I wrote in an earlier post about an interesting experience I had with my daughters regarding all the different ways people can get or buy “stuff”. I mentioned how I had an opportunity for one of those great teachable moments with my daughters. You know, when you can talk about a particular principle using a real life example, without sounding too preachy. I was hopeful that they would not only hear what I had to say, but actually listen and understand the message and concepts.
Well, we have done a good job accumulating stuff!
This last week Dianne and I found ourselves on the other side of the experience regarding the accumulation of things for our home. We have been sifting through our items trying to eliminate the stuff that is not needed or important to us anymore. I think many of us have lived this experience when moving, really finding out just how much stuff has accumulated. For us, it is surprising that in a short 4 years, we have added to our hoard of stuff.
I guess I should clarify – we are definitely not hoarders. We simply have succeeded in filling the space in our current three-bedroom home, with the things from our former two-bedroom place and the additional accumulation of furniture. Now that we are definitely downsizing and moving back to a smaller space, we need to evaluate what we have, and determine if it is important enough to keep.
Bombarded by advertisements to buy stuff
How did a couple of generally frugal minded people add more stuff to their home? It was easy, our stuff tends to expand to the amount of space we have in our home. We had an extra room, garage, and storage shed to fill with stuff. Nature abhors a vacuum – we had to fill the space. Of course, we had some influence from advertisers.
There is definitely a science and art to how advertisers pitch items. If you step back and observe, we are bombarded with a multitude of advertisements in our daily life. One’s drive to work is plastered with billboards, banners, and business signs. Even for those of us who work from home, there is TV, radio, direct mail, and newspapers that assault the senses and attempt to compel us to buy something. For those who have never heard George Carlin talk about stuff, you have to check this video out.
When you fire up the computer and internet, you soon see the spam emails and online ads. During the day, you can even receive text message advertisements on your phone. Don’t forget about the telemarketers calling, usually positioned around your dinnertime.
I have seen estimates that people receive from 250 to 500 advertising messages a day on average. What is interesting is that paying for the things we see on TV is generally promoted as “savings”. Just use your credit card now to order, since “operators are standing by” – “but wait, if you call now we will double the offer”.
Darn, it is too late, I already ordered! They have simplified every purchase down to using credit so that you don’t actually have to think about if you actually have the money to buy their products.
Visitors describe our home environment as an uncluttered Zen space
We tend to lean toward a minimalist look in our home. We don’t collect anything other than rental properties, retirement accounts, and specific savings funds. There are few doodads, chotskies, trinkets, or assorted stuff adorning our bookshelves and tabletops. For that matter, we have only one bookshelf, due to downsizing our book collection years ago, in favor of the free library.
Friends and family come to our home and remark that it feels uncluttered to them. Right now, I can count two items hanging on a 15-foot living room wall. In fact, the whole living room has six things on or against the wall.
In a recent visit to my parent’s home, I counted 32 items hanging on their living room wall. It seems like they were afraid of any empty space. They claim my ultimate goal is to get down to a loincloth and one bag! They go on to comment that nearly everything I own is for sale. (There is some truth to that statement – well most everything at least.)
We feel that we don’t have extra stuff. Then why is that we seem to be packing so many boxes?
A quick decision tree to get rid of stuff
The boxes are beginning to pile up in the master bathroom and kitchen. We are finding 8-year-old cornstarch, 6-year-old cane sugar, and other assorted items of nearly a decade in the kitchen. The bathroom is yielding similar buried treasures that have out lasted their shelf life. This provides and easy and instant decision to trash.
For those harder to make choices we have created a decision tree. We are making some quick decisions before we ponder packing our stuff, considering these three basic approaches:
- Do we need this item?
- If yes, pack it and move
- If no, then decide if we should sell, give away, or recycle/trash
The key to this decision tree is to make the decision quickly and not dwell on the ramifications and “what “if’s” too much. Usually the first decision is the best. Most of the stuff can be replaced if it is really missed and needed.
Two more weeks of hundreds of decisions for our stuff
Over the next two weeks, we will continue to face decisions of whether to keep or get rid of an item before we move. The new place has less overall square footage and little storage space. We really don’t want to move something that we will end up getting rid of later. It is better to make that decision now and be done. BTW – the move is only one-half mile away.
We have added some additional complexity and challenges to the move because we are also doing some remodeling work prior to moving in. This involves picking colors, designs, textures, all of what seems like exhaustive decisions to make. We have definitely added complexity in the short term to our lives. The hope is that this move will actually make decisions easier for us in the future. We will not be doing any additions; we simply can’t due to the HOA rules and restrictions. We will not have any more room to purchase or add stuff to the smaller footprint home.
