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Collector to Minimalist

I am making a slow transition from a collector of collectibles, memorabilia, clothes, and souveniers to a minimalist.

I realized many years ago that I don’t like people going through my collections. This broadens pretty quickly to say that I don’t like people going through my stuff — period. I am pretty indiscriminate about this too, so I would be just as unhappy and nervous when a friend or even a girlfriend would rummage through my stuff as I would be if it were my brother Steven (I absolutely hate it when he goes through my stuff because he is nosey and has sticky fingers — in my mind. He disagrees with this assessment entirely.)
The next problem with all of this is that I really like people. I like to be around people; I like people to like me; I like to cook for people; I just like people in general, but I worried when they were around some of my stuff.

These two mutually exclusive sets of sentiments forced me into a decision every time my love for people would bring someone close to all of my stuff. I had been choosing to just keep my friends and family away from my stuff up until now. Now I have decided to just get rid of all non-essential, non-replaceable stuff that I might have. I’ve been doing this in waves.

My first wave washed away a bunch of trash from my room in Fort Myers and my room in Gainesville. My next planned wave is meant to carry away all my stuff that has a significant resale value, but no real, non-sentimental purpose. That just happens to be a lot of stuff for me, because I tended to collect things that would hold value. My final wave is to just get rid of everything — valuable or not, sentimental or not — that did not have a redeeming value at least once a year.

Wish me luck with all of this!

Posted by David under Personal |