Minimalism (The Not Owning Stuff Kind)

thanks to this thread Im seriously considering a major house cleaning. I know I have some old books I can ditch without caring but my one vice, my one major hoard items is........ ... Old school nintendo games. I probably have 150 of them - a piece of my childhood that I can now actually afford! The last time I played any of them? Maybe like a year ago. Most havent been touched in 10+ years. They're just sitting there taking up space and collecting dust - dust that YOU KNOW Ill have to blow outta the cartridge. i know I could sell 90% of them and keep my 15 favorite and still be happy. i'll post up an ebay link if I can actually convince myself that Ill be able to live without Metroid, top gun and blades of steel

^^ I kept a bunch of my old sierra game boxes up until a few years ago for nostalgia, but in the end, I got rid of them. There was no point to keeping them since they just sat on a shelf collecting dust. I didn't even have a 5.25" drive to read the disks with anymore.

"This doesn't seem to bring any sustainable happiness to them. There's the satisfaction during and right after the project. But then it's on to the next money-gobbling project. "

then when there is nothing left to renovate they move house. i like renovating things though.

Originally Posted by longskate88

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To the married guys:

Is it a concensus then that when you get married, minimalism goes out the window? Assume kids and all that..

Yep. I knew that would be the case the moment I stepped into her folks' place. Mrs. T talks a good game about not having things just to have them...but our closets and attics say otherwise.

I used to lead a pretty minimalist lifestyle. Now, I've hit this point where if I needed to, I'd just dump anything/everything at the drop of the hat if it got in my way. If I am not using something, I usually just get rid of it - that policy has only caught me a couple of times in life versus dragging around tons of crap I might never use.

Basically I don't let my stuff own me.

as promised, I put most of my old NES games up on ebay. Im actually quite relieved as they havent been touched in years and were literally collecting dust. Id say I have about 150 with about 10 and the system Ill keep.

My plan is to put up the rare & popular ones now at at least a $10 minimum and see if I can sell them as one offs and then next week, if they dont sell, lot them together with all the crappy and generic ones. I have a lot of popular games but with some titles ebay is so saturated that I wouldnt even get a few dollars, and not really worth the effort.

I started getting lazy with the write ups, I figure if your searching for them then you know what your getting into. But here is my entire megaman collection

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...STRK:MESELX:IT

There's no point in investing in a lot of stuff when you're younger, say under 25. Your tastes are likely to change a lot till you're into your thirties. The urge to purge is a manifestation of that. If I'm wrong, maybe Buddhism is in your future. Just an opinion.

There are merits to that thought, though I think people who have an intrinsic need to acquire are just as likely to keep shifting interests or move on to other areas to nourish that need, regardless of age.

All of the OP applies. I've gotten rid of about 75% of material possessions over the past year and I'm still selling and giving things away.

DVDs I haven't touched yet, I might do what another member did and get rid of the ones that won't be watched again (roughly 250). I thought about getting rid of them all but can't get over having a decent selection for a movie night.

^ My roomate has probably 250 too - there are some not even opened yet, no way he knows what he has and doesnt. And there has never been a movie night. I think its just a collection just to collect them.

People come over and are impressed, but after you watch it once, and with the advances in technology (on demand, netflix, torrents) why even have the physical item?

Living in NYC really teaches you about the value of prioritizing what to keep + toss

I spent about $7000 or so to purchase and "build" a 1993 Honda Accord... one engine failure wasn't enough to deter me but 2 were. I had car parts in storage costing me about $150/mo and I spent most of my time driving the car either driving it to be repaired or to get new parts installed. When the build was complete, I was somewhat relieved, but now that the motor is toast and I no longer have to maintain/move it around I am super relieved.

I don't know about letting go of everything unnecessary. I live with my gf and we have 3 computers. I have a few musical instruments I make music with. My girl has a lot of old knick knacks for decoration. I have a few jackets and pairs of shoes/sneakers. But I've definitely got rid of a ton of stuff since me and my girl moved in together. I probably use or wear everything I have in my possession about twice a month at the minimum.

I will continue to buy new things though even if I don't get rid of the old stuff. Especially clothes-wise. But instead of cheap one season stuff I will really invest in things I can keep. For whatever reason I used to only keep clothes for about 1-2 years. Now I have some clothes I've kept for about 3-5 years that are staples in my collection. I want every piece of clothing I have to be of the same quality. These are the items I don't regret buying.

Originally Posted by Davidko19

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^ My roomate has probably 250 too - there are some not even opened yet, no way he knows what he has and doesnt. And there has never been a movie night. I think its just a collection just to collect them.

People come over and are impressed, but after you watch it once, and with the advances in technology (on demand, netflix, torrents) why even have the physical item?

I dunno, I have about 500-700 DVDs kept in a very discrete and storage integrated in my TV lacquered base and I am happy about having them around.

For me the biggest problem is gifts. I hate getting gifts that clearly aren't something I'd buy, but I'd feel terrible throwing them away (and I don't bother selling things).

I have SO many shirts I've never worn...

Aside from clothes and paper records/study books, I'm pretty minimalist. Although I do have boxes of stuff from my childhood at my parents house, and if they decided to get rid of it, there's no way I'd let it get thrown out.

Originally Posted by Fuuma

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I dunno, I have about 500-700 DVDs kept in a very discrete and storage integrated in my TV lacquered base and I am happy about having them around.

I'd probably just invest in a couple of 2 gig HDs and rip them all. Who wants to keep physical media around?

I plan on living with a minimalistic lifestyle for the rest of my life. One of my best friend's mother had a great concept. Everything she owned was of great quality, but she did not have a lot of anything. I really enjoy this and probably will continue the philosophy for the rest of my life.