Budding Minimalist...

[craigr]

I've never been a huge packrat, but I have recently began becoming more minimalist. I have been going through my possessions and donating/selling/giving away anything I've not touched in over a year. I am working my way through each room. Two weeks ago I probably donated about 80% of my wardrobe. Most of it I never wore any longer. I also purged my library of dozens of boxes of books I had read and didn't need for reference. I sold off power tools I only ever used once or twice and could rent again if I needed them in the future. Now I'm in my office and last night made a box full of office supplies to donate that I don't need.

It feels good to get rid of these things and I find I really think about each item I'm buying now very carefully before I decide to spend money on it. As a side benefit, it has also allowed me to focus more on the people, hobbies, and things that are much more important to me with this thought process.

Any other budding minimalists out there? Got any tips? I'm pretty unscientific about it. I just take a box into each room and go through everything. If I hadn't touched it in some time (a year), or even forgot I had it(!), it is a likely candidate for going away.

[MediumTex]

Aspiring minimalist here.

However, I happen to currently be living with three minor children who are maximalists.

[Pointedstick]

Congrats! I'm in the process of doing the same thing right now and am finding it very liberating. One trick I've played on myself was to take things I thought I used a lot (certain books, kitchenware, canned goods) and put them all away in a closet and see how often I go into the closet to retrieve the items. After a month, anything still in the closet goes, no exceptions.

If you have a TV, I would recommend getting rid of that, too. It's a big step, but you've probably got laptop and between Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and the local library, you probably have access to most of what you would want to watch anyway.

Deleting the TV also lets you get rid of the rest of the entertainment-center-related stuff, like those big speakers, the receiver, the cable box, the Blu-ray player, the stereo, the other random set-top boxes, and finally the piece of furniture that all junk was sitting on.

[MediumTex]

Congrats! I'm in the process of doing the same thing right now and am finding it very liberating. One trick I've played on myself was to take things I thought I used a lot (certain books, kitchenware, canned goods) and put them all away in a closet and see how often I go into the closet to retrieve the items. After a month, anything still in the closet goes, no exceptions.

If you have a TV, I would recommend getting rid of that, too. It's a big step, but you probably halv a laptop and between Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and the local library, you probably have access to most of what you would want to watch anyway.

Deleting the TV also lets you get rid of the rest of the entertainment-center-related stuff, like those big speakers, the receiver, the cable box, the Blu-ray player, the stereo, the other random set-top boxes, and finally the piece of furniture that all junk was sitting on.

With the right cords and adapters and a nice monitor or two, a single iphone can be a complete entertainment system.

[craigr]

If you have a TV, I would recommend getting rid of that, too. It's a big step, but you've probably got laptop and between Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and the local library, you probably have access to most of what you would want to watch anyway.

I am keeping the TV simply because the large screen makes it more relaxing for me to watch Netflix, etc. I also play an occasional video game. Ditto the stereo which I use pretty consistently. I did purge about 80% of my DVD collection though. I also got rid of most of my CDs as I use downloaded music mostly now.

I'm thinking about 50% of my office will be reduced at least. Maybe 75% depending on a some things. Then it's off to the garage to do a major purge.

Once this initial phase is done, I'll sweep back through in a few months and re-do it again with items that were in the gray area.

[Reub]

Craig, if you are disposing of any chaps it would be my honor to obtain these from you as a souvenir.

[craigr]

Craig, if you are disposing of any chaps it would be my honor to obtain these from you as a souvenir.

When I got rid of most of my wardrobe I kept all my chaps. That's all I wear now.

[Xan]

Craig, if you are disposing of any chaps it would be my honor to obtain these from you as a souvenir.

When I got rid of most of my wardrobe I kept all my chaps. That's all I wear now.

oohh...  Bad mental image

[doodle]

Extreme minimalist here....let me know when you start getting rid of all your furniture and sleeping on the floor :-)

Congrats on lifestyle shift. I think you will find it extremely liberating. Read thoreau's Walden Pond if you get a chance. Greatest expression of the minimalist lifestyle that I know.

[Austen Heller]

I am also trying to become more of a minimalist.
Sold my house, just to downsize into a smaller rental.  This allowed my to get rid of lots of furniture, tools and lawn care stuff.  Also resulted in mucho time savings (no more upkeep).
Got rid of almost all my clothes. Held onto 1 flannel shirt, 2 sweatshirts, and a few pairs of shorts (I live where it's warm).
Selling my car soon.  I bike a lot, so I am investigating hub motors (connected to a lithium battery) to increase my riding range.
Tyler Durden from 'Fight Club' summed it up well: "The things you own end up owning you."  True dat.
I do still have some gadgets though. The Sonos has been great for simplifying things; condenses a whole stereo system into 1 small box.
At the end of the day, I find that things rarely make me happy any more.  Before I buy stuff, I can already see myself selling it on Craigslist or donating it to Goodwill.
What good is all this money we are all so carefully saving and investing?
The only answer I can think of.....acreage.  At least that can give you some space between yourself and the next guy, for a little while anyway.  But can you own large parcels of land and still be a minimalist?

