How Much Stuff Does One Man Need?

My husband and I live in a small one bedroom apartment (maybe about 600 square feet?). I was just telling him the other day that I know we will get a bigger home at some point when we start a family, but I don’t ever want a huge home. The bigger home you have, the more you fill it up with stuff. Also…the more you have to clean! It will be a difficult urge to fight, but I’m going to try. I am also going to try to find a home that was built in the 50′s or 60′s. They have an awesome style and smaller sizes in general.

Hopelessly unable to do anything regarding this subject..Moved from 900 to 1000sq. ft with my
10,000+ LP/45 rpm record collection

2,000+ cd collection

1,000+ video tapes of stuff recorded off the airwaves
of music performances,shows,etc dating back to 1978 when I got my first VCR which hopefully I will watch
and classify as a personal popular culture library(My
retirement activity?)

500+ prerecorded Videotapes & DVD’s

300+ books(Actually managed to throw out about 500 books when I moved)

The records are well organized and neatly stored in over 100 boxes
made specially for LP storage,in alphabetical order;
which I keep all over the 2BR apartment I’m renting
except for the bathroom & kitchen.
The books,videos and DVD’s are neatly stored in 8 bookshelves in different rooms.
I’m hoping to move cross-country to Nevada if I ever
retire..and it does bother to think of repacking all
this stuff for a long distance move(My last move was just across town and I packed/moved all the media collections by myself in my car box by box in about a week)
I just can’t see myself parting away with these collections..though I’ve considerably slowed down the buying of new media.

#91 Katie I think I am in the accumulating stage as well, especially regarding furniture! Since we waited till we are older, somehow skipped the ikea/Target stage and are going straight from hand me downs/thrift, and cinderblock and wooden board bookcases to better hand me downs and now some new furniture. For the first time in my life I bought a nightstand and it feels good!
But yeah all throughout college and some years afterwards, except for my futon mattress could fit my belongings into one large suitcase.

When my boyfriend and I moved in together, we had to seriously downsize. We share an 800 square foot condo (he had a house with a garage), plus a good-sized storage unit. I got rid of boxes and boxes of stuff to make room for him, and he sold or donated at least 50% of his stuff during the move.

What I love is that it’s much easier to keep the place neat and tidy. There’s only so much stuff to be misplaced, and there’s plenty of room in our closets and cupboards to fit everything. I keep a bag or box in my closet for Goodwill and try to fill it every 2-3 weeks, then drop it off. I’ve also thrown out lots of clothes I was keeping for “painting clothes” or other nebulous reasons.

I’m also starting to think that buying fewer clothes, but only the stuff I LOVE (even if it’s pricey) is the way to go. When I look at my closets and pick the things I absolutely can’t live without, nine times out of ten it’s the stuff that I gravitated towards immediately at the store, fell in love with when I tried it on, and almost didn’t buy because it was a bit too expensive. If I hold out and only buy items I love, over time I will have a fantastic collection of clothing that I love to wear. Even as those pieces age and go from work wear to weekend wear, they (hopefully) will still fit well and make me happy.

I feel like we are overrun with stuff. But with a family of 6 and 4 kids who are at different ages, interests and reading ability I feel like I can’t get away from it all. I don’t even know where to begin. Every few weeks I get a big garbage bag and fill it with things from around the house and get rid of it, but the stuff seems to multiply overnight. I wish we could get rid of half of the stuff we have, but then I think what if we need it? What if my younger 2 could use it some day? It is never ending!

JD- Thank you for always posting an article that relates to what is on my mind! I was just thinking about purging some stuff in my garage and closet, so now I am inspired to do this tonight

I do purge my “stuff” from time to time, and the one thing I can say about the experience is that I never miss anything I purge. Having less possessions produces a sense of great freedom.

@Alan- Thank you for the tip about “Fulfillment by Amazon.” I never knew this existed!

