Decluttering/Minimalism

Point 4 assumes that buyers all pay in good time...

I have some pretty rare NBs if you're keen. Been meaning to get rid of them, all around 9.5.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAJg7rH_EMI

That's why you do it in batches of 20, so when one or two bastards don't pay it doesn't matter as you've still sold 18 or 19 other things!

fair point
selling on ebay just reminds my of why I am a misanthrope

I'm out!

Excellent thread.
I had far too many clothes mainly coats and shoes.
I sorted them into two groups based on the seasons, Spring & Summer and Autumn & Winter.
I would fill my wardrobe /drawers with only the correct clothes for the seasons and store the rest out of sight.
You can then easily see how many clothes you have and just get rid of what you don't wear when it's time to change your wardrobe/drawers.

When I was a kid collected and hoarded everything. Now I'm older I've moved around and lived abroad a couple of times, so I don't have much stuff at all now compared to most people, but still I feel I have loads of stuff I should get rid of. Possessions almost make me anxious these days, to the extent I don't even like getting gifts that I'll feel bad getting rid of.

I've got loads of CDs. I play them and love having them, but I'm not a homeowner with space to keep stuff - I rent a small bedroom, but the thought of not being able to up sticks and go without having to sort through a load of things makes me anxious. The idea of having nothing feels really liberating to me but I think I've probably got some underlying issues going on..

Moving made me realise just how much stuff I owned which I rarely used. I've never been a hoarder but the accumulation of things just occurred over time: DIY/bike stuff you keep just in case it'll be useful, you buy new clothes but don't ditch the old stuff, electronics etc.

Trying to find a practical home for my 500 CD collection in the new house was the final straw and I did something about it.

The first step was the hardest, coming to peace with ditching the CDs. I ripped everything to FLAC and shifted the lot on musicmagpie. Sure it was sad to see a CD that had memorise attached going for 83p but after a few weeks I never thought about it again. One compromise was to keep the few that were signed. I had to be careful to limit that compromise to signed ones and not widen it to special editions/collectable as that would erode my commitment to decluttering. The more special stuff went on eBay to get a better price.

I really thought I'd miss the CDs but now I don't even listen to the FLAC copies as I use Spotify. Best decision I made. I can see it being more difficult with vinyl but the space it liberates it so rewarding. An idea may be to widen a decluttering effort into a proper think about how you use your living space. Suddenly that space full of books/CDs/vinyl/electronics/bike parts becomes floorspace to do yoga on/set up a sewing/hobby table/place a plant. This can give extra drive to your decluttering and help you ditch stuff you're struggling to let go of.

In total I got rid of CDs, clothes, bike parts, furniture, old TVs, shoes, kitchen bits, DIY bits, old toys. Sold 80% of it on here/ebay. 10% went to charity shops. 10% to tip. I don't regret any of it. It was so freeing, mentally and physically to have the extra space. I did sell two things that I now regret and am looking to replace them (a cycling jersey and a side table) but the net result is overwhelmingly positive. I can buy replacements if I decide to.

It can seem a daunting prospect to part with things but once you start seeing the results in terms of space/cash decluttering can become quite addictive.

Just make sure you're a bit stricter when you buy things in the future otherwise you'll end up right back where you started!

TLDR: had a massive clear out, now feel great, you should too.

@Matt101 I'm having some counselling at the moment, it's been an eye opener and some serious soul bearing into how I live, with regard to the attachment to things that briefly made me feel better about life. They counted as I don't earn much, but looking at them now they might as well be anchors weighing my life and my finances down. I have quite a cluttered mind so find I need a clean minimal space, otherwise the resonance is almost deafening if that makes sense. Good thread. At the height of a meltdown, I gave away all my CDs and vinyl, must have been worth a couple of thousand, but realise that was a drowning not waving moment. Clearing out stuff really is that important. Your tips are brilliant.

Really relate to that first paragraph. I almost dread Christmas.

Ever since uni, and mainly because I kept having to move flats every six months, I've lived by the rule that everything I own - except the bikes - should fit into the boot of a car.

Keep vinyl, and good books. The rest can do one.
cough no mention of a handful of Playboy magazines.

