related:
ETA: I kind of bad in this regard with pens, markers, etc. I’ve had things dry out because I was saving them for just the right occasion. Or being afraid of using up one color, thereby ruining the whole set.
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Wood. Nice pieces of birdseye maple and such, awaiting that special project while I look through the scrap pile for a chunk of 2x4. See also rope, wire, etc.
Tools. Nice new drill bits languish while I haul out the old set from Canadian Tire.
Clothes. Yes, it makes sense to use crappy old clothes around the house and yard, but do I really need three or four levels of progressively crappier ones?
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OMG, i didn’t even think of that, since I didn’t buy it, but I have a sweet piece of birdseye maple that I’ve had for (counting, counting) holy shit, like 15 years? I’ve moved several times in that span.
that’s just embarrassing.
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Oh yeah. Seen with binoculars.
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I tend to take apart my older too tight clothes and try to make new stuff. My regular clothes are always too beat up to donate if they get too small. And my really fancy stuff like corsets I tend to hang onto just in case, although I do actually have a couple of Orchard corsets I’ve just been too lazy to eBay. I don’t like the style of those enough to keep.
I’m more likely to pass on my nice stuff to a friend. I finally gave away a really fantastic Illig dress I still couldn’t fit back in during the worst part of my Graves’ disease, and my baseline weight is going to always be higher now that I’ve gone though radio iodine treatment. I still have the way too tiny black prom dress I got for $13 at goodwill in high school. I keep insisting it’s for a future skeleton tea party photo shoot.
I’ve got a really nice Tripp jacket I should also find someone to take, it’s not really very resellable because of some paint stains. I wore it constantly for years and it’s in great shape otherwise.
My tastes have not changed much from the 90’s (I’ve added a bit but not really subtracted stuff I like) so I hate having to redo my wardrobe for weight change, although I have been having to replace a lot between thyroid treatment and lockdown.
I don’t tend to “save” nice clothes for an occasion but sometimes I do get a costume piece before I have a particular occasion or outfit in mind so it takes me a while to find something to wear it with. I did get a rat skull crown for my birthday at the beginning of lockdown I probably won’t wear until clubbing is safe again.
Saving the last one forever of some nice thing like stationary or stickers, that can be an issue.
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Same here, re tastes not really changing.
My problem is essentially having three sets of clothes. Pre:covid, I presented at conferences a lot for work, so had this whole “business-y” wardrobe that I’d pretty much save for that kind of thing. At home, I’m pretty casual, so had a “clean, go to the pub” wardrobe. But I also do a lot of gardening and DIY, so there’s the “beater” wardrobe.
Those conference clothes are mainly the ones I’ll be donating, mostly pristine condition. Hopefully they’ll be a real find for someone!
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Hmm…seems like a related but slightly different issue from deciding whether or not to get rid of an item you never use, because in some hypothetical future it will let you do cool things. Each time I look at an item I never wound up using there is a sunk costs fallacy whirring in my mind that getting rid of it will invoke opportunity costs, and there’s an infomercial in my head telling me how the unused thing will make my life better, more creative, healthier and more productive if I keep it and use it in future. :-/
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I can relate. My house is an untidy temple to “aura” purchases.
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Hey, in a different timeline, I’m TOTALLY using that item! Who knows if this timeline will diverge back into it?!
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For me getting new stuff is a real pain because I have a large collection of going out clothes and costume stuff I’ve slowly built over time and hate parting with.
I also have the everyday favorites that are both comfortable and spooky cute, that I wear to pieces. My favorites are usually hard to replace.
I’m one of those goths that never settled into just one look, all my stuff is dark but ranges all over the place in that theme.
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For me it’s steel. I have fancy Japanese blue-paper steel, stainless clad high carbon core steels, ATS-34 and S30-V by the pound, and entire shelves of steels I no longer can even identify, the markings I put on them 10, 15, 20 years ago long since faded to obscurity. Is this the Admiral Steel 440C that I bought in 2001, or the 154CM I bought from Crucible in 2005? Is that bar O1, D2, or re-rolled OCS? At least I know I’m not alone, just about every knifemaker I know has racks, piles, and in at least one case a burnt-down warehouse filled with unidentified steels and bits of scrap held onto in case they’re needed for a small project.