I agree that living in a small place is a great advantage to preventing a lot of stuff. We live in a 1000 square foot yurt with 1 closet, a few cupboards and no basement or attic. Yet, when I had to empty my house (because I currently live in China and am renting out the house) I was SHOCKED by how much stuff we had accumulated.

My husband and I share a regular size closet so I thought we didn’t have too many extra clothes but ha! We also realized we were regularly wearing only half our clothes and never wearing some of them. The same thing happened time and again to things on our bookshelf and even with things on our counters. It was like we hadn’t looked at them for a long time and when we finally “saw” them again we were like, “why do we have this?!” It was eye-opening!

Hah this is a great post, as demonstrated by the number of comments. I seriously believe I don’t really need a whole lot of stuffs, most of them are either junks that I don’t need, or stuffs I need to donate/recycle.

If you’re looking to get rid of junks and make some money from it, Craigslist and eBay are good places to go. Especially for big old furnitures, people would go all the way to your house to pick it up, saving you time to organize a yard sale (the weather doesn’t help).

I’m buying a lot of books, but they are definitely not junks and therefore I’ll continue to get them. Maybe a Kindle would help when my bookcase is full…

I love the spirit of this post. Longtime reader, first time commenter. I know exactly what you mean. After traveling, or moving, the amount of waste lying around is pretty striking, particularly to those of us who are frugal by nature. How did all this STUFF get here? I believe that by calling attention to it and focusing on it, at least it can be brought to a minimum.

OMG, 116 comments. So nice to know that there are a LOT of people out there as buzzed about minimalism as I am.

@Allison, I agree that it can be easier for men to be really minimal – unless they’re collectors, as @dgdevil said. Inspired by Leo’s 50 things post the other day, I counted my personal items and was rueful to find I had 262. And I thought I was really getting there!

But then, Leo lives in a tropical climate, shaves his head and doesn’t have hobbies that involve Stuff. I have more clothes (I love them) and toiletries (tho am cutting down on these), plus whole categories of things he doesn’t have. Jewellery, makeup, hiking equipment, bike equipment and clothes, painting supplies, some weights and a yoga mat…

So it’s not about the numbers, really. Having said that, writing down and counting all the things I own has been very revealing. I’ve taken stock of what I have and why I have it. I highly recommend it.

I think this idea has been posted here before (it’s not mine) — I think it’s a good one.

If there are things you are not quite ready to give away (especially clothes or books, that would not have as much resale value), put them in a box, seal it, and date it. Store it out of sight in your basement, a closet, etc.

After one year has gone by, see if you can remember everything in that box. If you can’t, or even if you do remember some items but don’t want/miss them, just take the box (still sealed) to Goodwill. Out of sight, out of mind, out of the house!

Our house was built in 1926 (Northern California) and the closet space is what you would call “challenged”. Anything new that comes in requires something to go OUT.
It’s the best way to PRE-clutter!
I’m a big fan of the “price-per-wear” philosophy. Spend $ on things you will use A LOT, saves space, money AND time!

@#122 (Dennis) – My mom is the same way, when I used to live with her, on garbage day I would almost literally run things out to the alley, like twenty year old busted dining room chairs before my mom realized what happened
several posters posed the question, is the minimalist movement germane to the PF blogosphere outside of the obvious interest in saving money? i think a neglected aspect of this discussion is that people often get a false sense of esteem and worth through their possessions. i think having a minimalist perspective forces you to evaluate your worth outside of material things and staves off lifestyle inflation and comparative judgment
i believe i saw a quote from ben franklin once, maybe here on GRS, it is better to resist the first temptation then to give in to all others. purging is good discipline
lastly, this post inspired me to watch an episode of hoarders, it was tragic, discipline is magnetic, it has a force field, oftentimes you cannot contain dysfunctionality and it spills over to other spheres of your life and eventually consumes and contaminates your very existence

In 2007 my home flooded. Hot water hose on the washing machine ruptured spewing 300+ gallons of water into my home. Carpets ruined, walls ruined, personal possessions ruined. I didn’t realize how much absolute junk I had until I had to move it all in an afternoon to make room for the loss mitigators. The flood taught me how little I actually really need. I did not replace everything I lost. And I made a lot of trips to Goodwill to get rid of things that weren’t ruined, but I realized I did not need. But I tell you, it is tough to fight the tendency to accumulate for me the weakness is coats and books. So JD I am going to take one coat from the closet and take it to Goodwill!