I moved into a place in 2001 with 6 black bags - all doable in a Golf. I did leave most vinyl and most books at my mum's.
I moved out 13 years later with only a little more. If you exclude the bikes, I still think I could get everything in a car. More than a boot, but one car journey.

And considering this forum, no-one is ever factoring in the bikes.

577?

Best of luck on your journey. I did the first big effort on a cold rainy weekend with not other plans. Put some music on and made several heaps of stuff to get rid of: a "definitely going" heap, a "not sure but probably going" heap and a "difficult to let go" heap.

Seeing the size of the heaps, and empty spaces on the floor/shelves/cupboards showed the size of the prize if I got rid of them.

I then got rid of the heaps starting with the easiest stuff which then spurred me onto dealing with the harder decisions. I'm pretty ruthless now. My wife's on shaky ground unless she starts justifying her floorspace ;)

Going through this now and I'm kinda surprised at the lack of attachment I feel towards most of my vinyl. This may be helped by the fact that I've just spilled vinyl cleaner everywhere and left a couple of spots on my turntable. FFS.

Got some LTJ Bukem spinning and I'm Zen.

I know for sure I have stacks of vinyl I'm not arsed about. I went through a phase of buying job lots full of absolute shite, or picking up 25p charity shop singles, but... I just can't let it go.

#rep

Just to bring a counterpoint to the above posts. Like most nomadic London dwellers I've managed to keep personal belongings to a minimum so as to make me less fucked when a landlord or Brexit vote kicks me out.

But I did once bring a date to my small flat and she commented on how my place looked like an AirBnb, not a home. Basic IKEA furnishings and no more personal items than would fit in a car. I'll admit it actually stung quite a bit. Later I walked her back to her place which was full of pointless knick-knacks, but at least her home didn't make her look like a hollow sociopath.

I'm putting this thread on ignore in a moment, as I need to declutter my 'Following' page.

#rep

My wife and I had 2 flats-worth of stuff and I had both a storage unit and a garage full of more shit when we moved in together to our house. The house is as small as my flat was, but it does have a garage and a loft. We both decluttered a huge amount. All the CDs were ripped and boxed up and put in the garage. Occasionally I take a bunch of them to the charity shop but I can't bear to get rid of them all at once!

I also had my late wife's stuff to get rid of and she was a worse hoarder than me. I sold a number of her expensive items on eBay which made me decide never to sell on eBay again. After selling her large collection of Sindy dolls and her violin at proper auctions for decent money I donated or discarded everything else. A large amount of designer clothes and accessories to the local hospice for their jumble sales; a bunch of her art materials (she was a mosaic artist) to a school. I also drove a van up to Shropshire to collect everything she had kept up there where she had lived half the time. After a day going through all that I threw away absolutely everything. There were boxes and boxes of unopened post!

I had been paying a fortune for the storage unit for years. Apart from some old car magazines and toy cars which I thought would be nice if kept on shelves in the garage I don't think I kept a single thing. I found some boxed crystal wine glasses in there I didn't even know we owned, so I drink wine out of them now. A much more satisfactory use. I got rid of many many clothes and trainers, half my books, a lot of 'just in case it comes in handy' stuff, some bikes, a lot of furniture. Some guitars.

The process I used when decuttering was pretty simple:
When you think about how long you will live then how long it takes to read a book, are you ever actually going to read any of your books again? Are you actually going to read half the ones in your 'to be read' pile? Do you need 3000 CDs or do you actually need a Mac Mini with a bunch of MP3s on? Are you ever going to fit into those shirts of optimism? Will that jacket really come back into fashion? Do you need quite so many knackered T-shirts saved for the "when I am doing DIY" drawer? Are you really going to do that sport again? Do you even like riding that bike?

I kept all the vinyl though. I'm not a philistine.

But I did once bring a date to my small flat and she commented on how my place looked like an AirBnb, not a home. Basic IKEA furnishings and no more personal items than would fit in a car. I'll admit it actually stung quite a bit. Later I walked her back to her place which was full of pointless knick-knacks, but at least her home didn't make her look like a hollow sociopath.

Was the sex equally as minimalist?

I'm putting this thread on ignore in a moment, as I need to declutter my 'Following' page.

I'm putting you on ignore in a moment, as I need to declutter my 'Following' page.