Skip to Content
Opinion

Let’s Talk About Accumulating Stuff—and Getting Rid of It—in This Friday’s Open Thread

It's time once again for you to talk about whatever you want here on Racket.

Photo by Ashim D’Silva on Unsplash

Stuff! When you don't have it, you want it. And when you have it, you don't know where to put it. And when you want it gone, no one wants to take it.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I moved recently within Minneapolis from Corcoran to Kingfield. All went well. It was a fairly unstressful experience as moves go, and I love the new place. But after living for 11 years somewhere that, quite frankly, was too much space for one person, and in moving to a more appropriately Keith-sized home I had to come to terms with how much I'd tucked away in the old spot's many out of the way nooks.

Old furniture and other big, useful items like you can always find a taker for. (Though the members of buy-nothing groups are way more demanding than people who are not spending any money have a right to be.) And for old TVs and electronics, this place is terrific. Fun to browse, too, even if you're not a geek, especially if you're on the hunt for old stereo equipment.

But then there are the boxes and boxes of books and CDs. I was writing about music back when you'd get a stack of CDs in the mail each week, and though I'd sell off batches of them regularly (a nice little side hustle) I also kept plenty for research purposes. I don't want to sell them all (physical media has its uses) but the ones I do want to offload are essentially worthless.

As for books, I lived, mostly unhappily, in New York from 2006-2009, and my preferred form of retail therapy was dropping $20 at The Strand or some other used bookstore a few times a week and coming home with three or four books I'd never read.

OK, thanks for listening to me whine for a bit. Now let's talk about stuff. What do you have that you should jettison? What's holding you back, if anything? What have you gotten rid of that you wish you'd held on to?

Of course, feel free to skip this prompt and talk about anything you want. This is your open thread, after all.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Racket

‘Challenging Optics’: MPD Worked With Homeland Security Just Before Operation Metro Surge

Plus Aimee Bock's dirty tricks, a gubernatorial shout out to a good guy, and cougar kittens in today's Flyover news roundup.

Asher’s and Izakaya Kazama Open, 801 is 86’d, Bye-Bye Beast Barbecue, and More April Restaurant News

Plus Black Duck rebrands and a fun tenant takes over Theo Wirth's Trailhead Cafe in this month's Racket Restaurant Roundup.

April 30, 2026

Weed Weviews: 3 Things I Tried in April

Three very different drinks from three very different companies.

From Indigenous Beading to Appalachian Clogging, the Center for People and Craft Is Modernizing the 19th Century Folk-School Model

Rooted in the folk-school tradition, the newly launched center also aims for diversity and antifascism.

April 30, 2026

MN Ice Abduction Memorials, Mapped

Plus construction workers finally get paid for 2019 labor, RIP guitarist Michael Yonkers, and ICE killer gets new ICE job in today's Flyover news roundup.

See all posts