This to me sounds like a challenge, as American Consumerism may have completely stamped whatever word this was out of my language. Is there a word (that people know...) for knowing exactly when to get something and knowing when to get rid of something?
A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
— Saint-Exupéry
The reason that I ask, is I'd like to research more on the topic, and I don't know what to search for.
I would say frugality.
If you are a frugal, you don't waste anything that would be useful. Because you know that if you throw away something, you throw away money. But you exactly know when to throw away things, considering donating or giving away first.
It has a positive sense and differs from cheapness and hoarding.
Frugality is the quality of being frugal, sparing, thrifty, prudent or economical in the consumption of consumable resources such as food, time or money, and avoiding waste, lavishness or extravagance.
In behavioural science, frugality has been defined as the tendency to acquire goods and services in a restrained manner, and resourceful use of already owned economic goods and services, to achieve a longer term goal.
