Becoming a minimalist

[sixstringsteve]

Congrats Andrew, that's fantastic. Once you've freed yourself from emotional clutter it's tough to watch friends driving 4 hours out of their way to save $50 on something they don't need. Oh well, that was all of us once. It's amazing how much simpler and freer life is for me now. And it's crazy how fast the bank account adds up when you're not buying junk you don't need.

Nora is great. We like Melissa Alexandria as well. The minimalists are great too. There are tons of great minimalist channels and podcasts out there.

 

[smartass_kid]

My storage unit is a wake-up call every time I go. I am in the process of selling off lots of stuff, which is how I paid for what I have. But, I haven't been buying /selling for two years.

I have even been looking at my project vehicles and see that I have enough to last me. The Model A is the last major project for me. I probably won't be on that for another year.

Let us know what hot rod goodies you will be getting rid of. You've got some good stuff lol

 

[Troop92]

We're expecting our second child in 8 weeks, and what with all this time on my hands (yay unemployment?) I have started deep cleaning/decluttering the house. What standard have you been using to toss stuff? Haven't used in a year? 6 months? I find myself playing the "well.... I might use it?" game too often.

 

[sixstringsteve]

Congrats on #2 kiddo. Here's what I do:

Start simple. If it hasn't been used in 12 months, ditch it. If you still have too much stuff after this initial purge, consider moving to stuff that hasn't been used in 6 months, but adjust it to make it work for you. There's no rule, and you'll be the best judge.

If you're worried "what if i might use it?" then put it in a box. Go back a month later and open the box. If you find yourself thinking "why on earth was I hanging on to this?" then ditch it. If you did need it during that month, you'll know exactly where it is, and you'll be glad you didn't throw it out. If you're still not sure, leave it in the box for another month. The box technique really helped me. it was so funny 3 months later looking at the box thinking "I can't believe I was hanging on to this."

After a few "box" experiences, you'll have adjusted your thinking and buying behavior to where you can anticipate what you'll need and what you won't. In the grand scheme of things, you'll probably ditch 1 or 2 items that you wish you hadn't (and you'll ditch hundreds of things you'll be glad you did). There's no way to avoid this, so just accept it as a fact, and as you learn what you need and what you don't, you can re-purchase the one or two items you shouldn't have gotten rid of. It'll be worth it.

One of the biggest surprises to me was not only getting rid of stuff, but making better purchase decisions. I now walk into a store planning to buy something. If I see something that wasn't on my list I remind myself "I didn't need this item yesterday, so I don't need it today." If a week later I still "need" that item, then I can make a more informed decision. This whole mindset will change how you look at advertising and how you let it affect you. It's been an amazing journey for me.

 

[Troop92]

Congrats on #2 kiddo.

Thanks, man. We're excited, a little girl. Thankfully we got all the baby stuff for my son in neutral colors two years ago.

If you're worried "what if i might use it?" then put it in a box. Go back a month later and open the box. If you find yourself thinking "why on earth was I hanging on to this?" then ditch it. If you did need it during that month, you'll know exactly where it is, and you'll be glad you didn't throw it out. If you're still not sure, leave it in the box for another month. The box technique really helped me. it was so funny 3 months later looking at the box thinking "I can't believe I was hanging on to this."

Yeah, I really like the box idea. I know that I logically won't use the stuff that would go in the box, but maybe just the idea of a cut/dry toss out is too abrupt...

One of the biggest surprises to me was not only getting rid of stuff, but making better purchase decisions. I now walk into a store planning to buy something. If I see something that wasn't on my list I remind myself "I didn't need this item yesterday, so I don't need it today." If a week later I still "need" that item, then I can make a more informed decision. This whole mindset will change how you look at advertising and how you let it affect you. It's been an amazing journey for me.

I agree with this completely - we've been doing it since December when my contract was cut. I'm fortunate enough to get unemployment during the transition to a new opportunity, and even though my wife is only part time now, we've actually been about to ADD to our bank account monthly. I didn't think that would be possible, since we'd really cut back prior in prep for baby and paying off stuff. Small blessings, I guess.

 

[sixstringsteve]

Awesome, sounds like you're already well on your way. Best of luck.

 

[Rot Box]

Feeling pretty good.. I'm thinking I could easily fit all my tools parts and bikes etc into a single bay of a normal sized garage. Whereas a few months ago I had trails leading though my 20' x 50' foot shop.

My wife finally talked me into moving. FarmVille isn't doing it for us anymore for a number of reasons. Last year we had talked seriously about it and the thought of moving all my stuff was beyond stressful. At this point there is still some clutter, but I'm not stressed at all---well not yet anyway haha.

