david:

I just wanted to give credit for “Liquidity is the new luxury” to Tim Shey, a much more articulate person than me! He mentioned it at dinner last week when I described how much better it feels to spend money on food or travel than on things that clutter and distract from the wonderful people in my life.

And to give proper credit, I was simply paraphrasing Sam Lessin, who’d been talking about his interesting idea at FOO Camp, that no one should own anything anymore, and that everyone who can afford to will rent things as much as possible. I don’t remember saying it as elegantly as “liquidity is the new luxury” — David may have actually put that together on his own — but we did have a pretty interesting discussion about what to own, and what to keep.

I spent enough years not being able to afford stuff that I then spent many years accumulating stuff, and part of living in a small space in a big city means coming to terms with all of that - how much you need to own, where to keep it, when to give it away. I loved Rick Webb’s response, for instance, in defense of having stuff; I love my friend Micki’s startup, Neighborgoods, as a novel solution; and I also loved Bruce Sterling’s final note on the Viridian Design blog a couple years back, which is a long, rambling thing, but includes a great section on what you should own, and what you shouldn’t. Excerpting a bit here:

It’s not bad to own fine things that you like. What you need are things that you GENUINELY like. Things that you cherish, that enhance your existence in the world. The rest is dross.

Do not “economize.” Please. That is not the point. The economy is clearly insane. Even its champions are terrified by it now. It’s melting the North Pole. So “economization” is not your friend. Cheapness can be value-less. Voluntary simplicity is, furthermore, boring. Less can become too much work.

The items that you use incessantly, the items you employ every day, the normal, boring goods that don’t seem luxurious or romantic: these are the critical ones. They are truly central. The everyday object is the monarch of all objects. It’s in your time most, it’s in your space most. It is “where it is at,” and it is “what is going on.”

It goes on for a while, then he breaks it down: 

Now to confront the possessions you already have. This will require serious design work, and this will be painful. It is a good idea to get a friend or several friends to help you.

You will need to divide your current possessions into four major categories.

1. Beautiful things.
2. Emotionally important things.
3. Tools, devices, and appliances that efficiently perform a useful function.
4. Everything else.

There’s much, much more — you may want to add this one to Instapaper.  

[Sterling’s full post]