I have recently done something new to try and reduce my clothing expenses. I purged the items I don’t or shouldn’t wear, and then I wrote down every single item I own (including exercise wear, underwear, shoes, etc.) and figured out what outfits I have for different occasions. I used the following categories:
Work
Casual
Exercise
Sleepwear

I found that I have more casual wear than I need, and not enough work clothes – and what I did have didn’t go together very well. No wonder my weekday mornings were so hard! I also didn’t have nearly enough workout shorts. I am currently filling in the holes, which is not cheap, especially suits. However, I now have all the clothes arranged by function and have already purchased the most-needed items so dressing is far easier. I have also finally achieved my goal of doing laundry every other week (I have no kids).

It makes such a difference to know exactly what I need – I am not overbuying, and moving forward, once I have the outfits set, I will only have to buy new clothes to replace items.

Our overriding goal this year is to simplify our lives and reduce the number of physical things we own. So, every day since the first of January, my husband and I have each gotten rid of 10 things.

Some days, we’re feeling super-motivated and those 10 things turn into dozens. Other days we’re in a hurry or otherwise distracted, and those 10 things are “just” 10 things each.

Some days my 10 things might be 10 books; other days a pile of books count as 1 out of the 10. There is always a minimum of 10 things every day, but it’s such a small number and the goal can be met in a matter of a few minutes.

We don’t want to be bogged down in counting, so regardless of how many we may actually cull, we tally just ten things each day.

As of last night, we were 61 days into the new year. At a minimal 10 things a day each, we no longer have at least 1220 things in out house.

We are simultaneously happy and puzzled. Happy, because it is freeing to let go of that many things, but puzzled because so far, we don’t miss any of them. It has made us wonder why we ever had most of them to start with.

I look forward to the day that I can’t find 10 things. I don’t know when it’ll come, but imagine that it will be an interesting feeling.

Wow, I really love the closet idea! I find that I have about 3 sweaters that I actually want to wear, and two of them beat out the third most of the time (but I will still wear the third). The rest of my closet is filled with stuff that I just don’t choose to wear, although I’ve given away a lot of clothes in the past few months. I don’t know what I’m going to do when it’s no longer sweater season. I’m pretty sure I don’t particularly like many of my t-shirts.

I keep wondering why I buy these clothes! Why did I like them in the store? Why did I think I would wear them? I don’t know the answer to this question, and until I do, I will most likely continue to have this problem.

I always liked this comment from Pastabagel on MetaFilter:

Coveting possessions is unhealthy. Here’s how I look at it:

All of the computers on Ebay are mine. In fact, everything on Ebay is already mine. All of those things are just in long term storage that I pay nothing for. Storage is free.

When I want to take something out of storage, I just pay the for the storage costs for that particular thing up to that point, plus a nominal shipping fee, and my things are delivered to me so I can use them. When I am done with them, I return them to storage via Craigslist or Ebay, and I am given a fee as compensation for freeing up the storage facilities resources.

This is also the case with all of my stuff that Amazon and Walmart are holding for me. I have antiques, priceless art, cars, estates, and jewels beyond the dreams of avarice.

The world is my museum, displaying my collections on loan. The James Savages of the world are merely curators.