[Mark Leavy]

I've never been a huge packrat, but I have recently began becoming more minimalist. I have been going through my possessions and donating/selling/giving away anything I've not touched in over a year. I am working my way through each room. Two weeks ago I probably donated about 80% of my wardrobe. Most of it I never wore any longer. I also purged my library of dozens of boxes of books I had read and didn't need for reference. I sold off power tools I only ever used once or twice and could rent again if I needed them in the future. Now I'm in my office and last night made a box full of office supplies to donate that I don't need.

It feels good to get rid of these things and I find I really think about each item I'm buying now very carefully before I decide to spend money on it. As a side benefit, it has also allowed me to focus more on the people, hobbies, and things that are much more important to me with this thought process.

Any other budding minimalists out there? Got any tips? I'm pretty unscientific about it. I just take a box into each room and go through everything. If I hadn't touched it in some time (a year), or even forgot I had it(!), it is a likely candidate for going away.

Maybe it's a Portland thing.  I've spent the last 6 months praciticing living out of just a carry on bag and pretending that my home is a "furnished apartment".  Just to see how much I really need.  In April I spent a month driving through Baja and doing some thinking.  In May, I threw away or gave away everything I own but my jeep and put my house up for sale.  Next Wednesday I will only own my carry on bag, my on-line accounts, the jeep and a few items in a safety deposit box.

I'm still not sure about the jeep...

[Austen Heller]

Maybe it's a Portland thing.  I've spent the last 6 months praciticing living out of just a carry on bag and pretending that my home is a "furnished apartment".  Just to see how much I really need.  In April I spent a month driving through Baja and doing some thinking.  In May, I threw away or gave away everything I own but my jeep and put my house up for sale.  Next Wednesday I will only own my carry on bag, my on-line accounts, the jeep and a few items in a safety deposit box.

I'm still not sure about the jeep...

Mark, that is awesome.  You are where I want to be, just can't quite get that extreme yet.

[craigr]

Maybe it's a Portland thing.  I've spent the last 6 months praciticing living out of just a carry on bag and pretending that my home is a "furnished apartment".  Just to see how much I really need.  In April I spent a month driving through Baja and doing some thinking.  In May, I threw away or gave away everything I own but my jeep and put my house up for sale.  Next Wednesday I will only own my carry on bag, my on-line accounts, the jeep and a few items in a safety deposit box.

I'm still not sure about the jeep...

Wow! Well I was looking around at all this stuff and realized that I only really like doing a few things constantly and it doesn't require a bunch of things. In fact, the more I owned the more it took away from the activities I really care about. Plus you get tired of hobbies and want to move on but you have all this stuff screaming at you about what you used to do. Not to mention wasting money on a bigger place to house it all. So I figured just get rid of it and be careful next time I want to buy something. Most of the things I really enjoy (like traveling, hiking, programming, etc. ) don't require much of anything. In fact for things like travel and hiking the more stuff you have the worse the experience is!

So kudos to you for being so focused. I'm not sure I could do it (I like having a car and use it frequently to get out of town for many days at a time to remote areas). But I'd like to think that all the stuff I really needed could eventually be shrunk down to a 1-2 bedroom apartment if I wanted. Maybe even smaller? Maybe I should travel across Baja and think about this some more...

[Kriegsspiel]

I still live like a college student in my 1 bedroom apartment. When I was in the military I either had government furniture, or a furnished apartment (I lived in Germany, it was really nice furniture...), so it did suck having to buy a dining room table, couch-ish thing, and a bed.  So I have:

Couch/futon
dining room table/chairs - craigslist (IKEA)
shoe rack
coat rack
a little table I have my TV (that I got in 2007) on, with an XBOX 360 that barely fits in the footprint beneath it, it's the basic square one from IKEA
I use a military toughbox (Hardigg case) as a coffee table

In my bedroom I have a platform bed, bedside table, and a little cabinet for papers and my camera.

I have 4 sets of glasses/bowls/plates/etc, plus some extra awesome German beer mugs and gluhwein mugs, and skillet/wok/pot/pressure cooker.

I got rid of a ton of clothes in the winter, and I'll probably go through and get rid of a lot more (maybe 50% of what I have now) this summer.  Honestly though, I don't buy anything like gadgets, clothes, books/DVDs, or whatever, so I don't have that much to get rid of. If I wanted to, I could disassemble my bed and dining room stuff, and move everything I own with the small Uhaul trailer.

So yea, not really a minimalist in the conscious sense of the word, but "minimal" without really trying.

