>In my head, every piece of hardware, broken furniture, or random screw has a future use.
For me, this mentality has lead to a sort of hoarding, in which everything I own has a potential future use, but little of it has been used, even after years of being in my possession. This is partly due to the fact that the quantity physically obscures many of the items and I forget that I own them. It is also because many of the items have near-zero use-value; I can imagine a use for almost anything; I can only actually use a small fraction of that.
Recently, I have been aggressively throwing away possessions; if I see it and I can't remember using it (or I have replaced it with something I use more frequently), then I throw that thing in the trash ASAP. I don't care how much it's worth; space, time, and labor; every possession has mental load.
I totally get where you’re coming from, and you're right to flag the risk of this mindset turning into hoarding. I think your approach is good advice for many. I realize my original comment may have unintentionally encouraged that, so thank you for pointing it out.
In my case, I’m a bit obsessive about labeling, organizing, and keeping an inventory. I like having everything within arm’s reach because I hate wasting time searching.
That said, I might also one day change that habit and I fully recognize it’s not practical (or healthy) for everyone. I agree that space, time, and mental load are real constraints. I’ll be more mindful about how I frame these things moving forward. Appreciate your comment.