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Reading the list, however, I get the feeling he likes to optimize for the sake of optimization. If you factor in the rate of use, few items on his list are actually worth duplicating. Flashlights scattered around for power outages? Come on! Unless the outages come weekly, it's probably just a premature optimization. Or unless you're particularly accident-prone, you might get by with fewer first-aid kits and fewer towels and wipes.

However, laptop adapters I understand. They're a pain here, too, and laptops travel many times a day. And this thinking of his is good, in general. But mostly, he certainly goes off my scale in my world where the mere cost of keeping is pretty high. I generally don't want anything unless I really, really need it and much less I want two or more copies of it! I'm quite sure that as soon as you have two or three copies of nearly anything you need more often than once a year, you'll will the same.

Instead of duplication, I often opt for keeping things in their places. For example, I don't need wrenches and screwdrivers every week but I certainly do few times a month. Thus, I don't mind walking to another room to pick one from my toolbox as long as I know they're in my toolbox and I don't have to search for what I want. Searching cost is often greater than the cost of fetching.

And accumulating the copies costs too, really. They cost in terms of taking space and in needing both physical and mental upkeep: mind them while cleaning, mind if one of your numerous stashes is running out of consumables. And the burden of ownership, and the burden of eventually requiring more space because you have copies of too many things. These cut down productivity, at least they would cut mine.

YMWV, of course.



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