Discardia: not anti-stuff, just pro-awesome

In 2002 Dinah Sanders started a personal holiday called Discardia. As she writes in her book, Discardia: More Life, Less Stuff, her quarterly festival celebrates “unconsumption, the slow movement, downshifting, and voluntary simplicity.” In other words, it’s about getting rid of stuff so you can enjoy a richer life.

Sanders (who maintains a blog called Discardia) believes that many people mistakenly seek the good life by acquiring lots of things and experiences and then try to shoehorn these into an already overcrowded life. But Sanders maintains that the good life is better achieved by taking the opposite approach: stripping away the layers of material, habitual and emotional cruft that we accumulate over time to reveal a more meaningful, engaging, and manageable way to live.

Read my review of Sanders' book at credit.com

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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mtdna

But if I buy the book I’ll have even more stuff!
- http://twitter.com/Discardia Discardia
  
  Not if you give it away when you’re done! ;)
  - skestes
    
    What if I buy it as an eBook? And do you have any thoughts on “virtual stuff” like Apps, MP3s, eBooks, etc?
    
    I find that while my house is somewhat disorganized my digital collection is quite neat and tidy. I’m not sure if this is a sign of my own laziness or the tools built-in to the products I use.
    - http://twitter.com/Discardia Discardia
      
      If it isn’t causing friction in your life or lowering the pleasantness of using your tools, sounds like there’s no particular reason for you to delete something after you’ve used it.
      
      The search and sort abilities of our digital spaces help mitigate issues of plenty. (Oh how I have wished for a “Find” command on my house!)
      
      In general, I say put your energy into eliminating what feels “in your way” and amplifying what makes you more happy and fulfilled.
Lobster

Did she get rid of the kid on the cover? That’d let her live more of her life.
- revdancatt
  
  She very sensibly borrowed mine for the cover instead, then gave her back afterwards.
- CharredBarn
  
  Lobster, you must have had some very bad experiences with children for you to detest them as a group. Let go of the hate, mkay?
  - Lobster
    
    I’m allowed to hate kids as long as I don’t have any, never take any into my care for any period of time, and don’t express my hate to them.
    
    I also hate onions. Ruthlessly, violently, and unfairly. Maybe my mother was assaulted by one when I was a child.
- http://germanwotd.com Amelia_G
  
  Speaking as a lifetime babysitter and sometime kinderhasser, part of the kid problem is they have nothing to lose (kids are rational about this, they really have nothing to lose), they threaten everything a gal has managed to become, and their dads don’t help equally. Wherever you go, there you are, with kids, alone. In my observations.
  
  P.S. Part of my issue is when a child is born I also feel enslaved to it, because there are 1-2 things I can do early on to help that kid that it can’t do for itself.
  - http://germanwotd.com Amelia_G
    
    whoops, this was supposed to be a reply to CharredBarn
kP

Alas, my library system lacks this title…. what to do… what to do?
- http://twitter.com/Discardia Discardia
  
  I’ve just heard that San Francisco Public Library will be acquiring it, so I am hopeful others will follow.
hypersomniac

I never read Affluenza. Was it an influence?
- http://twitter.com/Discardia Discardia
  
  Certainly we come out of many of the same core influences (in my case going back as far as William Morris), but I am pretty sure that I’ve only skimmed Affluenza (or perhaps I should say Affluenzas, as there are at least a couple books of that title).
killshot

After losing everything in a fire, and then moving between far ends of the country several times. I started to live with very minimal possessions.

When I am done reading a book I give it away for someone else to enjoy.

I ripped all my old cd’s and dvd’s discarded the physical discs and store them on my computer.

My furniture is minimal but functional.

I do not purchase decorations or collectible items.

I almost never purchase gadgets that promise to make my life easier because they rarely do and usually only add more clutter.

Documents are scanned and kept on my computer.

If I don’t use something in 6 months.. I give it a serious evaluation and decide if I need to get rid of it.

