RSS Feeds
Facebook
GRS Twitter
It seems like every time I travel, I come home committed to win my war on Stuff. This time was no different. I lived out of a single carry-on bag while vacationing in Belize last week, and even that felt luxurious. Now I’ve returned to a house packed with doodads and gewgaws, knick-knacks and baubles.
The more I purge Stuff from my life, the more I travel, and the more I see (and read) about how little others need to get by, the stronger my conviction to reduce what I own, as well. I’m in awe of my friend Leo from Zen Habits, for instance. At his secondary blog, mnmlist, Leo has been chronicling his attempt to reduce the number of thing he owns. At first, this was his 100 Things Challenge (he wanted to own just 100 personal items). Recently, he’s upped the ante. It’s now a 50 Things Challenge. Wow.
I’m not ready to go to this extreme — not even close. But I am beginning to wonder: How many t-shirts does one man need? How many jackets? How many books? And how in the heck did I end up with more than ten pairs of shoes? Ridiculous! How much Stuff does one man really need?
Small steps
Over the past three years, I’ve made great strides in ridding my life of Stuff. I’ve sold or given away thousands of books (yes, thousands). I’ve purged a garage full of computer parts. I’ve managed to turn off the rationalization switch in my brain and learned to simply donate my Stuff to charity instead of saving it for “someday”. And about a year ago, I started my slow-motion clothes purge.
Based on a Get Rich Slowly reader suggestion, I moved all of my sweaters and button-down shirts to an unused closet. For the past several months, I’ve gradually pulled one shirt and then another into my regular closet as I actually wear them. Unworn shirts and sweaters stay in their temporary holding space. At the end of this process (which should be in June), all of the shirts I’ve worn in the past year will be in one closet, and the Stuff I don’t wear will be purged.
Do you know how many different shirts I’ve worn over the past nine months? I just went upstairs to count. My “good” closet contains 17 button-down shirts and three sweaters. My closet of unused clothes contains 30 shirts (two of which haven’t even been taken out of their packaging) and 11 sweaters.
Sometimes I think I’m the village idiot. I don’t even wear two-thirds of my wardrobe? It’s like I’m just throwing my money away. But rather than beat myself up over this, I can use the info going forward.
For example, Kris and I made a trip to REI before leaving for Belize. I fell in love with one shirt, but I almost didn’t buy it after looking at the price tag. $40? For a shirt? Get real! I rarely spend more than $20. But then I realized: If I really love the shirt and it’ll live in my “good” closet, then spending $40 is much better than buying two cheap shirts I never wear. I bought the REI shirt in two colors (rust and aqua), and I’m glad I did. (But maybe I should get rid of two other shirts from my “good” closet to make up for this.)
I’ve begun to realize it’ll take a few more years to finally get rid of the worst of my Stuff. It took me two decades to acquire these things; it’ll take a bit of time to unload it. But how will I know when I’m finished? How much Stuff does one man need?
The magic of thinking small
It was interesting to see how small the average homes were in Belize and Guatemala. In the U.S., the average new home was 2349 square feet in 2004 (up from 1695 square feet in 1974). In Central America, homes seemed to be maybe 600 or 700 square feet (here’s a typical example).
Seeing these small homes made we think: What would I choose to own if my space were limited? Could I really rationalize my comic book collection? Forty-seven button-down shirts and fourteen sweaters? Two bicycles? My burgeoning pile of shoes? Which Stuff is worth owning, and which is not? And if it’s not worth owning in a small home, why is it worth owning in a large home?
I don’t know the answer to these questions; I’ll continue to puzzle them out.
This weekend, one of our neighbors held a yard sale. Kris and I went across the street to chat. “Wow,” Kris said. “It looks like you’re selling everything.” She scooped up the neighbor’s canning jars.
“In a way, I am,” our neighbor said. “I’m moving into a smaller place, and I have a couple of weeks before I have to be out of this one. I’ve already moved everything I want to keep, and I’m selling everything else.”
“That’s awesome,” I said. “I wish I could do that.”
But who says I can’t? Why can’t I pretend that I’m moving into a smaller place? If I did, what would I keep? What is it I really value? How much Stuff does one man really need?
This article is about Consumerism, Odds and Ends Tuesday, 2nd March 2010 (by J.D. Roth)
Wow - great post, and just when I need it too. I’ve been tempted to do a MAJOR purge with no looking back. You’re giving me courage!
there are many things about GRS to love - but what i love most is the holistic perspective. my mom is a pack rack, so i have that latent trait. i try to remain disciplined and every now and again i look at my ’stuff’ and figure out if it’s still useful. there have been plenty a times when DH and i took two large garbage bags to the Salvation Army. i’m a book lover as well, i packed up several book crates and donated them to a small suburban library - giving is an act of kindness hoarding is at the other end of the spectrum
Hi J.D.! So glad to see you post this, as it’s exactly what I blog about every day:
http://www.missminimalist.com/
Great idea to pretend you’re moving into a smaller place. Better yet, make it an overseas move–that way, you’re really forced to pare down to the essentials.
My husband and I did just that (for real) last summer. We moved from a 3BR house in the US to a small flat in the UK. We sold almost everything we owned, and brought with us only one duffel bag each. Talk about purging! It was so liberating, and now we’re determined to accumulate nothing more than the bare essentials while living across the pond.
I’ve been exploring in my posts how many shoes one person needs, how many sheets, how many towels, how many pens, how many keys, how many credit cards, how many pieces of furniture, etc–you name it! I hope you’ll stop by and join the discussions.
I’ve been on a major purging spree lately. I’ve even “earned” around $500 doing so.
It just feels so good getting rid of stuff you don’t need. It also makes you think real hard before purchasing something new.
This is a great reminder. I liked your statement that people in Belize..are “not choosing small homes because they think it’s virtuous.” I drive a 93 Honda accord it’s been in perfect condition since i got it. Do i like driving a 17 year old car? Heck no! i want one of those tech loaded cars, i also want a Honda bike… but at the moment i cannot afford it. What if i was able to afford? That is where judgment calls comes in.
My wife and i started cleaning out anything that we have not used or worn in two years. I was surprised how much stuff wee accumulate in a year.