It feels like we need to make hundreds of decisions regarding what to keep and how to remodel the new place. Dianne and I are both suffering from decision fatigue at this point. Again, I have to keep this in perspective; we are blessed and fortunate to have the means and opportunities to make these decisions. We feel like we are getting very close to curing our “Just One More Year” syndrome that we have suffered from for numerous years. The next couple of weeks should get interesting.
Thanks for reading and we will provide some more updates on our downsizing project soon.
Photo Copyright : Ioulia Bolchakova
Young says
It gives me a headache every time I think about how to get rid of all my stuff. I loathe it so much that I don’t even want to have a garage sale, just throw everything away with my eyes closed, however we do have a few valuables that can’t be sold too cheap. It would be easier, if we were living in a middle class neighborhood, neighbors will buy everything. I’d love to buy things I have at a bargain price, if I were my neighbor. Well, I got to figure something out before it sends me to a nut house. Good luck on your downsize.
Bryan says
Hi Young,
It gives me a headache too! You understand the dilemma we are facing with what to keep and what to get rid of in our home. The older you get, the more time you have to accumulate stuff. It certainly doesn’t make the process any easier.
I try to keep it in perspective – when I am gone from the earth, none of this stuff will really matter.
Bryan
Abigail @ipickuppennies says
I remember when we were in Seattle, I didn’t think we had much extra stuff in our one-bedroom apartment.
But when we had to move to Phoenix with an 8′ x 7′ x 6′ cube plus whatever we could fit in the car… Suddenly, there were a lot of extraneous items that didn’t really matter to us.
It’s kind of an interesting effect.
Bryan says
Wow Abby! That is amazing that you got everything down to a 8′ x 7′ x 6′ cube plus what you packed in the car. When we moved to Sedona, we got everything into an 18 foot U-Haul and we pulled our one car behind the truck. Granted, the U-haul was full! 🙂
This time, we are using some movers to haul the big stuff. We should have the other smaller and more breakable items moved by the end of the year.
Stockbeard says
The Hoarding issue is always an interesting discussion with my wife. She surely likes trinklets, and I used to buy lots of unnecessary (and expensive) gadgets. I’ve been progressively getting rid of stuff, but I must admit I’m having a hard time deciding to throw away something that still has value in my eyes. A good example: a pile of DVD nobody wants to buy from me, and that I know I won’t watch again in the next 10 years… but it’s still my DVD collection, why would I put it in the trash?
Bryan says
Stockbeard,
I fully understand how a person could hoard. I collected tools, books, CD’s, and DVD’s for many years.
A divorce 10 years ago put everything into sharp perspective for me. The material things did not mean as much to me as they used. Sure, I still have some weak moments. I sold nearly all my books, CD’s, and DVD’s. Those are readily available at the local library.
The challenge has been to let go of my tools. I have a full size rolling toolbox still located in Colorado that one of these days I will get rid of or finally move to Sedona.
Bryan
ARB says
Classic George Carlin right there.
I’m not a hoarder, but I can’t stand throwing out stuff. Mainly due to laziness. I can’t stand having to sit down and go through everything, organize stuff into piles, and then actually dispose of everything. It’s a pain in the ass. The flow chart you made actually is a great way to simplify everything, but the fact that a flow chart is needed to simplify the act of throwing stuff away proves my point that it’s all such a pain.
Plus, I’m the type to have a thousand “What ifs” flowing through my head in regards to getting rid of stuff I haven’t used in years. Then again, in my defense, sometimes that legitimately happens, me using something I haven’t touched in years. Rarely, but it has happened.
Sincerely,
ARB–Angry Retail Banker
Bryan says
ARB, I am really a reformed collector. I one time I had accumulated thousands of books, movies, albums, and CDs. They were all nicely stored on the dozens of shelves and racks in my home at the time. Getting divorced and moving from a a 4,000 sq. ft. home to a rented room in a house a thousand miles away with several other roommates changed my view on stuff.
I recorded all the music and put on iTunes so I could listen through my first generation iPod. I was once of those guys that bought into Steve Job’s “a thousand songs in your pocket”. I bought the biggest one at the time that could hold 10,000 – 15,000 songs. My music would not all fit on the iPod but at least I did have it all saved digitally. I sold 90% of my CD’s over 3 years on eBay, gave nearly all the rest to the local library, and have about 30 remaining today, left that will probably only be pried from my cold dead hands.
The books, I pared down fast. I sold maybe 20% of them on eBay, 30% to used book stores, and gave the rest (other than about 20) to the local library. The albums – still have them all stored in Colorado at my parents.
I had a more difficult time during the divorce with all the “what ifs” in my live from my personal and family perspective, than my stuff. I am now less connected to our stuff than Dianne is at this point. My earlier experiences of losing so much overnight kept things in perspective. I also have a new perspective of how fire victims feel when they lose their belongs in a fire.
Everything comes from the earth and eventually finds its way back…