As I am the curator of their things, and thus together we all share the world.

http://www.metafilter.com/65284/Collect-em-all#1862024

I think those “Only having N”-lists are mostly suitable for writers and other specific lifestyles. For instance, to fix bikes, I need approximately 15 different tools. Without them, I simply can not do the work. Of course one could argue whether I _need_ to fix bikes. It is a worthwhile argument to some extent insofar one would avoid getting involved in activities that involves, say, 5000 things. On the other hand, cutting it down to 50, your work pretty much has to be writing or a similar asset intensive activity, your sport has to be something like running or jump roping, not hockey (which would require about 10 things just to get on the field), and so on. A better measure would be the average time between usage of all the things one has. Harder to calculate and it does not make for a cute title to a book, but a little bit more useful.

I echo Kate (#50) — if you’re getting rid of media items, especially books or DVDs, give them to your local library! What doesn’t make it into the collection will be sold at a book sale to raise money for the library. Last time I moved, I purged half my book collection (painful at the time, but there’s only a few books I miss, and I get all those from the library when I want to read them). I took several boxes/bags to the library, and they were really grateful. I’ll be purging DVDs soon and doing the same thing.

You have an unused closet?

I want to comment on the one shirt that you love versus several that are just so so portion of this post.

I grew up in a very frugal home – by necessity. I have seven siblings and my Dad had a modest payig job – until he died at 51. My Mom believed that expensive things were no better than inexpensive things. A cheap book from the five and dime was the same as a well written book from the book store. A dress on sale that didn’t fit well was the same as one that fit better but that wasn’t on sale. I can’t fault her as she got us all through college – even if our clothes didn’t fit too well. We never had clutter as we never had much. I took every piece of clothing that I owned to college in two modest sized suitcases, more specifically, in bright red plastic suitcases that were on sale.

But since I didn’t have 8 children and I live in an era of tons of cheap consumer goods, I’ve had to retrain myself. Paying more for a pair of shoes that I’ll wear for years and that will be comfortable and attractive beats a cheap pair that I’ll dislike. I’ll end up buying another cheap pair that I’ll also dislike etc. Soon – too much stuff and too little use.

I too am on a purging mission and hope to be left with only the things that I really enjoy. Thanks for the great post.

Interestingly, I’d say that in my family, it’s my husband who has a harder time purging. I’d just as soon that he got rid of all the outdated electronics, but he saves them “just in case” (Amiga’s, maybe even a Commodore 128, old printers, etc.). I’d toss them. But not too long ago he took a part off of an old printer that fit the “newer old” one we had and fixed our “newer old printer”. He told me that it justifies his keeping all that stuff around.

Anyway, I have my own areas of weakness, so I won’t talk too loudly, but I have started to get rid of some music books that I just don’t think I’ll ever use. Last trip I took to the states, I tried to fill up our bags with extra books to give my sister who can then either sell them on half.com or directly to people she knows.

There are lots of good ideas here. I just think I should start working on decluttering the parts of hte house I control and keep it up…15 min. a day.

I recently moved from a two-bed apartment where I owned most of the furnishings (my sister was my roomate and she was fresh out of college when she moved in) to pretty much one room plus some limited storage. It was a serious exercise in getting rid of stuff!

It was also an opportunity to learn about what I store up. I have a list of things I don’t need to buy for a long, long time because I’ve got plenty: pens, shampoo, hair elastics. So that made me want to come up with a storage system that will remind me that I have extras and where to find them, a trick I’ll have to master for my next move (in just a few weeks).

This is one of my favorite posts [probably because it's about one of my favorite subjects]! My husband and I re renters, but we’ve continued to move into smaller and smaller spaces and thus purge our belongings more and more. We started out in a 900 square foot apartment, then went to 750 and now we’re at 540. We could easily transition to about 350-400, but we’re waiting to figure out our next move.

My husband wants to get into the tiny house movement – I think it’s awesome, but really not for me. There is a book I’d highly recommend checking out though, even if the tiny movement isn’t your thing: Put Your Life on a Diet: Lessons Learned From Living in 140 Square Feet, by Gregory Paul Johnson.
http://www.amazon.com/Put-Your-Life-Diet-Lessons/dp/1423603176/ref=pd_sim_b_2