreseeably use in the future, kinda engenders more sadness than fond memories. Sad that I no longer do that activity, that the stuff is not being used, whatever. I suspect many people who hang onto stuff like the “idea” of having the stuff, and preserving the option of using it in the future, more than they actually enjoy the stuff itself. In fact, I think folk compound this effect by storing it in a manner in which they do not even know exactly what they have. I they opened up and went through every big box, they might find 1 or 2 items they really wanted to keep. Like **LSL’s** foam/sludge image. Keep the foam. Then 5 years later, re-examine the foam and see how much has become sludge. ---
**Author:** ![sunacres](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@sunacres](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunacres)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2024, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-nowadays-not-care-about-stuff/1003239/89 "2024-06-29T13:16:27Z")
Reality is always way more complicated than theory. I tend to hang onto stuff but “frequently” find creative uses for “some” of it. Each time I do it reinforces the inclination to hang onto things that might become useful. For example, I was a lifelong windsurfer until I noticed my heart problems getting serious. I sold all of my good gear, but hung onto my oldest, obsolete fiberglass mast. You never know when you’ll need a 16’ pole. After many years and many moves, last week was the time. I’m digging a drainage trench and needed to tunnel under some concrete walkways. I sawed the mast into 5 foot sections and made one of them into a “reamer” by driving long screws through one end (the screws were harvested from some project somewhere, the phillips sockets were a bit mangled from use). Worked like a charm. The problem is I get excellent re-use from maybe 10% of the stuff I keep, the rest is sludge. Evaluating the cost/benefit of that ratio is difficult, especially given the smug satisfaction I get when I score a direct hit like this. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2024, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-nowadays-not-care-about-stuff/1003239/90 "2024-06-29T13:27:15Z")
> [@Al128](#): > > Having teenage kids (with lots of teenage friends), it breaks my heart to see how these kids put on / take off their sneakers/trainers … WITHOUT undoing the laces … working their feet into the shoes and taking them off the same way I’m 50 and I have been doing this all my life. I guess I’m a teenager at heart? ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2024, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-nowadays-not-care-about-stuff/1003239/91 "2024-06-29T13:32:12Z")
We’ve been using an old sailboard mast as a flag pole on the end of our dock for years. There are two fishy windsocks on the hook and flying in the breeze. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@salinqmind1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind1)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2024, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-nowadays-not-care-about-stuff/1003239/92 "2024-06-29T13:46:24Z")
Since they banned styrofoam take-out containers, restaurants are using good sturdy plastic boxes. I haven’t bought a plastic dollar store container in months! Only problem is they are stacking up (just like when my mother saved cool whip containers, lol) and I have to MAKE myself keep no more than 3 or 4. Otherwise, sadly, off to the landfill. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2024, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-nowadays-not-care-about-stuff/1003239/93 "2024-06-30T02:09:24Z")
Some Habitat ReStores, the one in my town included, may not be able to use, for instance, a particular piece of furniture, but they may dismantle it and sell hinges, screws, drawer pulls, etc. separately. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2024, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-nowadays-not-care-about-stuff/1003239/94 "2024-06-30T02:21:42Z")
I’m sure the cat really appreciates this loving gesture! Me, I use a yogurt container and her crunchies go into a metal bowl. ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2024, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-nowadays-not-care-about-stuff/1003239/95 "2024-07-02T18:28:46Z")
Most of this thread can be summarized as “kids care about stuff, just not _your_ stuff.” > [@StarvingButStrong](#): > > I ‘seeded’ this stuff along an old farm-type stone wall that runs along behind all the back yards in our suburban subdevelopment That reminds me of a guy around here who had too many books, so he started throwing them out his car window on his very early AM commute. Until they found him, it was a mystery why books were appearing in the middle of the highway. It sounds like your discarding had a better outcome. > [@filmore](#): > > Rather than throwing away stuff that could still be used, consider giving it away Down this path lies madness. Not at the start, obviously if something is useful or donatable, do so. The problem becomes when “give it away if useful” becomes “keep it until someone else has a use for it.” Sometimes the least bad place for something to be is in the landfill. If it lasts on freecycle more than a few days, and the thrift store doesn’t want it, then it is trash. > [@thorny\_locust](#): > > keeping things because you might need them again sometime The truth of this statement depends completely on ones ability to _realistically_ judge the future need. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2024, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-nowadays-not-care-about-stuff/1003239/96 "2024-07-02T19:14:02Z")
The story about the guy throwing books out the window reminded me of stories I saw about other people who used a reseller my library is contracted with, Better World Books. They pay for the shipping (you have to have 15 boxes, and a trucker will pick them up) and then process and resell books at their warehouses. Anyway, some other book resellers decided to dump their black mold infested stock on them, things that had zero chance of being resold, etc. Nice. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2024, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-nowadays-not-care-about-stuff/1003239/97 "2024-07-02T20:07:37Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > some other book resellers decided to dump their black mold infested stock on them, things that had zero chance of being resold, etc. That’s despicable! Better World Books is a great resource for buying used hardbacks (library reject or not) at way lower prices than new, and in excellent condition. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2024, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-nowadays-not-care-about-stuff/1003239/98 "2024-07-02T20:28:45Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > That’s despicable! Indeed! I’ve bought with Better World Books, and they do a great job. Booooooooo! ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2024, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-nowadays-not-care-about-stuff/1003239/99 "2024-07-02T20:39:21Z")
The only trouble with BWB is that they make it so easy for me to add to my book hoard. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2024, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-nowadays-not-care-about-stuff/1003239/100 "2024-07-02T20:51:50Z")
I’ve gotten a **lot** more ruthless lately. It used to kill me to give away books, but I’m closer to the grave than than the cradle, so I’m trying to be thoughtful towards the ones who’ll deal with my stuff then! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-nowadays-not-care-about-stuff/1003239.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-nowadays-not-care-about-stuff/1003239.md?page=6)