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This! I’m the same, and so is my SIL. When my sibling asks her why she hasn’t been wearing some-or-other new piece of clothing (especially if it was a gift from my sibling), her reply is that it’s “mellowing”.
I think, for me, wearing brand-new clothes always feels too much “Look at me!” for me. Also, I have super-sensitive skin, and anything new needs to be washed (with fragrance-free, allergen-free detergent) before wearing, which makes it not-really-new-anymore (reminds me of how people say as soon as you drive a new car off the lot it drops a bunch in value). So, for me, I’m more comfortable both physically and psychologically when my clothes aren’t exactly new-new.
In contrast, my dad, who grew up poor in the Great Depression—and told stories of going off to college with one suit, which had been his father’s and had been completely taken apart, cut down, and remade to his size by his mother—relished wearing something when it was brand new. I can still remember him taking a new shirt out of the package, removing the cardboard stays and straight pins, and proudly wearing it with the sharp creases still in it. The rest of us thought he should at least iron it to look more presentable (in our opinion), but it was a special pleasure for him to be able to wear something absolutely-brand-new-out-of-the-package, creases and all.
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Also: things in video games like clubs, potatoes and generic potions. Pick them ALL up. NEVER use them.
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Oh man this. This I am soooo guilty of doing. I hoard in games to an astounding degree. If I have limited pocket space in a game I will also spend too much time picking up an putting down items to maximize sale value even if I have more than enough money already.
And I always save the real good stuff for a mythical “really hard fight” that never happens.
In games I seem so much more greedy and compulsive than I am in real life.
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This reminds me of a thing I used to do that I call display hypnosis. The hypnotic image of a consumer product in a carefully designed setting would lead me to buy something that didn’t belong in the setting of my actual life. I’ve learned to imagine that shirt with all my beat-up pants and shoes, or that vase in my small, somewhat scruffy apartment before I decide whether to buy it.
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First album title, Cognitive Dissonance.
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I have an Eternal Love* Belle Dame black (of course!) Victorian ballgown that hasn’t fit in, um, more than 10 years.
Damn, that’s depressing.
I haven’t given it away for Aspirational Fit reasons, esp since it’s super adjustable, and worked for years - with and even w/o a corset - as I gained and lost weight. It’s still in great shape, esp for a dress born in the late 90s or thereabouts.
I’ve also kept it around b/c mom paid just $40 for it, new w/tags on ebay, which was one of the best deals evAr. They were normally around $120 at the time; currently near $140.
Mom took one look at it, and said, “Wow!” She looked at the price, and I told her what they usually cost. She said nothing, gobsmacked. Then I told her it has pockets, and she said, "OMG! Buy it! Buy it now!"
The pockets are big, too! They comfortably house my wallet, a pack of cigs, lighter, Victorian cigarette case w/joints in, hemostats…and my hands.
It’s so great it’s referred to simply as The Dress. 
My BF doesn’t find damn near $140 ridiculous for such a great dress, so I’m hoping there’s a future replacement. One that fits round my protuberances will probably drag on the ground, so I’ll need some new POUS (Platforms Of Useful Size), too. ; )
I’ve been giving a very small friend a lot of mom’s nightgowns and some of my stuff from our skinnier days, too. I also look forward to the eventual return of The Dally in the Alley, a long-running local end-of-Summer festival. My best friend has a really cool punk clothes/oddities booth, and she’ll help me sell off our old stuff.
*Actual Eternal Love, not ed hard(L)y
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Mine has a room that is a temple to gifts that fall into that category ('cause I’m not gonna buy things that don’t get used). Some wind up being donated, depending on the likelihood that the giver will notice that it’s not on display or ask me detailed questions about how much I enjoy using/wearing it. 
ETA:
I have hoarded save points in games with varying amounts/combinations of stuff in my pockets to avoid the issue of pocket space. But that’s virtual hoarding so it doesn’t really count, right? 
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Hoarding in the Borderlands games is my current virtual vice.
The fact that they give you a place to save like 400 items you’ve picked up doesn’t help limit the tendencies
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