become less attached to material possessions

I found some DVDs that I have been wanting for a long time at an amazing price so I bought them. I ended up buying a few others I wanted at the same time. This is exactly the kind of behaviour I am trying to avoid.

I feel like I am becoming attached to things again. Now that I have had a job again for a few months I don’t feel as guilty about buying stuff I don’t need.

The less things you buy the less things there are to become attached to. Prevention is better than cure as they say.

Whenever I try throwing something away I get criticized for doing it by someone who says that I might need it in the future even though I have thought about it very carefully myself before doing it. I end up having to throw things away in secret for fear of someone trying to stop me.

I am sure a lot of people who are trying to achieve this goal have had the same problem and I sympathize with you.

I have a collection of programs that I keep a copy of. I hate all the bloat and slowness of new versions of a lot of software so that is why I keep older versions of the software.

I hate being attached to these programs because I know that eventually I won’t be able to run them like the way a lot of DOS programs don’t run anymore.

I have been forcing myself to use new programs that do the same thing as the old programs and I don’t enjoy it but I don’t have a choice.

I got rid of all my old university textbooks. I have no idea why I was keeping them. I have not used any of them since I left university and I know that I never will. I think I just kept them around to impress people.

I went through all of my stationery and decided what I needed and didn’t need and threw all the stuff I didn’t need away. I discovered that I am a pen addict because I have about a hundred pens.

I stopped buying the PC gaming magazine I always used to buy at the beginning of the year. It didn’t make me feel as bad as I thought it would. I have now decided that I will stop buying the PC magazine I always get but I will only stop buying it at the end of the year. I hardly read it anymore so it is a waste of money. I want to still get rid of my huge magazine collection but I hate the idea of doing that.

I got rid of the clothes that I thought I would never wear again.

- My book collection
- My financial statements
- My Computer
- Old university documents
- Stationery
- Software
- PC Games
- My magazine collection
- Backups of the data
- Some items of clothing
- Lego
- Artwork from when I was a child

Now I need to figure out which things I still need and which I can get rid of.

I have had my Lego for many years now and I have of course not played with it in a long time. I want to get rid of it but there are 2 things stopping me. The first is that Lego can become very valuable if you keep it for a long time. The second is that it used to be my favourite toy and I hate the idea of getting rid of it. The problem is that it is just sitting there doing nothing. I have no really good reason to keep it.

I threw away the Financial Mails that I had in my cupboard. I don’t know why I have been keeping them. I won’t be buying any more of them.

I also threw away some of the coverdiscs that came with the computer magazines that I used to get every month. The software is so out of date that it won’t even run anymore.

I smashed the last of my CDs. They were all my favourite ones. My collection was kind of weird and embarrassing so it felt good to smash them. I do realize what a terrible waste of money it was but I wouldn’t be caught dead selling them in a second hand shop.

Next is my DVD collection. I have about 30 of them I think. I must either sell them or smash them.

I smashed more of my CDs. This time is was a lot of my favourite ones. It felt good though because my taste in music is very embarrassing so it is better that they are now gone. I smashed thousands of rands worth of CDs and it didn’t feel that bad.

All I have left now is my 20 most favourite CDs of all time. I went to great lengths to build up this collection. I am going to smash them all. I am so tired of them that I don’t think it will feel that bad.

My aunt has travelled all over the world and has collected lots of things from her travels. She recently had to move out of her house and get a smaller one because she doesn’t have much money anymore. She now has no space for all the things she collected and she had to give them away. She gave me some of them and it made me very sad for her.

What has happened to her makes me want to get rid of my possesions even more than before.