We all love Free, don’t we? Free food, free internet, free stuff – it always gets people’s attention and gets us excited. But, do you think there could be too much free? I am convinced there could be!

Today I spent most of my day emptying my closet and throwing out all things that I thought were not value-adding to my life. Among the usual school notes, receipts, and random paper junk, I ended up throwing pens, boxes, highlighters, stickers, screws, mints, labels … and a load of various promotional materials that were accumulated throughout the year. Bags filled with junk left my room never to return again. I should be satisfied right now, but not quite, and this makes me realize the downside of Free.

Free stuff is only good when it’s useful, but unfortunately my minds make me want free more than I should (read Dan Ariely’s “The Upside of Irrationality” if you don’t believe me). Falling into the trap of the price of zero, I accumulate all this stuff that was never wanted, if not for the free price that I paid for it. This is ridiculous, and yet it works!

I am sure everyone can find something in their room/house that doesn’t belong there, that needs to be thrown out, and yet not be able to toss it away. I know I, for example, have a stack of t-shirts in the closet that were given to me by UofT for volunteering my time. The shirts aren’t too bad, but they aren’t my first choice of clothing. Unfortunately, because I know that each shirt has an absolute dollar value, I cannot just throw the pile away, as those are perfectly normal shirts! As a result, I am somewhat forced (by my mind) to keep and to occasionally wear something that doesn’t give me the pleasure that some other pieces of clothing might.

This is a funny concept because if I were completely rational, then I would have acted as follows:

Since the shirts did not cost anything to purchase (but my time and effort, which I value at $100/hour minimum), then their value is $0 and therefore I would be loosing nothing by throwing them away.

However, because I am human, I get emotionally attached to these shirts for the “experience” value that they posses, and although I don’t like wearing them, I keep them around. It just doesn’t feel right to throw away something that came to me so easily and yet has both emotional and a monetary value, all at a cost of free.

I know I am not alone in behaving irrationally and that everyone has something they can’t throw away. What’s your story?