I find I have more money, I don’t need to rent as big of an apartment, and it just feels good to not have so much stuff.
DavidCulberson

I love the idea and agree with the concept. It’s just .. so .. hard to get rid of stuff. Maybe I need to read it for tips!
- travtastic
  
  I keep a supply of unwatched episodes of Hoarders on my media player, ready to terrify me into donating or selling things.
  - Lobster
    
    I keep a supply of watched episodes of Hoarders on DVD, in a huge pile covering the floor that makes it difficult to access my bathroom. Because I am THAT committed to irony.
    - travtastic
      
      “It’s not difficult, there’s a footpath!”
- LikesTurtles
  
  The crazy thing, at least for me, is that as hard as it is sometimes to get rid of stuff, once it’s gone, I don’t miss it at all.
  - blueelm
    
    I wish I was blessed with this some times. Not only do I have a lot of stuff, I have family stuff going back a couple hundred years. I kind of like it though. I feel a kinship with my family going back many generations through their artifacts and journals all the way back to times that are completely strange and foreign. Honestly, as my parents get older just realizing that I have to deal with/get rid of all that old real estate is stressful, but then it’s kind of better than not having anything. I have always been raised between several places, but there are things that have been around me that were around my grandmother when she was born. Some things I don’t care about because they just served a function, but I tend to find I am the opposite entirely mentally regarding my things. When I get rid of something, like a dress from high school I don’t wear anymore, I find I will be thinking of a purpose for it months later and angry that I don’t have it handy. When I get rid of things I often find I acquire two or three more that aren’t quite right because I miss the original. I’m just a natural collector as well, I enjoy my things because they remind me of the impermanence of human life. I figure when I die I will leave a lot of antiques for some one and crazy old tintypes and painted portraits etc. for people to re-sell.
    - http://twitter.com/Discardia Discardia
      
      Hmm, but do you remember as much the things that you were absolutely right to discard?
      
      To quote the book: “Beware of cognitive bias in what you notice about your things, habits, projects, and even dreams. Would it stand out in your memory that you never needed something you got rid of? No. In fact, you might forget you ever had it in the first place. That 90% can fall from your awareness without a trace, leaving the rare exceptions to stand out and seem more significant than they actually are. I highly recommend Thomas Gilovich’s book, How We Know What Isn’t So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life, as a great way to gain insight into some of the silly patterns of perception that can have you working against your own best interest.”
      
      As long as the things you keep aren’t interfering with your quality of life, seems like you’re fine. I do encourage you to consider for some things whether you need to keep the object or just the memory it represents; would a picture and the story of what you think of now when you look at it serve you just as well? Maybe you have the makings of a truly fascinating blog/Tumblr…
sAFETY909

This sounds a lot like the ‘Pretirement’ movement, though they’re all about removing things, both physical and procedural, so you can do more that means something to you. Like travel with your kids, or following a passion.
http://www.pretirementliving.com
Ian Anthony

As a Props Artisan, I’ve always been fascinated with, and have quite enjoyed, collecting and keeping stuff. I can look around my room right now, and each and every item adorning my shelves, even the shelves themselves, tell a story, or serve as a vital link to a memory that would otherwise have been tucked away. One could say my personal space at home serves as a sort of hard drive for my mind. And I never know what could come in handy for a stage production, so I like that my room can serve as a sort of tiny props storage area.

It’s not that I think minimalism is a silly idea, I simply felt like sharing my perspective. Does anyone else get what I mean?

Makes me think of this, every time: http://dresdencodak.com/2009/12/16/lantern-season/

EDIT: Also, this one! http://dresdencodak.com/2006/01/30/epilogue/
- Cefeida
  
  I get what you mean!! Not only am I a mixed media artist, I rent a room to a puppetmaker. She has boxes and boxes of sorted materials which she uses in the craft. Discarding them all for the sake of minimalism would be ridiculous and wasteful. She and I also have a lot of tools around. The thing about this kind of work is the more materials and tools you have managed to accumulate over the years, the easier and less expensive it becomes to create your next commission.
  
