own less stuff

I think I like getting rid of stuff, or the idea of getting rid of stuff, a little too much these days. Is that possible? I’m just really obsessed with the idea that “less is more”. If you have a hundred beautiful rocks, you love them less then if you only had one or two rocks. Does that make sense? I don’t know why I used rocks to make the comparison.

Anyway. I think that maybe my thought process is somewhere along the lines of, “If I have less stuff, my life will be less complicated” ...logically, this really can’t be true, right? But my mind thinks so. Brains are powerful things.

I’m just afraid one day I’ll reach that perfect level of less-ness and then regret it. But I haven’t so far.

Long story short: In literal terms, I’m making excellent progress on this goal.

This goal is constantly ongoing, but it’s become a very big part of me. Getting rid of “things” has become a part of who I am. I hate the feeling of being bogged down by possessions. I noticed today when I left the house without my purse I felt much more free.

Today I also got rid of over 50 of my books I still have hundreds sitting on shelves, but the ones I could stand to part with are now gone! Now the books I have fall into three categories: “sort of like” “really like” or “haven’t read”

Half of the books I donated to the library, and they accepted them so gratefully I felt good about myself. Lord knows so many of my books come from their bookstore, I’ll probably see the ones I donated before long, forget that I donated them, and buy them again!

The other half, my manga and books that were in like-new condition I re-sold to Book*Off, a used bookstore. I got much much less than I expected, which was disappointing, but the main thing is that the books are no longer in my house. If I listed them on craigslist or ebay I probably could have gotten more, but I would have been to lazy to bother and the bags of books would have sat around forever!

On a final note (sorry about the length) anyone with this goal should most definitely check out this article:

http://almostfearless.com/2008/06/02/the-10-unexpected-costs-of-owning-things/

It’s helped me stay on track a great deal.

Since two months ago, I feel I’ve really progressed on this goal. My closet now holds very few items that aren’t clothes! (wheras before it was basically a storage unit…)

What I did was, every time a space in my room, like on a shelf, was cleared of something that I got rid of, I went in my closet and found something that could fill the empty space. So…even though it doesn’t look like I have less stuff, I actually do.

In addition I’m taking better care of the things I AM holding on to. I recently got stands to hold my wigs, and my figurines are now dusted and nicely on display. :D

Still too much clutter though, but that’s what ebay is for!! My goal is for everything in my room to have a place that’s either in view, or hidden but easily accessible.

Every time I clean my room I get rid of things – a little here, a little there, and very rarely do I miss the things I’ve gotten rid of.

I like this method, although it doesn’t work if you have a crapload of stuff. But once I went on a possession-reducing frenzy and got rid of a bunch of things, and then later would be like, “What happened to that book I had, about the elephants? I loved that book, where did it go? OH YEAH. I gave it away. Aw, poop.”

The one thing I don’t have any less of is books – in fact, I always seem to be getting more. But I think it’s okay, because I keep my books organized flawlessly and nicely displayed. Does this make them exempt?

Just now I went through my closet and filled two brown paper bags full of clothes I’m getting rid of. And I’m not even halfway done! I was amazed at how much clothing I have that doesn’t fit me, is full of holes, or that I just plain don’t like. :D

This was easier than expected, but I still feel crowded with ‘stuff’...