Hoarding--on the computer?

[mockturtle]

A mention of hoarding got me to thinking:&nbsp; While I fancy myself a minimalist at heart and make a real effort to keep my 'stuff' under control, I do keep a lot of files on my computer.&nbsp; <br /><br />What do you think?&nbsp; Are we hoarding when we accumulate gigabytes of hard drive 'stuff', most of which we don't use?&nbsp; Even if we keep it on external drives and disks, it's still stuff, isn't it?&nbsp; Just food for thought this morning. <img src="/images/boards/smilies/smile.gif" alt="" align="absmiddle" border="0" />

 

[sl1966]

Like hoarding in real life, I think it depends on what you keep. If it's data you generated (pictures, personal documents, emails) then I would say no. I mean even if some of that data has become outdated. It's not really any different than storing real pictures, documents, or letters.<br /><br />Now if you're storing data from elsewhere that you didn't create, and keep going out there to accumulate more .... then yes, you've definitely got a problem&nbsp;<img src="/images/boards/smilies/biggrin.gif" alt="" align="absmiddle" border="0" /><br /><br />

 

[psytechguy]

10 tB and counting here....

Still beats having a garage and a warehouse space full of crap!

 

[rvwandering]

LOL - yeah I tend to accumulate all kinds of stuff on my computer but every so often I restart it from the factory settings , forget to save everything and lose lots of that stuff. I even miss some of it! ;-)

 

[Nelda]

If one is talking about online hoarding, Pinterest must be mentioned.<br /><br /><br />Nelda

 

[Where~the~wind~blows]

If one is talking about online hoarding, Pinterest must be mentioned.<br /><br /><br />Nelda

<br /><br />Oh man, hands off Pinterest!...lol that place

 

[psytechguy]

With Pinterest you're not actually hoarding it on your own hard drives, though. It's being hosted on servers that are owned and controlled by someone else , aka "The Cloud!"

IMHO hoarding is having umpteen dozen different external hard drives on your desk full of thousands of assorted media files.

...and then, of course, you've gotta have redundant backups of EVERYTHING!!!! Just in case!

 

[stude53]

<span style="color: #008000;"><strong><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Yeah, It's Stuff!!!</span></strong></span><br /><span style="color: #008000;"><strong><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">But it is very compact stuff, and I never know what to get rid of when I occasionally purge....as soon as I hit the delete, I remember something I wanted to save and have no idea where I acquired it. <img src="/images/boards/smilies/bawl.gif" alt="" align="absmiddle" border="0" /></span></strong></span><br /><br /><span style="color: #008000;"><strong><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">So I am a closet information hoarder<img src="/images/boards/smilies/comp.gif" alt="" align="absmiddle" border="0" />... not proud of it, but there it is.</span></strong></span><br /><br /><span style="color: #008000;"><strong><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Bob</span></strong></span>

 

[gadgetMe]

&nbsp;Better to horde digital stuff, than to collect very heavy books, and paper pictures,&nbsp;<br /><br />Much lighter and searchable...<br />We have now a complete library at our fingertips, much better compared to the old days<br /><br />Putz

 

[wandering mike]

The key goal for me as far as&nbsp;minimization&nbsp;is not in what I actually own or how much I own, but how much "mind share" I am forced to give to the stuff I own, both physical and digital in relation to the value I recieve from the items. &nbsp;If I am continually saying "gee, I have to do a better job of managing that item" or "I really need to use that more", then I need to reduce the involvement. &nbsp;It could be a continuing nagging to go through all those digital files and organize them or it could be worrying about some old coins in storage. &nbsp;Either way, the item is cluttering my life and I need to either get rid of it or cause the "mind share" to be reduced; e.g. give it to my kids. &nbsp;Now I didn't say I was successful at all of this, just that such is my goal.