I don't consider myself a minimalist, but this feeling of eliminating all the unfinished projects and massive clutter that was dragging me down is pretty amazing. I hope our new house will be smaller, on much less land and have a much smaller shop/garage. Sounds crazy right?!

 

[sixstringsteve]

Awesome Andrew, that's really great. What surprised me the most is how much free time I gained now that I don't have to stress and maintain my projects.

 

[Rot Box]

Awesome Andrew, that's really great. What surprised me the most is how much free time I gained now that I don't have to stress and maintain my projects.

I'm already starting to experience more free time and I'm loving it. There was a time when all of my camping gear fit into a small action packer and a backpack. I'd throw it in the Rot Box, point at a random spot on a map and drive there. More time and less worries---hoping to get back to that.

 

[jeeper]

I brought home a trailer load of stuff that I didn't really 'need'.. I also have a stack of tires in my shop.. and a few unfinished projects. 2 of my trailers are not where they should be, and are being parked in my driveway. I am feeling cluttered and overwhelmed. It's amazing how much stress I feel right now just because things are not where they should be, and are cluttering my space..

 

[sixstringsteve]

If i had waited to get fair market value for all my stuff, my storage unit would still be full of stuff. Once I got rid of a few things, I realized there was a cost to hanging on to it (stress).

Basically, you have two options.
1. Sell it for fair market value, while paying stress tax for the next few month
2. forget about what it's worth, sell it for half price or donate it, and move on with your life.

It helped that my stuff was all in a storage unit and I was paying a hundred bucks a month to store it. I sold most of my stuff for 30% of what it eas worth, or i donated it.

I totally get where you're coming from though, I had a lot of money tied up in my stuff, and at first it was tough to sell it for 50% of what it was "worth" in my eyes.

Once I started feeling the freedom of having less stuff in my life, that outweighed the "worth" of the posessions. It became a fun exercise of giving my stuff to people who I knew would appreciate it and use ot.

Most americans arent born minimalists. Most people will have to drastically change a few key behaviors to make a lasting change. The fist behavior that needs to change is our spending/purchasing habbits. If we can't stop buying stuff, no matter how good the deal, no amount of garage purge days will make up for it.

I don't browse ksl looking for a deal anymore. That's how I ended up with half of my stuff. Sure, you could flip a few things for a small profit, but it's going to "cost" you more than you'd expect. Itll get in the way of a stress free environment. Eventually, the freedom of not having a ton of stuff will outweigh the best ksl find ever.

 

[RogueJeepr]

Im trying to wrap up some projects to clear up some clutter. Its going slow but next year I can do some real progress and a huge life change.

 

[jeeper]

My wife does laundry on Mondays. She nicely sets all my cloths on my side of the bed, and then I am supposed to fold and put them away... However I usually come to bed late, and toss them all on the floor. Then I spend the week picking through cloths on the floor.. Then she does laundry, and I just add to my floor pile. Every few weeks I finally get sick of the pile and take care of it. Today was that day. Then, because I am already stressed and cluttered, I just started removing cloths from the closet that I don't need or wear. My wife joined me also. Before I knew it, we had baskets full of cloths to get rid of. Our room and closet feel so much better.

It was fun to go through the process of some of the cloths we (mostly she) got rid of.
'This is the dress we bought in Mexico. I don't wear it, and don't like the way it fits. But we bought it in Mexico'
'This is the fmf shirt you gave me when we were dating.. Is old and worn out.. But you gave it to me'

So we shared a quick memory about them, and out they went.
Already forgotten.

Once we realize the 'item' isn't the actual memory or emotion we are trying to keep, it's easy to move past it. Keep the memory, toss the clutter.

 

[Tonkaman]

That sounds a lot like Elaina. She has an emotional attachment to everything!

It always feels like sweet relief when you can breakthrough the nostalgia and see the junk

 

[sixstringsteve]

Once we realize the 'item' isn't the actual memory or emotion we are trying to keep, it's easy to move past it. Keep the memory, toss the clutter.

Congrats, that's a great place to be. When you watch the show hoarders, you realize that it's emotional attachment everyone puts to every tissue or receipt that makes it so hard to diacard.

If there's something sentimental, I just take a picture (or video) of it.

I wanted my wife to make a quilt of all our significant tee shirts over the years, but instead we just made a 3 minute video, telling the story of each shirt, then we donated the shirts. It was a great way to keep the memory alive without the items, and without the time of making a quilt. Now we have more time to spend together.

 

[RogueJeepr]

Pretty soon your going to have to purge through all your videos. What to keep, and discard.