  I don’t like trinkets, personally, because I don’t like dusting, but I do collect books without any remorse.
  - http://germanwotd.com Amelia_G
    
    Yes! curatorship + …?
    nonconsumerism? minimalism? mere informed attention? discernment according to which standards?
- http://twitter.com/Discardia Discardia
  
  Discardia is not necessarily minimalist, in fact, in many places in the book I encourage maximizing certain things (and habits and emotions and ways of looking at the world…)
  
  What Discardia does suggest, though, is continually confirming that what consumes your space and time is functionally and/or emotionally alive to you.
  
  (Thanks for the links to cool comics! Just started the first one and it’s reminding me of some of the memory palace bits of John Crowley’s book Little, Big.)
  - Ian Anthony
    
    “What Discardia does suggest, though, is continually confirming that what consumes your space and time is functionally and/or emotionally alive to you.”
    
    I can dig it. I’ll have to check out the book!
- http://germanwotd.com Amelia_G
  
  Hey Ian Anthony, have you read the Dorothy Sayers novel that analyzes bookshelves?
  - Ian Anthony
    
    I have not. I take it I should?
    - http://germanwotd.com Amelia_G
      
      Nope. But in one of her odder mysteries, Sayers talks about the forensics or archaeology of bookshelves. How, proceeding in order(s) that must be figured out, you can see from old books the order of a person’s education, fads; their Werdegang in other words.
      - penguinchris
        
        In case you aren’t familiar, that’s a direct takeoff of Sherlock Holmes – he being interested in the amount of dust that accumulates on books (and other things), as a key part of his filing system. After Mrs. Hudson dusts his books, he can no longer keep track of the date/age of his files. Of course, Holmes was also an expert in the type of analysis you describe as well :)
Mujokan

If I sold everything I own on eBay I’d probably get about 1500 bucks.
Russell Letson

Not to dismiss anybody else’s notions of how to arrange a life or what constitutes comfort or satisfaction, but the first word that popped into my head when I read the post was “puritanism.” The next two were “obsessive” and “compulsive.” Not to deny that my office (and basement and living room and spare bedroom and garage) couldn’t stand a bit of clearing-out, but I don’t see that as a matter of morality or mental hygiene. (And real awesomeness [ick] makes room for itself anyway–it just bulls its way in and takes over.) Now I gotta go pick up the tchotchkes the cat knocked off the bookshelf and onto the pile of last year’s New Yorkers on the floor.
- http://twitter.com/Discardia Discardia
  
  Honey, if the first word that pops into your mind when you hear about me is Puritanism, you don’t know me at all. ;)
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  ..the first word that popped into my head when I read the post was “puritanism.”
  
  Really? I like the idea that the two Moldovan rent boys, the octopus and I can roll around covered in frosting without having to worry about sticking to a bunch of tchotchkes.
http://germanwotd.com Amelia_G

“Was man hat, hat einen,” what you have has you. I often dream I’m trying to run between tracks in a large Euro train station with three or four suitcases and only two hands, or grocery shopping without a cart. If you’ve ever watched a baby fumble toys and cheerios, this might be an additional, potent, universal source for that dream. Regarding minimalism, one balance I’m curious about now is how to reduce the North American unnecessary sh&t pile while retaining enough reminders of recent ideas to deal effectively with my alzheimers. (postit notes on turning, interlocking, formal, clockwork gear bulletin boards?)

Heinlein wrote that Martian society abandoned cities after too many experiences had accumulated there. As a history major, I have wondered about this idea for decades.
ultranaut

this is not my beautiful house?!
this is not my beautiful wife!?
mike150160

He who dies with the most toys, wins!
http://twitter.com/TelarusKSC Joshua Fontany

Hail Eris. All Hail Discardia.
TaymonBeal

Today is a good day for posting relevant links.
- http://twitter.com/Discardia Discardia
  
  Ah yes! Paul Graham’s Stuff is good stuff.