Guess what JD? Your $40 REI shirts are going to be with you for a long time — they have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. My husband had some trousers whose zipper broke after a year and he returned them and got a replacement pair no questions asked. http://www.rei.com/help/returns.html
A side benefit of divorce.. it’s an excellent way to purge stuff too. I went from a 2400 sq. ft. farmhouse, to a two bedroom apartment, to a single room, then back to renting a furnished home. Sad to get rid of things that were sentimental and not all was thrown, but very liberating to unload the unhealthy weight of stuff. I suspect my ex still has her shoe collection. I still cannot part with the 8 banana boxes full of art/museum books, that’s where I had to draw the line.
One of the many benefits of a historic home is limited closet space. So evertime I buy new shoes or new clothes I really have to think about getting rid (either to Goodwill, our neighborhood yard sale or other charity) of old clothes or shoes. Although we plan to add closets to our home at some point in the future, we will never have a lot of closet space and no basements in Florida so we have to be careful about limiting stuff.
Books, I’ve really gotten better at books, I get most of my books from the library these days and I’m better at giving away books that I buy (normally I limit my book buying to book club books). I still have lots of stuff that I could get rid of, but I tend to be sentimental so its hard to part with family things and photos even if I’m not getting any use or joy out of them. My Mom is talking about downsizing so I’m afraid more stuff will be coming my way.
Yes! That. All of it. Yay, you. And I thought I was doing good this last weekend getting four pairs of shoes that I never wear, bagged & ready for the Goodwill. (To be fair, that’s half my number of pairs of shoes.) More! I want to unload more!
*is pumped up*
How much stuff do you really need? I am going to say about ¼ of what many people have. I was out in the shed a few days ago. I had to build the shed because of our junk. I found in the box a brand new well point still in the box that my dad bought in 1964 and he was always going to use it. He never did. I think he paid 30 bucks for it. I was always going to use it. I have come to the conclusion I never will. I asked my kids if they want it. Guess what it is going up for sale at my garage sale as soon as it gets warm with a lot of other useless trash!
I’m a fan of smaller homes and in fact live in a townhouse/semi of less than 1,400 sq ft., but we mustn’t beat ourselves up over the fact that people in other climates may live in much smaller homes. They may be able to comfortably accommodate a great many activities immediately outside the home on their property (and may have more property to boot!)
Sure, in northern climates we can get out and enjoy winter, but we can’t extend sleeping quarters outside, for instance. Unless we had enough snow and the skills needed to build an igloo!
Before putting our house on the market we purged alot of stuff. It was difficult as you think “I may use that some day” but if it’s been packed up in your basement for the last few years it’s time to let go.
I have to say that having less junk sitting around feels better. I’m not terribly clean/organized by nature, but when our house was clean and decluttered I felt a bit more peaceful. I’m trying to stick with it.
Great post!
When I sold my 4BR house to take a job in the US, I did the purge. I was moving into a 1BR apt so considerable stuff had to go. I think I took 7 car loads of clothes & kitchen items to the Sally Anne. While boxing the stuff up, all I was asking myself was “how could one person have so much?” The answer now is what I call the “Occupization of Space” Law or OSL. This involves how much space one has and the unconcious need to have something there to fill the space.
This brings me to Murphy’s Law. Five months after starting the job, I was let go and had to get my butt back to Canada (NAFTA agreement stipulation). Now, what remains of my belongings (after reducing them even further for the move back)are in a 10ft x 10ft storage unit.
The OSL is in equilibrium in that small space, although it is a pain when I need to get something out of it.
It certainly helps to imagine that you are moving into a smaller place! For me, I would aim at owning only what can be carried in a 40l backpack. Or perhaps that plus a cardboard box or two.
Getting rid of books will be the toughest part for me. How did you manage that?
I could really relate to this post… there is pack-rat-itis on one side of my family, which I fought for years. Now I’m going crazy decluttering and purging and boy does it feel good!
I pulled alot of doo-dads from shelves (took most to a consignment shop) and the place looks so much better. Stuff worth more than $10 is going on eBay (and surprising little is worth that much.) I have a book problem as well - the ones I never plan to re-read went to bookscouter.com, paperbackswap.com, and the local used book store that will take anything.
It’s quite liberating to get rid of stuff once you start.
@JD, I sure can identify. What’s more, your circumspect wording allows me to share this post with my friends.
I live in a 1948 house, so there are limits on the amount of stuff I can have–but the house is almost twice as big as the apartment I was in before, and I have got it pretty full. Stuff definitely expands to fill the space available. I’d like to bring in a second person, but that would require pretty major purging on both our parts.
Yes! It’s a constant battle though. I’ve been on 3 week trips living out of a suitcase, six month trips living out of two suitcases - and yet I can’t bear to get rid of a dress that doesn’t fit me and I haven’t worn in years? Craziness.
Less stuff = less cleaning too.
When it comes to clothing, I use the 1 in, 1 out rule. If you are going to buy a piece of clothing, get in the mindset that it’s to replace an existing piece of clothing not to augment your wardrobe.
We started implementing a strategy when purchasing new stuff: we always try to buy the best quality we can possibly afford. This has been very successful so far, as the pile of old stuff gets smaller, we use a very large portion of what we own. This also has the advantage of curbing impulse buying and make you really think before buying. There is no 10 pair of shoes or 20 sweaters, only 2 or 3, but they are gorgeous, and much more durable.
That’s a benefit of living in NYC. No attic space + no closet space + no room = no stuff. Even so, I managed to purge about 3 boxes worth of clothes a few months ago. Go me.
According to the Pareto Principle, we wear 20% of our clothing 80% of the time — which means we could pare down to 1/5 of our current wardrobes, and hardly notice a difference getting dressed in the morning!
Here are some great strategies for paring down:
1. One in, one out. Every time you bring something new into the house, get rid of something similar.
2. One-a-day declutter. Commit to purging one item from your household every day.
3. Count your stuff. When you know you already have 30 shirts or 20 pairs of pants, you’ll be much less likely to purchase another!
Me and my girlfriend recently had to move because our apartment was going to be sold. Carrying box after box of useless crap really got me thinking about getting rid of stuff as well.
