Ownership Cost

Ownership cost is everything an object keeps costing after it is paid for: the space it occupies, the cleaning and setup it needs, the attention it draws, the storage it ends up requiring, and the decision about how it will eventually leave, which you will face whether or not you planned for it. The purchase price is the smallest of these costs. Counting an object’s cost this way changes what you keep. The question to ask about each object is what it still costs now, and the question of what you paid stops mattering. Three questions settle most cases: how often it is actually used, what it occupies while it waits, and whether you would buy it again today.

After the purchase, an object keeps costing space, maintenance, cleaning, attention, storage, setup work, and future decisions.

Core takeaways

• An object keeps costing after purchase in seven ways: space, money, time, attention, memory, decisions, and exit. The purchase price is the smallest part.
• Three questions settle most cases: how often the object is actually used, what it occupies while it waits, and whether you would buy it again today.
• Review high-cost objects first: furniture, appliances, storage units, rarely used equipment, duplicated tools, awkward clothing categories, and subscriptions.
• Money already spent does not come back when you keep the object. Keeping it only continues the recurring costs.
• Each object with an unmade decision attached is an open loop that takes time later. Closing those loops lowers the decision load.
• An object is worth keeping when its function, meaning, or beauty is worth more than its total recurring cost.

The seven costs

When an object comes into a home, it takes up space, needs maintenance, draws attention, creates decisions, and eventually has to be removed.

Cost	The question
Space	How much room does it occupy?
Money	What recurring expense does it create?
Time	What setup, cleaning, repair, and management does it take?
Attention	Does it keep taking your attention?
Memory	Does it have to be remembered: where it is, how it works, what to do with it?
Decision	Does it keep creating choices?
Exit	How hard is it to remove later?

Memory is a separate cost from attention. Attention is the pull the object has on your notice. Memory is the record you have to keep about the object: its location, how it works, and its next action. A subscription costs money every month and creates a decision every time you postpone cancelling it.

Which objects to review first

Review high-cost objects first, because removing them changes the room and the way you live faster than removing small objects does. Product Reduction describes the review that goes through objects in that order. Removing a large object often frees more than removing a small one. The large objects are furniture, appliances, storage units, rarely used equipment, duplicated tools, awkward clothing categories, and subscription-based objects or services. A review that looks only at furniture misses storage units and subscriptions.

Money already spent

A purchase that was a mistake has already been paid for. Keeping the object does not bring that money back. Keeping it only continues the recurring costs. The steps are to admit the purchase was a mistake, remove the object, and change the rule you buy by. Exit Strategy For Objects holds the nine exits, the sell-versus-give rule, and discard as a clean exit.

Open loops

Each object can become a small unfinished decision: sell it later, fix it later, organize it later, use it someday, or feel guilty about it. An open loop is a decision about an object that has not been made and that will take time again later. Decision Making gets easier when those repeated decisions about objects are gone. Closing the loops is what lowers the decision load.

The five review questions

Ask five questions about each object:

• What function does it serve?
• How often is it used?
• What does it cost in space, time, attention, and maintenance?
• Would it be bought again today?
• What is the cleanest exit?

“Would it be bought again today” is the plain form of the test for money already spent.

An object is worth keeping when its function, meaning, or beauty is worth more than its total recurring cost. Counting meaning and beauty keeps the review from removing every object that has no practical use. The money is gone either way. Two more costs, mobility and replacement complexity, are covered on Minimalism as Systems Design, together with volume-not-count and reserve capacity.

How to practice this

1. Pick one object. Ask what function it serves and how often it is actually used. Notice if the use is rare.
2. List what the object costs in space, time, attention, and maintenance. Compare that total with the purchase price. Notice which is larger.
3. Ask whether you would buy the object again today. If the answer is no, the money is already gone. Keeping the object only continues its recurring costs.
4. Ask what the cleanest exit is. Notice whether “sell later” or “fix later” has been an unmade decision for this object.
5. Start the review with the largest objects: furniture, appliances, storage units, and subscriptions. Notice how much the room and the way you live change when one of these goes.
6. Before removing an object, check whether its function, meaning, or beauty is worth more than its recurring cost. Notice when meaning or beauty alone is the reason to keep it.

Related pages

• Decision Making: recurring decisions about objects are open loops. Closing the loop lowers the decision load; that page holds the same claim.
• Minimalism as Systems Design: parent hub. Covers volume-not-count, reserve capacity, and two further costs, mobility and replacement complexity.
• Product Reduction: high-cost-first reduction. That page runs the pass that examines high-cost objects first.
• Exit Strategy For Objects: the exit cost in practice. Nine options, sell-versus-give, and discard as a clean exit.
• The Energize Test: a feeling check on whether the object still belongs. Pointer only.

Sources

• Simon, H. A. (1971). Designing organizations for an information-rich world. Attention as a scarce input after the price is paid.
• Arkes & Blumer (1985). The psychology of sunk cost. Keeping does not recover the money; it only keeps the recurring cost.
• Sasaki, F. Goodbye, Things. The household form of total cost: possessions keep costing space and upkeep.