Drowning in Stuff - Never Again

[NoFixedAbode]

In order to change from living in a house to living mobile (car plus caravan), I had to get rid of LOADS of stuff. It involved a huge effort of time, concentration, heartache and decisions had to be made for every single thing I possessed, right down to the paper-clip level (I'm not joking). Weight is critical when you're going mobile.

And the sad fact is that your precious stuff is worth next to nothing to someone else, no matter how much you treasure it (fine art, etc., excepted). It broke my heart to sell my huge Mission 770 speakers for next to nothing. It makes you wonder if it's even worth insuring your stuff. A lot of things I'd hoped to sell just ended up at the charity shop or in the bin.

Now it's done I have a strict "one in, one out" policy so when I bought new sandals a pair had to go in the (clothes recycling) bin. But it's a great feeling to know that everything I possess has had to pass one or two "Do I really, really need this?" tests.

The only things I threw out/left behind that I had to buy again were some "unknown" keys (for my bike roofrack) and a plumber's mate thing to keep the drains running smoothly :) No regrets over anything else (except maybe the speakers...)

But I highly recommend doing it, if you can somehow summon up the willpower. Or get the people from "The Life Laundry" on TV!. It's definitely liberating and frees the mind from looking at and dealing with clutter.

[Sven]

Well done!

By the way, shouldn't this kind of stuff be in a blog somewhere, so you may make some money on add's?

[kamakiri]

I went through the same process earlier this year, and after throwing away boat loads of stuff, giving away more, and selling 50 books for $15 (I lost money bringing them to the book shop if you calculate gas and time spent), I finally realized that I still have too much stuff. Nothing in 2 out is working for me though.

I really felt bad about throwing away some of my clothes though. The first suit I paid $5,000 for 20 years ago, t-shirts with memories, and such.
Keep it up, and I am sure you will feel better without the clutter in your life.

(and sven - blog income? rofl. It is a serious job to make a blog profitable, or even get any income at all from one. I have made a grand total of 1 cent off mine: rsinvestor.blogspot.com).

[Sven]

That is, ehr, not much... But blogspot takes a bitt too, doesn't it? I made usd 2.5 since starting adsense 3 weeks ago. But that does not cover the hosting...
Indeed, it is a job to attract enough readers. That is why I am aiming at attracting more writers to do the writing for me, i've set up multi-user sites in niche areas.

[final_id]

Any hints on the quick way to get rid of things? I'm not so bad off -- I have one storage-facility's worth of stuff, at 10feetx10feetx10feet. (And that's my total possessions. Not the storage-facility PLUS my home. Just the facility's worth. I know this because I've moved recently so I had to truck it across the state in a cube van.) Really a lot less than that, since the 10x10x10 space is only about half full. But I still want to be at that "zero" zone. I would really treasure having just enough stuff that it would fit into boxes and suitcases that, essentially, could all be crammed into the back of a PT Cruiser sized vehicle. And that would be it.

So, what are the steps to elimination? Just giving it away? Or is there some point at which you sell, or decide to trash, or what?

And then, there's my parents. I'm an only child. I have all their crap, and I have to look at it all as "some day, when you die, I will lose ten years of my life trying to dig through all the BS material possessions which you've loaded on to me against my will."

[Caesar_X]

Final_id, call the charitable centers in your area. We have several literally down the street from us, and we are always surprised all of the crap of ours that they take off our hands!

It has gotten our stuff down to a manageable level, and it saves me a lot of time rather than trucking books or cds down to the used dealers who pay pennies on the dollar for them anyway. Not to mention wasting my time on eBay with them. My time is worth something:)

And you will feel a lot better when you get rid of a lot of things. My wife and I have a new rules about clothing. If you haven't worn it for 12 months, are you really ever going to wear it again?