So instead of having a moving in-party, we’re going to have a “free stuff-party”, where we invite our friends and they can choose items they want from a big box of items we don’t want or need.
Of course, it would be easier to minimize the amount of stuff if you lived in a warm climate. Living in Finland, temperatures can range anywhere from +40Celcius to -40Celcius, with strong winds and snow up to your knees. In between there are periods of varying weather and temperatures. All this puts certain requirements on your wardrobe that I’m pretty sure people in Belize don’t ever have to worry about.
I started my annual purgefest last week. I found a box of auto parts from a car that I haven’t owned in 16 years. I am going to dig deeper into the recesses of the attic to see what else that I can get rid of. Not only does it remove the burden from my rafters, but from my shoulders as well.
I come from a long line of packrats and reformation is a constant struggle. Thanks for this post, it has given me yet more desire to win the battle.
I can’t help but think of the movie Fight Club while reading this post. Don’t let your possessions own you.
Great article and excellent questions. Seems the answer to the question of how much stuff does this girl need is - enough to fill the house and keep her from feeling lonely in an empty house. *sigh* Not pretty, right? But you’re inspiring me, stuff doesn’t really keep you company anyway, so I’m starting a list right now of things that I can get rid of.
Is there a diminishing rate of return for minimalism? Sometimes I wonder if we’re taking this idea a bit too far.
My favorite time passing besides running is de-cluttering. Just past weekend I packed 2 grocery bags of clothes. Not much? I do it every month, I haven’t bought anything for myself in a year, and I moved across the country 6 months ago in Honda Civic (with a teenager son and a cat, so deivide the space).
My mom is a packrat, and my sister and I, when I come back home, ask dad to distruct her, and we purge from behind the shelves and odd spaces. That’s our bonding time:)
Great article JD! I live in a ~720 square foot condo, as I live in a very high cost of living area. Going home to mom and dad’s is a nightmare for me because they are packrats to the extreme. By necessity, I have very little storage space for any clutter and also like to keep all my surfaces neat!
Clothes and books are my biggest “clutter” items, and I regularly fill a garbage bag of clothes to give to good will. The books, I need to find a way to get rid of them in Canada that doesn’t involve throwing them out.
I’m not sure that I agree with the minimalist aspect of the PF movement. I believe it’s important to consider what you don’t need so that you can save money to buy stuff that you really want. But I don’t consider minimalism by itself to be virtuous but rather an idea that turns the mean (saving money) into an end.
I want lots of stuff and I want a huge home, but I also want to be able to afford those things without going into debt, thus to me it is a necessary evil not to buy everything I desire - not a preferred lifestyle.
This post resonates with me - I feel like we own way too much stuff, so reading the specifics of your purging process helps me visualize what that might look like for us.
Sarah Susanka wrote a book a few years back called the Not So Big House - suggesting that bigger is not always better, and a well-designed small house can work better for many families than yet another McMansion. (think of how efficient a sail boat can be in providing storage for necessary items) Wonderful ideas - and yet it still seems that the prevailing trend still favors McMansions as you move up in housing prices.
My personal goal is to live in a Not So Big House - once we get rid of all the junk.
JD
Finally I was able to beat Leo at one thing. I own less than what he has :-). I have less than 50 things.
Of course it is a different matter altogether that he beats me at million other things. He is a really great man. He changes lots of people’s lives.
I agree with those who say that moving is the best cure for packrattery!(Is that a word?) My husband and I moved 11 times in the first 10 years of our marriage. I was very strategic with whatever I bought. Well, kids come along and they bring a bunch of stuff with them. Then, as they grow, they outgrow clothes, toys, etc… and we purged not terribly long after they outgreww their early childhood items. Over the Christmas break, our family took 2 days and did nothing but purge. Both girls were in charge of their bedroom purging, and we all tackled the basemant family room. We had over 10 trash bags full of trash, and 7-8 for the Goodwill, and retained a couple of small boxes of small toys for the girls to give to the little children they babysit for (thus guaranteeing future babysitting jobs!)and for our geo-caching treasure items. It really feels good to do this, and move items out of our life. Right now, everything we buy must have a really good reason for the purchase, or is consumable (food, TP, shampoo).
I may be moving from a big apartment with my SO (1300sqft or so) to a smaller loft cottage/townhouse (950sqft or so). Lucky for us, 1300 is still waaay too big, but I imagine there are things we’ll have to get rid of.
I don’t know how anyone gets rid of books though. I want to live in a library of my own making, surrounded by them. Maybe with a spiral staircase leading to them. But I guess that’s what’s important to me, and I only keep the ones I’ll reread more than once.
If my problem is books, his problem is technology gadgets, however. Would be interesting to see if I could purge at least some of the books.
We’re moving to a smaller place next month, and are in the midst of this process as well. In reality it’s not all that much smaller (maybe 1000sf instead of 1100) but we always take this time as an excuse to purge.
I hate clutter and knicknacks so it’s always a satisfying experience for me. My husband used to be a pack rat but lately he’s been talking about how good it feels to get rid of “stuff.” We do collect some things (records, books) but I think there’s a difference between that intentional collection and just having crap everywhere.
At my day job I’m a social worker and I spend time helping people get their apartments in order. Often they have poor hygiene and hoarding tendencies. It motivates me all the more to come home to a clean, open, uncluttered living space. It doesn’t hurt that many of my friends are architects with beautiful minimalist apartments
*Edited to add: the stuff we’ve sold this month has paid for our move!
I love this topic. I had a similar rant on my blog about it:
http://quitbeinglazy.com/2009/12/get-your-house-in-order/
One of my all time favorite quotes is: “People don’t own things, things own people”. If you can get past the idea that you have to accumulate “stuff” to compete with the Joneses, you can easily get past the urge to overspend.
Cleanliness in you house is a great companion to budgeting and personal finance.
I agree- we are always downsizing! I am bad about my clothes though- I hold onto them because I think that I am going to wear them! I need to just get rid of them.
My husband and I used to live in a 1400 sq ft condo for 8 years. We purged a lot over the years due to space demands. Now we are in over 2Xs as much space, but we still have the same habits as far as buying and storing. I’m a little more relaxed about what I keep since I have more space. But we still have rules.
