own less stuff

...but it’s something that has to be continually worked at, or the stuff comes creeping back. I have a big fat bag of clothes for goodwill sitting in the living room. Most of it is stuff that I didn’t even put on this summer, so out it goes. My fiance threw some stuff in the bag as well.

I moved into my new apartment yesterday. I got rid of a bunch of stuff before I moved, but now that I’m slowly unpacking stuff I’m finding things that I’m putting right back into boxes and sticking in the dumpster. I think I’ve become addicted to getting rid of stuff.

I just am sick of clutter. And I spend so much less of my time cleaning, organizing, and maintaining my possessions.

My fiance and I are moving out of this horrible apartment in about a month, but our roommate is staying in it out of an extreme fear of change. We’re selling him some of our stuff, since we own all the living room furniture and he owns nothing. So… passing from my possession so far is a set of wooden T.V. trays, an area rug, DVD player, and a coffee table. The list of stuff we’re selling him may grow, but that’s it so far. Less stuff to move. There’s other stuff that I’m considering just leaving behind… and if he and future roomies don’t want it, then they can deal with it.

My enormous goldfish kicked the bucket and I don’t have the heart and desire to acquire another one… so the 10 gallon aquarium is gone. Along with all its accessories.

Between my fiance and I our book collection tops 300 books, definitely. We have three big bookcases and still pile books in odd places. I managed to cull 20 out of the pile, and he wants to do the same, so that will reduce us by a good 40 books at least. We’re moving in a couple months and I’m not looking forward to moving and reorganizing all these books!

I’m admitting that I hate the way those plaid shorts fit. So they are going… right now!

Gone:

A filing cabinet, a computer desk, a broken fan, and a big bucket that was taking up space under the kitchen sink. Also from the kitchen went a never used waffle maker, some garish mugs, an old cutlery set, and other random dishes. From the bedroom I threw out an old battered portfolio from art school days that I realized I was holding onto for kinda sentimental reasons (I have other nicer, newer portfolios). The old computer is going on Monday to a friend.

I was thinking about when I would finally feel like marking this done… my gut feeling right now is that I can’t yet. There are still areas that I want to purge, like my huge book collection, and the bedroom closet. I am moving in 4 or 5 months, and I’ll probably decide then. Every time I give, sell or throw something away, I think about how it’s one less thing I’ll have to schlep across town…

Today I sold my (never used) silkscreen and all the silkscreen paraphernalia that I had to a coworker who wants to learn to make Tshirts. Now I’m $100 richer and that was taking up a lot of room (I had a lot of inks)

I used to work at an art supply store and I bought all that stuff with my discount when I was temporarily enthusiastic about figuring out how to screen print… that was over 3 years ago, and I never actually got around to using the stuff… and I couldn’t bring myself to give or throw it away. My coworker just randomly asked if I knew where he could get one, and I offered to sell him mine. Everyone’s happy!

Got rid of the big bulky entertainment center that was hulking over our rather small living room. We moved a small table over against the wall and put the TV on it, and the DVD player, etc. on the shelves underneath… looks so much better, and makes for a much more spacious living room. That thing was way too big for the room.

Just sold a DVD on ebay for $60.15! (I didn’t even know the thing was rare) This encouraged me to put another one up on half.com that I previously wasn’t sure about giving up.