 

[Rot Box]

The sentimental things were the hardest to let go of. I had a lot of things that were my grandpas or things given to me by family members that I knew meant a lot to them. I don't remember my grandpa by his possessions and that's what I had to keep telling myself. If I moved would I take this with me? I said no to 99.9% of the sentimental items. It's hard asking family members if they want something back because I don't want it anymore (or never did in the first place) but once it's gone the relief far outweighs the stress of kicking it around or stewing over it and with that comes a valuable lesson to not acquire that kind of stuff in the future. I don't remember trips by the souvenirs I've collected or jr. high/high school by all the yearbooks. I remember that when I reminisce with the people I was with or look through the pictures stored on my hard drive. I took pictures of some souvenirs and a few highlights of the yearbooks and tossed them.

I found most of the things I had 'of value' were only valuable to me and the value that I had somehow fabricated in my head---which was usually more than the item would ever be worth to anyone lol. I could have spent the next ten years selling this stuff on KSL or eBay. I gave half of my tools away to family or friends. Tools I had never used in the 9 years I've lived here. I had a large assortment of air tools and I've never once owned an air compressor, but my friends do and some of them use that kind of stuff daily. I'm sure I could borrow it one day if needed. I think most will agree that selling stuff on KSL can be a nightmare in itself. Most of the valuable stuff I had was given away to someone who could use it or tossed/recycled/donated. I made almost no money off of valuable items and have not looked back or regretted it once.

At this point I've been completely consumed by minimalism. I'm not there yet and I'm not sure how far this road will take me but I love the mind set and I love the impact it's had on my life so far. At first I was just cleaning out and decluttering.. felt great. A few trips to the dump/recyclers and lots of donations will give anyone a heart warming sensation. After the fourth or fifth TRUCK LOAD I really had to sit down and ask myself wtf I was thinking after all these years of hoarding.. yes hoarding.

I'm two weeks away from moving into our new house! Luckily for me my wife has a minimalistic outlook as well and has been my hero when it comes to helping me declutter. We've already started packing up and I'm really thinking my family of four can easily move everything we own in my 8' pickup bed and a 20' inclosed trailer Haha we'll see.

 

[Tonkaman]

The sentimental things were the hardest to let go of. I had a lot of things that were my grandpas or things given to me by family members that I knew meant a lot to them. I don't remember my grandpa by his possessions and that's what I had to keep telling myself. If I moved would I take this with me? I said no to 99.9% of the sentimental items. It's hard asking family members if they want something back because I don't want it anymore (or never did in the first place) but once it's gone the relief far outweighs the stress of kicking it around or stewing over it and with that comes a valuable lesson to not acquire that kind of stuff in the future. I don't remember trips by the souvenirs I've collected or jr. high/high school by all the yearbooks. I remember that when I reminisce with the people I was with or look through the pictures stored on my hard drive. I took pictures of some souvenirs and a few highlights of the yearbooks and tossed them.

I found most of the things I had 'of value' were only valuable to me and the value that I had somehow fabricated in my head---which was usually more than the item would ever be worth to anyone lol. I could have spent the next ten years selling this stuff on KSL or eBay. I gave half of my tools away to family or friends. Tools I had never used in the 9 years I've lived here. I had a large assortment of air tools and I've never once owned an air compressor, but my friends do and some of them use that kind of stuff daily. I'm sure I could borrow it one day if needed. I think most will agree that selling stuff on KSL can be a nightmare in itself. Most of the valuable stuff I had was given away to someone who could use it or tossed/recycled/donated. I made almost no money off of valuable items and have not looked back or regretted it once.

At this point I've been completely consumed by minimalism. I'm not there yet and I'm not sure how far this road will take me but I love the mind set and I love the impact it's had on my life so far. At first I was just cleaning out and decluttering.. felt great. A few trips to the dump/recyclers and lots of donations will give anyone a heart warming sensation. After the fourth or fifth TRUCK LOAD I really had to sit down and ask myself wtf I was thinking after all these years of hoarding.. yes hoarding.

I'm two weeks away from moving into our new house! Luckily for me my wife has a minimalistic outlook as well and has been my hero when it comes to helping me declutter. We've already started packing up and I'm really thinking my family of four can easily move everything we own in my 8' pickup bed and a 20' inclosed trailer Haha we'll see.

Well done sir!

 

[ricsrx]

i am thinking about it.....i just cant throw it out, if only.....

 

[jeeper]

i am thinking about it.....i just cant throw it out, if only.....

Having been to your place, there is a LOT you actually CAN throw out.. and would like too.. The 10 sets of dry rotted tires for example. There will never be a need or use for them. you want them gone.
There is no requirement on what you have to get rid of, just what you want too.

Time is a big factor. It would take an entire day just to get rid of your tires (dismounting, loading, etc..) So it is hard to do when there are a million other projects going on.


But, having stuff gone is kinda fun..