One rule is that the garage is for cars. If at any point we can’t put both our cars in our two car garage we’re getting rid of stuff that is cluttering the garage.
Another rule is that each bedroom has sizeable closets. Our bedroom has two (his & hers). If you outgrow your closet you cannot just move stuff to one of the empty closets in another bedroom - you must purge from your own closet. The exception are coats and suits/tuxedos - that are bulky and used only a few times a year.
The $40 shirt is the expensive choice? Wow.
I just moved in to a smaller place this weekend and managed to move everything except for a bookcase in a taxi. I love having plenty of books around me, even if I have read them and probably wont read them again. But it would be so great having the freedom of being able to fit everything in a taxi and just go at any time.
Books or fitting in a taxi… Argghh, tough call…
@Suzanne (#39)
My baseline for clothing prices are what things cost when I was in high school (I graduated in 1987). If something costs more than I would have paid new then, I think it’s expensive. So, t-shirts over twelve bucks? Yikes. Jeans or shirts over $20? Too much. This makes it very difficult to shop anywhere other than thrift stores or Costco. But I’m learning that it’s okay to spend a little more for quality, and for clothes I love.
After having our 2nd child, I just left my job of 7 years to be a stay at home mom. I packed up my desk and had 3 giant boxes of stuff. Since there is a strong likelihood I will return to the same company when the kids are a little older, I was afraid to throw most of my “work stuff” away. But storing 3 big boxes or buying another bookshelf to accommodate this stuff is crazy. I’ll give it another look and try to get it down to one box. After all, if I were a new employee at this company, surely I wouldn’t haul in 3 big boxes my first day!
If you have less stuff for less space, why have that much space? As long as I have not outgrown my space I don’t really care. I purge things to declutter or simplify my space, or so someone else can use what I don’t. But I don’t really see the need to purge for the sake of having fewer things. More space, yeah. Better aesthetics, of course. But the fact is very often I do use something I haven’t touched in a while. That window scraper I haven’t used in four years didn’t take up much space, and it sure came in handy when I got a glass top range. Old shoelaces and socks are great for little impromptu craft projects with my daughter. And I can’t tell you how many old shirts I’ve cannibalized for teddy bear clothes.
Yes, stuff can get out of hand. My mom is a pack rat and moving her out of her old house was a nightmare. She has all sorts of stuff in a storage unit now that I will probably get to go through when she dies. And we are constantly fighting her tendency to collect crap now that she’s living with us. But to me purging is just a tool in my quest for organization and a nice looking house.
Wow, you have enough clothing for at least 4 people. For me it feels like stuff weighs me down. I still feel like I have a ton of things, but I suspect I have very little compared to the average American. I just literally feel uncomfortable with so much stuff. Maybe I like the idea of being able to move across the world on a whim, even if I don’t actually do that.
At the risk of sounding like a World of Warcraft player…. can I have your stuff?
I really loved getting rid of stuff last summer. We sold all of our dvds and cds and many of our books. The house feels lighter and more airy without all that stuff!
On the other hand, I’m not a clothes horse — I shop only at Goodwill and usually at the outlet where you buy clothes by the pound. So, JD let us know when you make that Goodwill run in June so I can be sure to pick up some nice sweaters!
I love Belize. Went there for the first time last spring. I also only took what would fit into one small backpack. At the end of the trip I realized that I took too much stuff.
I have been on a slightly minimalist goal for the past couple of years. I still have struggles getting rid of stuff though. What was the biggest help was moving. I took so much stuff to Goodwill.
I am down to one bookshelf, and it holds all my books, cd’s and dvds. Out of necessity my closet now only holds the clothes that I wear. Still too many pairs of shoes though.
I am always looking for things to cut though.
>>”In the U.S., the average new home was 2349 square feet in 2004″
Hey, the sky is the limit when you can buy more than you can afford.
I wish our town had a better library. No way am I getting rid of my books.
Other than that I think we’re doing ok. Mainly because I hate to shop.
I think that sometimes the “maybe I’ll use this sometime” thinking is a cover for “I feel bad that I paid for this and didn’t use it up.” I try to think about “cost per wearing” and not feel bad when I give up something I’ve worn for a while, but it’s hard, I feel guilty over every piece of clothing that isn’t completely worn out! Recently, though, illness made me lose weight and I’m taking that opportunity to Goodwill a lot of old clothes.
The “one thing a day” that missminimalism suggests was my New Year’s Resolution — working well as long as I include things like old bills etc that should have been shredded years ago…
As a librarian working in a university library that has had terrible budget cuts and hasn’t had a book budget for two years and won’t have one this year…I PLEAD WITH YOU…..
If any of you are purging books, magazines, comic books, DVDs, Videos, CD’s, etc - PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE consider donating to a local library before you donate to Good Will. The nice thing about something being added to a library collection is that the item can be enjoyed for free to a large number of users rather than go back into one more living room.
With the bad economy, libraries are having a huge jump in use (Yay!) just as our budgets are getting drastically cut (Boo!). Your gifts actually do help a lot.
I purged my closet before we moved last July, ironic since we went from a small door-sized closet to a walk-in, but realized I didn’t have that much excess to begin with. I try to stay simple with enough work clothes for a week (5 pr khakis with about 8-10 nice shirts to rotate) and enough casual clothes to stay on my once a week laundry schedule (2-3 pr jeans/shorts and a few nice t-shirts).
I probably have too many old t-shirts laying around but they’re nice to have when I do a project like painting or working in the yard. Or if they get too bad, we’ll use them as rags.
It would be interesting to count up my “stuff”, but as part of a family it is hard to distinguish what is only mine vs. everyone’s. Personally I find Leo’s “challenge” a little gimmicky.
@JD - you sound like you have my spending limits on clothes - I usually never spend more than $20 on shirts or $30 on pants. They usually last 5-10 years too which I like.
Can someone post tips for how/where to sell used items like clothes and books? I’ve used eBay to sell more valuable things ($200 boots, for example), but I don’t find it to be worth it for less valuable items. Also, eBay and PayPal are notorious for stiffing the seller and there are fees associated with selling.
