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?
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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.
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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?
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@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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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”.
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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”.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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!
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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?
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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.
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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!
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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/
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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We use the six month rule. If it hasn’t been used in 6 months, it gets either donated, tossed or sold.
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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.
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“The things you own end up owning you.” Tyler Durdin
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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It would be nice to throw some credit of the “100 Thing Challenge” to the original creator, blogger Dave Bruno.
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@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.
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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.
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I’m a declutterer
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