 

[mockturtle]

The key goal for me as far as&nbsp;minimization&nbsp;is not in what I actually own or how much I own, but how much "mind share" I am forced to give to the stuff I own, both physical and digital in relation to the value I recieve from the items. &nbsp;If I am continually saying "gee, I have to do a better job of managing that item" or "I really need to use that more", then I need to reduce the involvement. &nbsp;It could be a continuing nagging to go through all those digital files and organize them or it could be worrying about some old coins in storage. &nbsp;Either way, the item is cluttering my life and I need to either get rid of it or cause the "mind share" to be reduced; e.g. give it to my kids. &nbsp;Now I didn't say I was successful at all of this, just that such is my goal.

<br /><br />Good point, Mike

 

[VanLifeCrisis]

Im pretty minimalist when it comes to my computer.&nbsp; I used to download tons of videos and keep them but now a days i subscribe to streaming for entertainment, or go to hulu and crackle.&nbsp; Other than videos and a very small amount of music (and even there im migrating to pandora), im ruthless with keeping my hard drive clean <img src="/images/boards/smilies/biggrin.gif" border="0" align="absmiddle">&nbsp; I've used about 15% of my hard drive and only that much because of big games like WoW and Aion.

 

[stude53]

<div style="margin-bottom: 2px;">Quote:</div><div style="border-width: 1px; border-style: inset solid solid inset; border-color: currentColor #e8e8e8 #e8e8e8 currentColor; padding: 6px; spacing: 3px;">Originally Posted by <strong>wandering mike</strong><br />The key goal for me as far as minimization is not in what I actually own or how much I own, but how much "mind share" I am forced to give to the stuff I own, both physical and digital in relation to the value I recieve from the items.....<br /><br /><br /><span style="color: #008000;"><strong><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Mike, </span></strong></span><br /><span style="color: #008000;"><strong><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">"Mind Share" is important to me, too. By archiving things (hoarding information)&nbsp;I may need to reference later, I can stop processing those things over and over, and free my mind... content in the knowledge I can retrieve the information when and if I need it.</span></strong></span><br /><br /><span style="color: #008000;"><strong><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">It used to be no chore for me to carry everything around in my head, but I am in overload (or maybe just older, not wiser) and need external storage to manage new things I learn.</span></strong></span><br /><br /><span style="color: #008000;"><strong><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Bob</span></strong></span></div>

 

[sl1966]

That's what I was about to say Bob. Mind Share hasn't so much been an issue with me as is Mind Recall when I need it later.&nbsp;<br /><br /><img src="/images/boards/smilies/rofl.gif" alt="" align="absmiddle" border="0" /><br /><br />

 

[mockturtle]

My frustration with keeping so many files is that, no matter how well I <em>think</em> I organize them, I have a devil of a time finding them when I want them.&nbsp; But they really need to be severely culled from time to time and I don't often get around to it [the old 'round tuit'--if only I had one!].&nbsp;

 

[Coffee Tim]

Hmmmm?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; We must be kin; I have the same problem. <img src="/images/boards/smilies/biggrin.gif" alt="" align="absmiddle" border="0" />

 

[Guest]

OK...how do bookmarks of sites figure into that idea? I have tons of those and use some of them regularly. Other than that and photos, I delete pretty much everything else.<br /><br />Speaking of that if anyone knows how to effectively move those bookmarks from one computer to another in Windows xp please PM or email me how...thanks! I can't figure it out for the life of me. I also use Firefox as a browser.<br />bri

 

[drivebyandy]

Brian, <br /><br />I sent you a PM but it's not showing up in my sent messages area so I'm not sure if it actually sent or not...

 

[mockturtle]

Brian, <br /><br />I sent you a PM but it's not showing up in my sent messages area so I'm not sure if it actually sent or not...

<br /><br />I'd be interested to know, since none of my PMs ever show up in my 'Sent' files.

 

[twokniveskatie]

Are you checking the box to save it to the file?

I was doing some maintenance last night and discovered that the saved file isn't working for me.....when I try to transfer a message to the saved folder, it doesn't show up there.

I will be troubleshooting this tomorrow, so if anybody has been having any issues with the private message function ill start a new thread so as not to hijack this one, and collect the info.