What if I have a large amount of clothes, accessories and other household items? Where would I go to sell things like this?
@kate..
I’m glad to hear that because I always wondered. A lot of libaries will not take donations by us or only at certain times, etc.. So, I always donate to those “boxes” you see in the parking lots. I know those are not necessarily non for profit but i figure it is better than nothing.
I’m totally a pack rat. With running an e commerce boutique our whole basement is full of ribbon and other materials in order to custom make our girl hair bows and clippies. So it’s hard to keep things organized and those extra things we tend to just throw in the corner end up never being looked at.
We definitely need to go through our stuff and start throwing some stuff out or donating it.
I have been working on purging over the past year. I think I donated over 200 books alone. Though I will never get to where Leo is due to the fact that I have hobbies that require “stuff” such as sewing and other art products, antique book collecting and cooking, I’ve been working on getting rid of as much as I can, especially since I will be moving again this summer.
If you don’t have the ‘extra’ closet — you can also turn all of your hangers ‘backwards’ on the clothing pole. Any time you wear an item, it goes back on the hanger the right way (forward) on the clothing pole … in short order, you’ll be able to tell which items you wear & pack up all the backward hanger items for Goodwill.
I think about this while I am sitting on my couch. I look around and wonder why all this space and stuff is needed to sustain one person. I need to figure out how to reduce kitchen items, cleaning supplies, and under the bathroom sink stuff. I also wonder about photo albums. They take up space and I only go through them a few times a year.
It’s easy to go past the point of diminishing returns in either direction in this area. Certainly many people have way more than they need, but by the same token, trying to pare down to 50 things is going to cost you things that offered more in utility than they cost in space and maintenance.
I try not to own things I won’t use. For instance, I’ll read a book once or watch a DVD once but after that, I’ll probably never use it again, so I don’t own these things. Or tools for hobbies I’ve given up — I don’t need tools specific to working on older engines since I haven’t owned one in years. I throw away clothes that are worn out or that no longer fit, because I won’t wear them anymore.
But the 80/20 rule isn’t applicable. Just because you only peel potatoes once a week (less than 20% of days) doesn’t mean you shouldn’t own a potato peeler. There are plenty of things that we enjoy doing occasionally, and just because we don’t do them every day doesn’t mean we should sacrifice them for a few cubic inches of cupboard space. Maybe you only use a christmas tree stand once a year, but if you enjoy having a christmas tree (personally, I don’t) you probably want to keep it.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, I find plenty of people have owned things for years without even taking them out of the box. These were obviously wasteful purchases. Most people keep things forever, even when they’ve completely lost their usefulness — my father has a TV with wood paneling sitting under some other junk in his garage. He has a flat screen one in the living room, and a relatively recent CRT television in the bedroom, he’ll never turn on that old RCA again. He’s also got some Apple IIE era computers, and other things there that he has no intention of ever turning on again, but he keeps them because somewhere in his head they’re all still worth the price he paid for them 20 years ago.
Still, counting the number of things you own is counter-productive, since none of the goals you might be working towards depend on this. If what you’re trying to do is free up space and reduce clutter, than a single TV counts as much as a whole box full of 20 old t-shirts. If instead what you’re trying to do is make some extra money by getting rid of things you’re no longer using, an extra laptop computer probably counts more than an entire garden shed full of potting soil and plastic pots. The only goal you accomplish by focusing purely on count is that you get to post a small number on your website for people to read.
I have four surfboards and three bicycles. Getting rid of all of these would definitely make my life worse. Getting rid of some of them would make more room in my shed, but the whole purpose of the shed is to store bicycles and surfboards, and I’m not going to tear it down, so emptying it out doesn’t offer me any utility. There’s something to be said for keeping my bicycle/surfboard count limited to a number that can fit in my shed, but that number is still quite a bit higher than “never more than one of anything”.
I have done something similar with my clothes, but w/out the extra closet: I just hung all my clothes in hangar-backwards at the beginning of the season; I hang them forward after I wear them. I’ve already purged some that I obviously wasn’t wearing. I’ll do the same thing for summer wear.
I helped my husband purge his stuff a few months back. I guess I was getting a little over-zealous when he said, “I am not Amelda Marcos and we are not on “Clean Sweep”!” At least he had a sense of humor about it.
Totally agree about paying more for something you know you love. The trick can be the “knowing”.
There are so many facets to this advice, pretty much all of which will have a positive effect on your life.
1. Cut down the clutter around the house
2. Spend less on stuff or make some money selling what you’ve already got
3. Less mental clutter (the “gee, I need to get to that one day” syndrome)
4. Develop better spending habits
…and so on.
Great article - I need to start another purge of the house, I think
I’m with Ron (#27), sometimes this all makes me feel like I have too much, when I hardly have anything at all.
Of course I have clothes I don’t usually wear — they’re for special occassions, like fancy evenings out or business situations. I recently went through my closet twice and got rid of a few shirts I don’t wear and probably won’t wear, so I’m happy with what’s left.
I also have a few collections, but none of my collection things are packed away — it’s all out and displayed. They also bring me a fair deal of happiness, so what one person may see as “clutter,” I see as things I’d rather have than get rid of.
My partner is German, one of the most frugal European cultures. Being around him really has given me “new eyes” on what I originally considered ‘my culture’: what I really need, when I need it, how to evaluate ‘quality’ from ‘what looks good’.
As for clothing, he has few clothes that he wears, and he doesn’t wash immediately after wearing once if there are no stains or smells. How many times do we as Americans do a huge laundry every week because we only wear something once, and don’t sweat or stain it? Can we do something different, like put it back in the closet or wear it again? - Why, or why not?
Examining the logic of everything (even our emotional attachments to something) really helps make better sense of our own world. We can now make decisions based on rational thinking and problem-solving. “Big House”? Why? What are the needs of a big house? … or having Stuff? What are the true needs of each piece of Stuff, and what is ‘the cost’ connected to it?
Btw, JD, I find that my REI clothing are my best-made, most useful, and most adored clothes I own. I am a member, which means I paid a one-time small fee. In return, I get coupons, dividends, and the ability to return any REI item, at any time, without a receipt - no questions asked. It means I can try a shirt, and if I don’t like it, just return it. The slightly higher price some some items had paid of multi-fold for me.
