In my college years I was beginning to accumulate a lot of stuff, but moving a dozen or so times in the past decade has pared me down quite a bit. I am now a streamlined minimalist regarding stuff. Last time I moved (about 6 months ago) I fit everything I own in my Crown Vic; one trip.
Too much stuff. I have too much stuff. It accumulates like barnacles.
I’m going to do serious violence to my stuff soon, cut the piles of crap I own down to size. The UN will set up a commission to investigate the atrocities I commit upon my stuff. Everything I don’t actually need is gonna go.
When I was a kid, I was a packrat. I kept all sorts of stupid little things because I might one day find a use for them. Moving so often during college (dorm to home to dorm to home to apartment to home to apartment to apartment to apartment…) gave me a solid reason to slim the collection down. Now, I’ve taught myself very hard not to hold on to a bunch of stuff I don’t need, including knick-knacky things. Which makes it frustrating when someone gives me a well-meant gift that I don’t want to just have cluttering up the place.
I still have a few boxes of crap in storage that I need to sort through one of these days. But for now, out of sight, out of mind.
The things I still tend to collect a lot of tend to be media: books, CDs, DVDs.
Amen! I’ve moved 17 times in the past 10 years. I can disappear like a fart in the wind.
Last year around the holidays, our families were asking us what we wanted. We’d just gotten married in September and were living in a dinky apartment (maybe 600 square feet) which was already too full of stuff even to unpack all of our wedding gifts. We had no need for more stuff, nor anywhere to put it, so we asked that if anyone gave us gifts, they should be very small and/or consumable. It worked pretty well; we got some yummy foodie-type things.
I am finding myself much less attached to stuff like clothing now that I’m less broke, and know I can afford to buy, say, a new pair of pants to replace the ones that don’t fit anymore, but might fit again someday. But I am still a sucker for keeping anything with sentimental value.
ETA: I also never throw things away if they are still useful to someone - I need either to find homes for them, or donate them somewhere.
I’m running out of clothes as I lose weight, and I have a closet full of the clothes that are too large now. I have been keeping them, but it occurred to me today that most of these clothes are not brand new, and will likely be out of style if I gain weight again. I think it’s time to make a run to goodwill with a load.
As someone who lost 75 pounds, then put it back on, and has now taken most of it back off again–you have the right instinct. I saved a number of clothing items that I just adored, to wear again when I lost the weight. I lost it, put on my “goal clothes,” and realized that they were kind of worn and no longer stylish.
Plus, keeping around clothes that are too big is dangerous. It makes it easy to be in denial if you start to put on weight again. If you have to go to the store and buy bigger pants, it’s more likely to motivate you to buckle down again before things get too bad. If you can just go get your fat pants out of storage…not so much.
Goodwill loves me.
BTW, I love your idea about rotating knick-knacks!
I have almost no stuff. For several years I had a few big things in one room at my dad’s house. Everything else I could carry on my back. I have a bit more than that now, but outside of furniture I think everything would fit in 3-4 cubic meters.