[Alanw]

I can't scale down as much as some on this thread, but the home does need a thorough cleaning out which will take place in the next several months.  My wife would not allow certain things to be eliminated.  However, since we are semi-retired and travel frequently, we have scaled down our travel luggage considerable.  In December we travelled from California to Florida and the Caribbean for 12 days with two carry on bags and no checked luggage.  We will be flying to Portland in July to visit my wife's brother and will avoid checked luggage also.  Not a complete minimalist view but..........baby steps.

[dualstow]

I am a bit of a pack rat but I'm also a minimalist wannabe.
I find it very hard to let go of things, but when I do they are seldom missed.

Some years ago, I found inspiration from this page http://www.time.com/time/nation/article ... -declutter
-- it's still up! Or you can just type time.com/declutter into your browser.

The 100 Thing Challenge is a pledge to cull your belongings to a mere 100 items.

[I Shrugged]

Very encouraging thread!

Currently we have too much house and property.  It's about half of a full time job for my wife and I just to maintain it in spring and summer.  And the equipment requires maintenance and repairs too!  Not so bad in fall and winter when stuff stops growing.  We are shedding things with the aim of putting the house on the market next spring.  It's hard to do.  Not that I have an attachment to the stuff, just that most everything we have now has survived several purges already.  So it's stuff we still use.

I wonder what I'll do with myself if I don't have all this nonsense work to occupy my time.  Maybe I need to go to the Baja too!

[Tortoise]

How about sentimentality? Do any of you keep some old photos, letters, etc. that remind you of your past?

I'm not a pack rat by any means, but I do keep one box full of old photos and letters. I almost never go through the box to relive old memories, but it's one of those things that I just wouldn't feel right getting rid of. Sure, I could scan all of it into digital form, but it wouldn't really be the same.

I don't know... sentimentality is one of those emotions that I struggle with occasionally. More than anything else, it's what causes me to hang onto certain possessions far longer than I should.

[craigr]

How about sentimentality? Do any of you keep some old photos, letters, etc. that remind you of your past?

Yes I am going to. But maybe not all of it. One idea I had read about is minimizing large sentimental items down to just a piece that is small and you'd better appreciate. So instead of keeping a graduation cap, why not just the tassle? Etc.

I don't know... sentimentality is one of those emotions that I struggle with occasionally. More than anything else, it's what causes me to hang onto certain possessions far longer than I should.

Here's the thing I see. I probably have, like you, a box or so of sentimental items like photos, etc. But that's just one box. It's all the other stuff around that's the problem!

[BearBones]

Inspiring thread! I am a materialistic addict (in therapy), and I find that different things bring me down to different degrees. The biggest offenders are those things that need to be maintained, updated/upgraded or repaired frequently. So, electronics, autos, and house/yard are the first to look at. On the other hand, things such as quality tools and timeless clothing do not need to go if they are not demanding much thought, effort and space.

BTW, my kids are older, but if I were to start again I would definitely raise them minimalist so that they can better appreciate the sparse, simple, and mundane. IMO, that's ultimately where inner peace and fulfillment reside. It's kind of like a view of the ocean occurred by overgrown brush and trees. Do a little clearing and you go, "OMG, what a spectacular view!"

All theoretical so far...

[Ralphy]

It feels good to get rid of these things and I find I really think about each item I'm buying now very carefully before I decide to spend money on it.

Having suffered the tedium of selling and donating a majority of my possessions in the past year, the first thing I ask myself when I'm tempted to acquire something is, "How big of a pain in the butt will it be to get rid of this thing in a week/month/year when I no longer have a use for it?"  That alone has nixed most non-essential purchases, which has been a major savings rate driver. 

[gizmo_rat]

Mrs rat and I have always lived like college students, but our kids compare our lifestyle to their friends and lament a lack of chocolate, crisps, iphones, TVs in bedrooms and so on.

Kids don't do Sparta.

[clacy]

I would be a quasi-minimalist if I could, but I'm married to a quasi-pack rat and we have two small kids, so it will be a few years before I can purge like I want to.

[l82start]

i went through a couple minimalist purges when i was younger, it always feels good to cut out the unnecessary, and it has had a beneficial influence on my buying habits..    like a few posters before me i am now married, so a major purge is unlikely but we do occasionally trim some of the excess..

what do the minimalists here do about family heirlooms?  i have ended up with a few and have no interest in letting them go due to sentimentality and the fact i like the continuity/connection/history that having things belonging to grand, great=grandparents and beyond, brings.

[Tyler]

I've found that traveling a lot for work really influenced my minimalist tendencies.  Living out of a carry-on for weeks at a time gives you a good perspective on what is really necessary for happiness. 

For family heirlooms, I've found it helpful to give them to other siblings.  You don't always have to get something out of your life to get it out of your house.