If you want to make yourself feel much better about how good you are at preventing and purging Stuff, just stop by some of your neighbors’ homes to say hello! I spend so much time comparing my home to magazines and reading sites like yours and Unclutterer and Zen Habits, that one trip to a neighbor’s house made me feel like Martha Freaking Stewart.
Before we went on our 18 month trip around the world, we got rid of everything we owned except for –
1) our books
2) our cars
3) our cat
All other things were either sold, donated, or trashed. It was incredibly freeing!
When we came back to the States we had the pleasure of starting our life together anew. As a result, absolutely everything that’s in our tiny little cottage (400 square feet with about 120 of that upstairs in a loft) is something we purchased deliberately. It’s really, really freeing to live in a house that only has the stuff we want (and use) in it! I highly recommend it.
You remind me of a story I heard. A woman writer said that once in every person’s life, they ought to leave everything behind. She suggested having a new home arranged for rental without ever entering the place. Then have a someone arrange a new set of clothing left just inside the door. Then you would leave your old home, leaving all your old possessions behind, arrive at the doorstep of the new place, strip off your clothing and discard it in a trash bin outside, enter your new home naked, and put on new clothes just inside the door. That way you were leaving every single thing behind, even your clothes.
I sympathize with this romanticized idea of “shedding your skin,” but it is obviously impractical.
Moving almost once a year is great, it makes me constantly evaluate how much I value an item, especially a heavy one that I have to haul up four flights of stairs!
I agree that small steps are the key, both physically and emotionally. Getting rid of “stuff” in increments makes any loss almost unnoticeable.
Saturday is a favorite day in our house. We look at any clutter in the house and itemize into the common buckets below:
1. Can it be sold
2. Can it be donated
3. Trash
Since Saturday is trash day, we ditch everything in the third bucket and take the second pile to Goodwill.
I also have found Leo’s 100 Things Challenge fascinating. I plan on seeing how I compare by making a list of belongings, and I expect the number will be much higher than I imagine. Great post!
I don’t even wear two-thirds of my wardrobe? It’s like I’m just throwing my money away.
I’ve often felt that way, which is why I haven’t been buying clothing (on the “I have enough” principle). On the other hand, when the HVAC system at work was blasting way too much cold air for months? I could put together 5 well-layered outfits a week (leggings, slacks, top, sweater/jacket) without having to buy a bunch of stuff. When the HVAC system got fixed? I could transition to less clothes without a problem.
I had gotten to 5 months without acquiring any clothing, but broke it to replace a couple bras. But I did have a different triumph: I’ve begun wearing the skirt I’d previously only worn to my mother’s funeral. It’s becoming just another skirt. (Okay, it’s a skirt with pockets. That’s why I’d kept it!)
And if it’s not worth owning in a small home, why is it worth owning in a large home?
The incremental cost of continuing to own stuff that you already have space for is relatively small? Wearing an uncommon size that’s hard to find makes you want to hang onto things just in case?
Back when I was a residential architect, a good rule of thumb we’d use with our clients to help control “space creep” for a new house was this: Measure the floor area (multiply length and width at the floor, this gives you a number in square feet) of whatever item it is you want to keep around. Could be a bookshelf full of classic comic books, grandma’s china hutch, baby grand piano, whatever. Now add 50% to account for the area needed for you to actually move around that item. Now we’d take that number and multiply it by the cost of construction (typically so many $ per square foot) to get a real $ cost of the space we would have to add to the house to keep that item around. Clients got real about their stuff real fast like this.
It even works in reverse: just take the amount you paid for the house ($), divide by the area on your tax assessment ($/SF); then multiply by the floor area of your keepsake (($/SF)*sf). This is the cost, in housing dollars, of that stuff you keep around.
I read a book a while back called AFFLUENZA and how the US has become entranced with stuff. Take a look at all the storage places opening up all over the place. IN the book there was a photo of a typical Indian family whose house had all its contents removed and put in the front “lawn”. The same was done with an American household and the difference was staggering. The Americans’ whole yard was loaded with stuff. The Indian family had a few items and they looked pretty darn happy too!
I’ve found lately that the
“That’s awesome,” I said. “I wish I could do that.”
But who says I can’t?
thought stream can be wonderful in so many situations!
After living in four different countries across four different continents in the last four years, I can say I am getting pretty close to being well purged these days.
One thing I struggle with when it comes to downsizing is the decision of what to sell and what to donate. I’d love to get rid of a ton of CDs. Part of me knows I can make a few dollars on them if I sold them on ebay or amazon. But I don’t want to do that work, so I don’t do anything. And in the mean time my stack of STUFF doesn’t shrink.
This is a fascinating post. It reminds me of the man who runs http://www.onebag.com for people to travel light.
However, I often think it’s easier for men to pare down their possessions to a few essential things. I’d like to know how minimalist women tackle this issue.
It helps immensely to hate shopping. I just don’t do recreational shopping. I wait until the irritation of not having an item exceeds the irritation of having to shop for it. Lately I have been trying to throw out something, every time I enter a room. Not too hard, there is always some piece of trash at least. It starts to get harder after a while.
I think about when I was young and my family consisted of my parents and their 7 children living in a 3 bedroom house with one bathroom. There just wasn’t too much room to accumulate stuff. When I went to college we had 5 girls in a 3 room suite with about 12 linear feet of closet space. I got two drawers and about 3 feet of closet. Believe it or not it worked pretty well. I never saw anybody move in or out of the dorm with a uhaul in those days.
What the heck happened? I have more stuff than I can possibly use.
My family just moved several hours from the beach, and I’ve been thinking about getting rid of one or both of my surfboards. But there is absolutely no utility in it for me to do so. They’re hung out of the way in the garage rafters and they remind me of great times in my not so distant past. And who knows… I may start racking them up again and taking them to the beach when my kids get older.
I’m with the folks who have commented that there’s diminishing returns on either end of the spectrum. If my family’s stuff fits in our house comfortably, then I’m not too worried about it.
I’d like to know how minimalist women tackle this issue.
