The cost of maintaining "stuff"

[Jennsnoopy]

I'm sure may of you long timers on here already know about this but given the big change hubs and I made for our famly a big revelation hit us. In our previous life with the giant house and large landscaped yard, a pool, a hot tub, etc. there was a lot of extra expense and time in the upkeep of all of our "cool" toys.
I hadn't really thought about it until we made this change. Now there is upkeep with our little forest. We bought a chainsaw and have to do tree mitigation, but that's way cheaper than hiring someone to chop things down. We have to also pick up pine needles do to the tendency of wildfires. But we are not buying all the chemicals to keep up our lawn, pool and hot tub. And the time. Lots of time on all that added stuff. De cluttering was painful before the move but it's pretty incredible knowing we got rid of so much. Lots of time, energy and money went into useless stuff.
It's just an interesting perspective.

[JoeP]

This topic had been slightly beyond my full comprehension until about 10 years ago when I started analyzing where I spent some of my unaccounted time and money.

It turns out that there is overhead associated with stuff: maintenance, parts replacement, registration, insurance, fuel, storage bins or cabinets for accessories, consumables. With a finite number of hours in a day, the time available to be expended on all this is has to be sliced.

[Attitudeofawinner]

It's a cost to value situation. If you have children you're allocating money to something as optional as "stuff" and the cost to maintain it. Everyone who has an earned income allocates the money the make somewhere regardless of if they do it calculated or not. Some choose to save it, some choose to spend it on what makes them happy, and some do a combination of both. If you enjoy your "stuff" and can afford to maintain it while still allocating some income for the future whats the harm in it? I personally enjoy "maintaining" some of my stuff. I spent an hour working on my pool which I found calming and I genuinely enjoy washing my cars. Some purchase or collect "stuff" for the wrong reasons but some folks also have children for the wrong reasons as well. Is either party wrong?