An extra h to http..

Growing up with parents who liked to hold on to things, but they weren’t excessive hoarders, still they are the type of people who keep things for months and even years “just in case”-I just have this aversion to not keeping things I don’t need. I constantly throw things out at the end of the month if I don’t use them.

IMO you are more than your stuff, you’re an entire human being that isn’t defined by your job, or by your stuff. In the end you can’t take it with you, all we have is our character, experiences, our journey, and our friendships with family and friends.

I hope you continue to get better at not letting stuff rule you and I really do mean that. No one should be ruled by stuff. In reality, most of us don’t need that much stuff. We can get by on less.

I’m 27 but it seems to me that many people work so hard for stuff and for the most part, they don’t really end up using most of their stuff, or they lose interest and then they end up storing it in a storage they pay for, garage, or some other place.

Think of how much time and money we could have if we didn’t spend it on so much stuff, we could retire early, pursue hobbies that are more fulfilling if we as Americans weren’t busy on the pursuit of stuff. Anyway, don’t give up J.D.-you sound like a very nice person, and you are more than your stuff.

Good luck to you =)

For the first point I think that most Americans are crazy about having always the top-of-the-range stuff that will be old-fashioned in just a few years.

For the second point it might be only me (10 T-shirts and 10 shirts is all I have and need).

I have a problem getting rid of clothes that are a size or 2 too small. I keep thinking that some day I’ll lose the weight. Do others have this problem?

It was the catalyst for me starting my first blog: http://projectcleanapartment.blogspot.com/

I’m trying to take the 2 bedroom apartment which has all of the “extra” stuff I moved from an 8 bedroom college house, plus what I have accumulated over the past 5+ years and cleaning it to the point where I am comfortable having company over in the next 6 months.

I come from a family of packrats who call me hoarders, so this is going to be quite the challenge, both in terms of organizing clutter and discarding what I don’t need.

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

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).

I notice that the post ends in questions, and no clear direction. It’s obvious you don’t want so much stuff, but what I’m interested in above all is what steps you are going to take towards owning less crap. Good luck in finding out what steps those are, and in taking them.

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 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.

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

It started out that I was having a problem getting rid of things that I thought each kid would eventually have a chance to use. Then it became, “I’ll save that for Aunt J’s kids.” Then it was, “The kids are still playing with these things (i.e. I don’t want them to grow up too fast–the stuff became baby artifacts).

Sometimes it’s, “I can sell this Fisher-Price farm on eBay” or “The cousins will play with that when they visit” or “I should find someone who has a home day care…they might like to have it.”!!!

Maddening to say the least, and my basement is stacked to the gills w/kids’ toys and games, etc.

Now the reasons are: I’ve gotten used to the clutter, have become more lazy (lack the motivation), and just avoid the basement. And many times the kids will not let me get rid of things if they see it going out the door (and I hate seeing their sad faces when I admit I gave something away w/out their ‘permission’.

Answers the question a bit…

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.

First – I saw a comment “I like my space to be neat, unobstructed, and easy to clean”. I LOVE this. I don’t see Stuff as my enemy, per se, but pointless accumulation has been a bad habit for me at times. To that end, over the last few years, I’ve been purging myself of much of the things I find pointless, but it’s been slow going.

Recently, one of the women I work with lost all of their Stuff in a house fire. The family was physically fine, but they literally had nothing other than the clothes on their backs and their car when it was all said and done.

It got me thinking – if my own Stuff was lost to a fire, what would I actually replace? That question has helped me put together four large boxes of items to sell or donate, as well as having filled my truck with clothing and small kids’ toys that we donated to the woman from work. And before you think we just made our clutter her problem, she thanked me and said “anything we wont use, I’ll pass along to the charity that’s been helping us out”.

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.

We’ve been waiting to find out if our new baby is a girl or a boy so we can purge the 20 boxes of baby/toddler clothes in the attic. I hope the new baby is a girl so we can re-use it all!

We face the dilemma of having small closets, but we have big seasonal weather changes here, so you can’t just get rid of the big bulky sweaters because you haven’t worn them in 6 months…they have to be stored somewhere. I’m just trying to cut down on the volume that we store.

I have more trouble getting rid of my little girl’s stuff than I do getting rid of my own things. (And boy there is a lot of stuff for one little girl!) Why is kid clutter so hard to part with?

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.

This describes me to a tee!