@Allison —- Simplify Your Life points out that in almost any situation, women have more clothing *options* which means more decisions to be made and more potential to screw it up. The author suggests that women focus their wardrobes around “uniforms” that look good on them — and, yes, limiting silhouettes and colors so that everything goes with everything else.
I would note that different *functions* in your life may have a different uniforms. If your work requires a suit, say, then you’d likely have a set of work outfits AND at-home outfits. The at-home clothes may also work for working out, or may not. Some folks may have dressier outfits for church or going to events like weddings and funerals, if the clothing they wear to work isn’t appropriate. Someone who goes out to clubs may have outfits specifically for clubwear.
Simplify Your Life is also why I ONLY buy 1 style of sock, so matching is easy. I have fallen from grace in that I do have socks in both white and black….
Probably the true minimalist would be able to wear the same thing in all parts of her life and be sure that everything can be worn with everything else. The programmer’s ubiquitous jeans-and-tshirts look fits this — if there aren’t too many of the jeans and t-shirts, of course. (And sufficient underwear. I hope.)
One woman MADE a work wardrobe along these principles: http://noelfigart.com/blog/2008/06/25/wardrobe-swap/
Great article and great reminder of how we over buy. I agree that most of us have way more stuff than we need. I am trying to purge too.
Watching the show Hoarders has really inspired me to get rid of things that I don’t use. I am no where in the universe of a hoarder and don’t even own that much, but once I saw the patterns and lines of thinking I realized that it’s partly normal behavior run amuck.
I have no worry that I’d ever “hoard” but I don’t like the thought of hanging on to something I haven’t touched in years because I might use it some day. Or keeping junk because it’s associated with some distant memory. I really want to have a life of simplicity and not put much too value onto objects and clutter makes me feel weighed down.
Now as a junior pychologist licensed by my television viewing I am kind of worried about a roommate that really does seem to have hoarding instincts. I’m told it was actually much worse in the past, but he works in construction and brings home whatever scraps weren’t used in a job. Or whatever he finds labeled free at someone’s curb. He has a lot of ideas for projects, but they are sitting dusty not even half finished or have no prayer of ever being started at all. When I see him stuffing new arm fulls of wood or whatever else into our nearly unusable garage I cringe.
Leo’s challenge is certainly thought-provoking, but I am relatively certain I have more than 100 pieces of art in my home, never mind all the other stuff!
I’m a regular reader of Unclutterer, so this post & comments cover some familiar territory. I’m afraid I am a bit of an unrepentant accumulator …
I have china & stemware service for 12. So far I have had dinner parties for up to ten, so the stuff definitely has been used.
I have hundreds of books. I read MOST of them over and over again. Those that I do not return to, I am gradually giving away. Ditto with music CDs and DVDs. After all, if I’ve already paid for something, I have the space to store it, it doesn’t distract from the peace & comfort of my home, and I will use it again, it doesn’t make much sense to get rid of it just for the sake of getting rid of it.
I like my space to be neat, unobstructed, and easy to clean, but it’ll never be “minimal.” I like the layered effect too much.
That said … I am as we write engaged in a “pretend we have to move” mind game to try and stop rationalizing certain things that we really don’t, and probably won’t, use.
We recently did some great purging. It was awesome. It felt so liberating! Now, I try and go through certain things and purge every other month. Pretty soon, all of our stuff might actually fit in our house! It is so funny how we accumulate items so easily.
About 4 years ago when my wife and I moved from a 2,200+ sq. ft. house to an 800 sq. ft. apartment, we donated five full size truck loads to Goodwill, sold >$3,500 of stuff on Craigslist and still ended up filling a 20 cubic foot dumpster for all of the crap. I don’t miss a bit of it! Now that we have bought a new (to us) 2,100 sq. ft. house, we love having all of the open space. We have made the conscience decision to not buy new furniture, knick-knacks or baubles unless it meets 3 criteria. 1) We actually need it, 2) It fits the style of the house (it’s a gorgeous 1875 farmhouse) and 3) We can pay cash for it. It has worked out well so far. So good luck to you on paring down on your stuff, once it is done, you’ll love the space and freedom it provides.
To Poster #74, I’m not sure if it’s necessarily easier for men to purge. We are more likely to be collectors and to have hobbies. What do I do with the shoebox stamp and coin collections from my childhood? My 10,000 CDs? My collection of mint concert t-shirts? Probably the first, easiest step in the process is to stop buying stuff. A wise Norwegian friend changed my life with his throwaway comment: It will all get tossed out when you die.
We sold our home last week (motivated by a growing family) and moved in to an apartment about half the sq ft. The other stuff went in to storage. Right now, we’re realizing we have a few “wrong” things at the apartment, and there are things buried in storage that we would like to have.
We’ve wondered will we “need” the things that are in storage when we find a place to purchase that meets our newer needs?
I hope that as we continue in the small space, we learn to live with less and purge things more regularly.
Since the author called out “two bikes” - I will keep (at least) two bikes. Mountain and Road serve totally different purposes. Beyond that? Likely don’t need more.
I think there is a sweet spot of decluttering so you have the stuff you use, stuff for hobbies, and also things you love (photos of loved ones, good books etc). Streamlining can make your place more efficient, open, and relaxing. But after getting to that point, what is the point of minimizing just for the sake of minimizing? Like he got down to 100 items, I’ll get it down to 50 items! It’s not some kind of contest. I guess it’s an American thing, we used to be competitive in how much (or what kind of) stuff we have, now we are competitive at how little stuff we have.
As an aside even though it is less “minimal” I much prefer living in our 1500 sq foot house compared to the 800-900 sq foot house we used to live in.
I do agree with #84, it does seem like a big competition. Who’s better, more virtuous, how less “American” can you be. Decuttering and buying less can benefit a lot of people, but does it have to be a contest?
We use the six month rule. If it hasn’t been used in 6 months, it gets either donated, tossed or sold.
After moving into a 650 sf house my wife and I had to do some major decluttering. Books were the hardest thing for both of us to pare down. The rule for me is regular reads, reference, and waaay out of print are keepers. Everything else, sell or donate. I think I have parted with over 12 large file boxes of books, never mind the entire storage unit of other stuff we purged. It only hurt for about one day.
