Americans are slaves to stuff.

I could stock an REI.

Have gotten rid of a bit in the past few months. Sold a tent. Gave a backpack to a niece who is taking up hiking.

Clutter is bad chi.

In another window I have a shirt in my REI "shopping cart."

You may have just saved me $29.

But it originally cost $65 so buying it would "save" $36.

Decisions....

That's it in a nutshell, going broke while saving money.

Benjammin, I truly feel your pain!!!

I am currently cleaning out my garage with 99% ruthlessness and 100% lack of mercy. If I haven't used it in a year (usually during the last 7 years) and it isn't a critical piece of survival Bug In type of gear,,,,,then it's gone!!!!!

In regards to the survival gear question, I'm divvying up my excess between two ETS'ers and sending the gear to them. It's understaood that if I send them something that they have no use for, then they will find someone nearby that can use that extra piece of equipment.

Great topic.

A basic truth of the human psyche that gets in our way when we want to "de-stuff" our lives...

People are more motivated by loss (or fear thereof) than gain (or promise thereof).

How often do we find ourselves saying "But what if I need it for..." and the like? The truth is we are more worried about what happens if we don't have it than motivated by whatever small gain we might garner by keeping it.

If you really want to de-stuff your life, recognize that tendency in all of us and push it aside for what it is... fear.

That's my psuedo-philosophical moment of the week. -smirk-

As it turns out that REI shirt on sale for $29 also is subject to an additional 20% off, making it $23.

So I bought two.

I'm a consumer-patriot.

America needs us.

:-0

I grew up in a household where my mom saved all the bacon grease in a can in the fridge, and when it filled up, she tossed it and started a new one. One day I asked her why, and she said it was something her mom had done and didn't really know why. Ironically, if she had asked *me*, I could have told her exactly why--she was born in 1935 and my Scots grandmother was contributing that grease to the "war effort."

Unfortunately, growing up that close to the Depression and war years influenced my mom's habits and hence my own. I've also lived through periods of deprivation, one a very bad time when meat for the month was literally a couple 3# boxes of bacon ends. Rearing 7 kids on a farm that had limited water during the summer meant piles of extra clothes. Not to mention enough food to outfit Coxie's Army at a moment's notice.

So while I'm mentally capable of surviving just about anything, I'm emotionally attached to my "stuff." Stuff=security. And I'm also guilty of having to move one pile in order to get to something I really use, albeit occasionally. I've read more decluttering and organizing books than I can remember, but the stuff persists.

I refuse to do garage sales as they are much more hassle than they're usually worth. I've also had excellent experience on eBay as both a buyer and seller, but that too takes time. DH has sold several things on eBay, but his junk is actually collectible. We actually have one of those "go-between" outfits in our dinky little town, but most of my stuff wouldn't be worth the effort.

Then I discovered Freecycle, and that my trash is truly someone else's treasure. It's really good karma to be able to let go of your stuff, and between that and Goodwill, I've been able to "release" a lot of perfectly good things to happy, grateful people. In return, I've gotten items that I genuinely needed for free--like over 100 brand new frames for the beehives we're getting this spring.

There's nothing wrong with re-gifting either. I just tell the new recipient, "you know, someone gave me this/I had this just sitting there collecting dust, and I really thought you might be able to make use of it/like it." The recipient is usually touched by your thoughtfulness, and you're twice blessed by your generosity and a shiny new freed up space.

Jane

I belong to Accumulators Anonymous--it's a twelve step program: it's only twelve steps to the dumpster

Someday, I must re-inventory and photograph the thousands of dollars worth of custom leather craft tools I own. It may make you feel better about the three items.

Of course, there is one problem.....

I will have to clean the garage to get to the roll around tool chest they are stored in.

Oh yeah, I know there was someone here on ETS looking for a custom knife sheath recently. It isn't that I didn't want to do it, It would have been a year of waiting on me to clean that part of the garage to get to the tools. Please take no offense.

I had a friend who used to shop heavily at the town dump. I was teasing him about it at the coffee shop one day by asking him about their warranty.
His answer was answer was that the warranty was unbeatable, all you had to do was return it and get back what you paid with no questions asked.

6 months after that the township paid the town Reeve's uncle to be the guard on the dump and he set up a second hand table. (Just gotta love small town politics)

Yeah, we are slaves to our "Stuff" we haul it from place to place in semi trucks every time we move.

Oh no, not another leather tool freak?!!!

I have boxes full of leather, dyes, tools, patterns, books, etc. I'm also over $1,000 into it, and even have an old saddle I started working on 7 years ago that I haven't touched since then except to move it from place to place. Tandy keeps sending me emails and catalogs, and I just have to delete them or throw them in the garbage unopened because there's always one more tool or pattern or leather on sale that I just can't resist. Ugh...

I've just gone through my wardrobe again last weekend and tossed half a dozen shirts and pants to the wife to take to Goodwill collection, and yet my closet is still full of clothes.

Then there's all that cast iron sitting in my garage, I reckon I probably have over two tons of it, 90% of which I haven't used in the past 5 years.

Then there's all my cookbooks. I now have two 6 foot shelving units full of cookbooks. I just bought another one at Christmas. I also gave half a dozen to my youngest daughter (my big culinary arts books) since she is working to become a chef someday. I should probably think about scanning them and putting them on DVDs or something.

Then there's the war room. Besides the 1/2 ton gun safe that is full and takes up 1/4 of the room, there's also the shelves of hunting, fishing, hiking and survival gear, and boxes of reloading supplies, tackle boxes, heavy coats, waders, tents, sleeping bags, backpacks, gun cases, gun cleaning supplies etc. I have no placed to set up a reloading bench now until I can rearrange and/or get rid of some of the clutter in that room.

I could go on, the garage is unusable as a garage because it is packed full of tools, decorations, and stuff that we couldn't get in the house, like a spare clothes dryer and dishwasher. It just goes on and on.