Decluttering and the Total Cost of Ownership

How to think about how much your objects cost

Most people don’t think about “total cost of ownership” every time they do a 5 minute pickup, but according to me, more people should!

For example, four kids in, I am on my second rainbow stacking baby toy. (The first one eventually broke, I think.) I love this toy! The way it looks, the way it feels, the way I’m still not quite bored of helping to stack it over and over again to entertain a baby.

It cost me $25 plus tax on Amazon, which isn’t cheap, but it’s also nowhere near the total cost of ownership of this item. Or should I say 9 items? Because each one of the discs, the ball at the top, and the stick they go on has to be cleaned up separately!

The total cost of ownership is more like:

• the purchase price ($25)

• the cost of the time it takes for me to take it out of its Amazon box and throw the packaging into the trash and recycling

• the cost of every single time I’ve cleaned it up

• the cost of the floor being a little harder to walk even time I haven’t cleaned it up and someone has walked over it

• the cost of storing it on a shelf during the months I have it in rotation

• the cost of storing it in a bin when I’ve packed it up to save for the next baby

• the cost of moving it from our last house to this house, both packing it up and the extra weight on the moving truck

• the cost of telling my younger dog to leave the ball alone every time I’ve seen him try to play with it

• the subtle cost to my brain being a little more full because I have committed to keep track of this set of nine objects, including remembering to move it in and out of rotation

• the physical and emotional cost of eventually getting the toy out of my home

And while I haven’t tried very hard to calculate that out, when I look at the list, I feel sure that it’s more than $20. One reason I know that is that if someone offered to pay me $20 to keep track of something that was about this much work to deal with in my house but not any fun for my kids to play with for the next 3 years, I’m sure I would say “no thank you”.

And as I said, in this case, it has felt worth it to me to have this particular toy, since my babies and I have enjoyed it. But these days, every time something comes into my home, and every time I walk around my house picking up toys, I’m running up a rough mental tally of whether it’s worth it for me to still keep each object I pick up. And many, many toys, even ones that my kids really do play with, don’t make the cut. Especially toys with lots of pieces that are only fun to play with when they are all together.

Because, while they may be a little fun, they aren’t fun enough to overcome their high total cost of ownership.