@ #11 regarding small homes, milder climes, and extended living areas… We experience single digit winter weather up here in our small house. It can be endured, nay enjoyed. The trick is being more flexible and more organized with the space you do have. It’s cozy :). Did I mention being more organized? Aside from being forced to keep the stuff at bay, you will save a lot of money. My utility bills are way below local averages and I keep the thermostat at 72. The rent is also much cheaper. Working on the Landcruiser outside in the snow is a little bracing though.
“The things you own end up owning you.” Tyler Durdin
I agree with many of you: De-cluttering can be taken to an extreme. It’s important to find what makes you happy. I just know that I have too much Stuff, and that there’s a real cost involved with that, both mental and financial. I’m at a point where I want to pare things down, to focus on what’s really important to me. I’ll never cut down to 50 or 100 items like Leo, but that doesn’t mean I need to own so many shirts and sweaters!
I’m still in the accumulating stage of life. I moved into my tiny apartment (300 sq/ft) in a rented SUV, and it’s taken almost 4 years to stock it. I bought my first new couch a month ago (previously I’d just used what I could get cheap/free off the street or craigslist wherever I lived). I used that last garage sale couch for more than 3 years. I slept on an inflatable mattress for 2 years before a friend gave me my bed. I’m finally feeling satisfied with my work wardrobe. I like having things around me that are mine, that I choose to have because I like them. I spent a decade in dorms and temporary apartments with cinderblock walls having little more than what’s necessary. I only need 1 box of kitchen stuff, but it limits the menu choices. I don’t need a mattress, box springs and bed frame, but my quality of life jumped dramatically when I aquired a real bed. I’m cozier with my candles, lamps, books, pictures, music, and stuff around. It makes my apartment MINE, and I like that. When I replace something that helped me get by with something I cherish I make sure to pass the old one on or retire it for good. There is nothing wrong with having things you want, too. Having only what you really need is a spartan existence; not something I aspire to. You just need to avoid buying things you don’t want or need, and when you replace you have to let go of the old. Maybe that’s easier with limited space and money.
We’ve been paring down our belongings lately…not as much as most of the commenters, but enough to make us smile. It feels good to have an organized walk-in pantry and closet.
The only hazard is that I’m getting a little frustrated with some Craigslist visitors that seem to be flagging me just because my price is low. Anybody in Houston need a wall mount for a 36″-60″ LCD or Plasma TV for $50? LOL.
A tip for selling a lot of things with less effort:
Amazon offers a service called “Fulfillment by Amazon”. You can box up a bunch of stuff (say, CDs or books) and ship them out to Amazon, and they’ll package and ship them when they sell.
My friend did this with dumpster-dove textbooks and said he made over $600.
I am sympathetic to all of this - I live in a smaller house and look forward to getting rid of a lot of junk this spring. But like so many things, people seem to get carried away with this. Often we are feeling disorganized and overwhelmed mentally and/or emotionally, and that can be hard to resolve. So instead we go crazy throwing away physical clutter, as if a neatly organized sock drawer is going to tame the chaos of modern life.
Also, this desire to be a minimalist and “own less” seems to fit neatly with the “reduce” goal in environmentalism, but is as often in conflict with the “reuse/recycle”. The minimalist celebrates getting rid of anything that you don’t have an immediate need for. Sometimes that thing will end up in landfill, then low and behold, a need arises and you end up buying a new one. Haters - don’t pretend you’ve never done this.
I also have a big problem with Leo Babauta from Zen Habits, who seems to make his living crowing about how minimalist and low-impact his lifestyle is, and yet he has six kids. Jeesh.
I helped my wife purge most of her clothes when we moved into the new place. It was 4 garbage bags of clothes, some going back to 1996!
She beats me though on getting ready for trips and can pack almost everything that she needs in half the time and space requirements. I always think of taking “stuff for maybe the cold” etc..but never use.
For myself, I have a large box of “electronic stuff” that I really should just chuck but once in a while I actually do need a wire here or there so..
I also have WAY too many books but hopefully with something like the iPad I can get those all digitized and don’t need the collection except for the art books.
I definitely think there’s a balance… but of us have NOT found it!
I know I own tons of movies, books and clothes I may never watch/read/wear again, yet they’re still sitting there cluttering up my house….
Maybe its time for some pre-spring de-cluttering for me….
Nice post my friend.
It would be nice to throw some credit of the “100 Thing Challenge” to the original creator, blogger Dave Bruno.
@31
“Sarah Susanka wrote a book a few years back called the Not So Big House - suggesting that bigger is not always better, and a well-designed small house can work better for many families than yet another McMansion.”
Got that book when looking for houses last year. It’s great! esp. the parts about the underlying principals of why a house feels right.
“.. McMansions as you move up in housing prices.”
Yep. We were looking at a place in Corona that was REALLY cheap and newer compared to most of LA (really far is the reason why, and it’s way hotter) and we couldn’t for the life of us find a place under 2000 sq. ft. They were all in the 2300-2500 sq. ft. range which is ridiculous because the air conditioning bill in itself in the summer would be off the charts.
We eventually got an older house that we did a little renovation to in a better area closer to my work. More expensive but the house was quality and enough for us.
“My personal goal is to live in a Not So Big House - once we get rid of all the junk.”
Mine is to eventually have enough $$ to actually build a house using some of those Not-So-Big House architecture plans. That would be really cool.
I had an eye opening experience because of Hurricane Katrina. What do you take with you when you are evacuating? Me, it was the pets, 1 suitcase with clothes, an external hard drive with all my pictures and files, and my file case with hard copies of tax returns, insurance, retirement info, etc., . When I returned to my house, it was clear I couldn’t stay, and most things in the house had to go. I was lucky in that I’d heavily bagged up and put into bins things like family heirlooms and photos that didn’t get damaged, but in the end I started over - moving from the 1500 sqft house to a 850 sqft condo in the Seattle area with only those few things. While I’ve purchased “stuff” in the last 5 years to furnish the condo and make life comfortable, I’m really conscious about what I buy and think about it before I purchase…9 times out of 10 I find I don’t really need it, and can keep my “stuff” to a dull roar.
I’m a declutterer