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Hmmmmm, and no one has asked about my flash light baton comment.
For those places, trips where I can't carry a gun, then there are contingency measures.
You sound like my female twin when it comes to flashlights. I have multiples (of various types; camping lantern to emergency flashing to traditional and mini) in my vehicle and in residence, and have those small hand size LED flashlights that take 3 AAA batteries in all my outer ware except a few. They are very utilitarian and should an emergency occur I consider them as a fist assist weapon to grip (an homage to James Garner's Rockford character -he kept a roll of coins in his car). Don't have the baton type.
A tip for your flashlight inventory check. I always change the batteries seasonally, so its much like the fire prevention battery rule of change for smoke alarms when daylight savings occurs. It is the battery inventory that is important. Walgreens consistently has sales two for one throughout the year on their "Energizer' made Walgreens branded ones. Its a good way to refresh/ replenish inventory.
Having multiples of flashlights is not clutter IMO unless you have more than a few dozen. As mentioned they are utility item that can serve dual purposes. My family always got a kick out of my eagerness for power outages as a child.
I wouldn't consider them clutter unless you kept them all in one place. They are a great item to have distributed throughout your belongings as you never know when they can come into use. I've used mine on tours in buildings, in elevator when power went out, and many other odd situations that have come up over the years.
Hmmmmm, and no one has asked about my flash light baton comment.
For those places, trips where I can't carry a gun, then there are contingency measures.
Again, our "theortetical minimalist" would have one or two flashlights, tops. Since he only has one, he's going to buy a good one. Historically, that meant the ubiquitous mag-lite. I know there are other choices now.
I try and avoid spending money on flashlights. Because they invariably end up dropped somewhere inaccessible. I don't want to have to try and take off my coat and hat in a swamp and find the flashlight under water. But I am not a minimalist (see earlier comments about hobbies incongruous with minimalism: duck hunting, fishing, etc...)
That's interesting. Power goes out in my area when it is storming. There's not a lot of moonlight available when there is a thick cloud cover and the rain is coming down in buckets.
Since this is the frugal forum, I don't buy disposible batteries. I use rechargeable. For "flashlights" , I have a couple of good rechargeable lanterns that are always charged and ready to use. I use rechargeable batteries for everything except the smoke detectors. There are an awful lot of things in my house that use batteries, the tv clicker, my alarm clock, the irrigation control, the thermostat for the furnace and on and on. All those items are running on rechargeable batteries.
My plan at the “foreverhome” is to have a natural gas house generator installed. Power goes out, my backup power comes on.
My plan at the “foreverhome” is to have a natural gas house generator installed. Power goes out, my backup power comes on.
Lived with one for six years in rural CT. When we bought the house, the neighbors who came over laughed, "Oh, yeah, the doctor installed that about five years ago, I think it's run for fifteen minutes."
One ten-day outage that winter, with all the rough-tough quad-ridin' outdoorsy accountants and actuaries living in their freezing houses while Mom and the kids got bundled off to Grandma's, while the newcomers from California lived pretty much normally, meant that by the second week-long outage nearly everyone had a portable, and by the next one half the houses had a fixed unit.
Lived with one for six years in rural CT. When we bought the house, the neighbors who came over laughed, "Oh, yeah, the doctor installed that about five years ago, I think it's run for fifteen minutes."
One ten-day outage that winter, with all the rough-tough quad-ridin' outdoorsy accountants and actuaries living in their freezing houses while Mom and the kids got bundled off to Grandma's, while the newcomers from California lived pretty much normally, meant that by the second week-long outage nearly everyone had a portable, and by the next one half the houses had a fixed unit.
I think the term 'hoarder' gets thrown around a lot. There is a clinical definition and then there are people who aren't anywhere close to it but their collection of magazines or books gets too large for where they are stored and we can joke about 'hoarding' them. A LOT of people 'hoard' particular things.
In general they can be organized and not have too much random stuff, but their collection of whatever is too precious to part with any of.
Books used to be really hard for me to part with but at the same time I was buying SO MANY. There was literally nowhere to put them. I had to decide with each one will I read it again? This is before the internet, so a lot of non-fiction fit into that category. Books were needed for reference.
The majority of novels? No, I wouldn't read them again so off they went to donation.
OP, you do fall into the hoarding category since you can't part with useless things. If it's cheaper to replace a whole thing than just the battery, the old one with the dead battery is now trash or donation. Full stop.
That doesn't mean (to me) that you have a mental illness or anything, IJS that is hoarding behavior. And IF you want to address it, you'd need to find out the steps to do that relating to specifically why you do it, which is different for everyone.
I think the term 'hoarder' gets thrown around a lot. There is a clinical definition and then there are people who aren't anywhere close to it but their collection of magazines or books gets too large for where they are stored and we can joke about 'hoarding' them. A LOT of people 'hoard' particular things.
In general they can be organized and not have too much random stuff, but their collection of whatever is too precious to part with any of.
Books used to be really hard for me to part with but at the same time I was buying SO MANY. There was literally nowhere to put them. I had to decide with each one will I read it again? This is before the internet, so a lot of non-fiction fit into that category. Books were needed for reference.
The majority of novels? No, I wouldn't read them again so off they went to donation.
OP, you do fall into the hoarding category since you can't part with useless things. If it's cheaper to replace a whole thing than just the battery, the old one with the dead battery is now trash or donation. Full stop.
That doesn't mean (to me) that you have a mental illness or anything, IJS that is hoarding behavior. And IF you want to address it, you'd need to find out the steps to do that relating to specifically why you do it, which is different for everyone.
Actually, I do buy books for reference because much of the data on the Net is opinion and not fact and it takes so long to sift through it find out which is which. At least with books, there is an index that leads directly to what is needed. That someone bothered to publish it leads to its credibility.
Learned that lesson one night, the last night, with a take home final and I thought I could find the answer on the Net. HA! Further, when I was working on a project that referenced a major historical incident, the Israeli Raid an Entebbe, at the time, all I could find were little foot notes here and there on the Net. Now, I have have 3-4 books on the subject.
Our so great Net isn't so great. More later perhaps, got to run.
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Solly says — Be nice!
